Conservatives For Women launch today

[ConservativesForWomen]

“If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion...”
Abigail Adams 1744

Here at Conservative Womens Pledge we told you we intended to redouble our efforts to win back single sex spaces for women and girls; well here is what we are doing!

Until today there was not a single group in the Conservative Party who centred the rights of women, so we are proud to announce the launch of 'Conservatives For Women'.

We are a group of Conservative Party members who will campaign within the public sphere, and in the heart of Westminster, to raise awareness of issues which threaten the safety and dignity of women. We will defend science, reason, free speech and the need for open, tolerant debate that underpins our society.

Come and join us! You don't have to be a party member or even a voter, you just have to care about the rights of women and girls.
conservativesforwomen.org/join-us

Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/CforWomenUK

and Facebook: www.facebook.com/Conservatives-For-Women-104300591505734

We are working cross party with all the other political women's groups to inform and influence our peers and MPs.

Lifelong Tory voter here. Just wanted to say “Well done” and send my support. Don’t be put off by the odd bit of carping from Labour supporters. They’re probably annoyed that their own party has sold out to the TRAs and thrown women’s rights down the (mixed sex) toilet!

They’re probably annoyed that their own party has sold out to the TRAs and thrown women’s rights down the (mixed sex) toilet!
Well, duh!

I signed in but it wouldn't show the page. Perhaps it didn't like the rant I posted about Conservative female MPs (Miller, Mordaunt and the new one), PM (May), Osborne, Cameron and all harming and impoverishing women by their disregard for the effects on women of their reckless policies and insane 'global' clichés and fantasies.

This is the most important policy matter because it is not just the blindness (wilful or not) of Osborne and co to women, but the OFFICIAL erasure of women by Parliament, the law and all the agencies of the State and of public culture, that is at stake here. And this is being done by adopting an irrational and unsustainable anti-democratic adherence to an extreme ideology that has no basis or reality to it.

One thing that I would like to add to the document listing topics such as prisons etc is the administration of justice and the coercion of women in court who have suffered the violence and trauma of the crime of rape, to refer to their rapist as a woman.

This is part of the wider compulsion of use of language - pronouns, names and so on - and the falsification of personal history but it is a particularly grievous example of cruelty and injustice to inflict on a woman, in a court of 'justice' by a 'justice' of the court. And it only goes to show in the starkest way the wrongness of the law in parting from reality in the first place and compelling a fiction.

Not meaning to derail or anything but
PerkingFaintly I'd love a short explanation or link to article on
The way Universal Credit has been set up directly threatens the very existence of the women's refuges you want to support.
Not arguing at all, but genuinely iterested in that specific subject.

@YouNoob

Life long Labour supporter here, but politically homeless. Cross-party group working with other women's group sounds perfect - exactly what we need. I'm in too.

Ditto.

I wish you well in this but as in my opinion the Conservative party has in the last ten years done untold damage to the country, culminating in the disaster that is Brexit, there’s no way I could join you.
My female Tory MP, Harriet Baldwin, has replied to my concerns on this issue with the usual noncommittal brush-offs and repetition of the party line she gives on everything.

Pragmatist here. If, given the Tories are in power, you're proposing to be a strong voice for women (XX) to the Conservative Leadership, Liz Truss and to the Women & Equalities Committee and build x-party bridges so that women across the house feel they can speak up on women's (XX) issues then I think this is a v positive move. I hope in time this work will make you more confident to be more open. I'll sign up to receive the the letter, no plans to vote Conservative, but I am entirely against partisanship for the sake of it when we might make more progress working together.

HidingUnderARock, I'll find you an article about the housing element, which is the bit I was thinking of.

But while looking I've come across this article about yet another of many problems specifically created by UC.

It describes the impact on women using refuges of the deliberately introduced 5-week wait for the first payment of UC:
GUEST BLOG: “Universal Credit is creating nightmare situations for survivors of domestic abuse”
www.trusselltrust.org/2019/06/14/guest-blog-universal-credit-domestic-abuse/

Ah, this is better news.

I remember this now: a campaign by Women's Aid from 2016 onwards managed to get the government to back down in 2018 on the way it had been applying UC to refuges.

I'll put several links from the Womens' Aid site, but IIRC (check details), the issue was that women in refuges would effectively not be able to claim the housing element of UC and could therefore not pay rent which the refuges relied on (I don't remember whether this was de jure or whether the women were technically eligible but de facto the claims would always fall foul of something. I do remember it was clear from well before UC was introduced that it would cause this problem, and that this government rolled UC out knowing it.)

2017: www.womensaid.org.uk/womens-aid-responds-governments-supported-housing-reforms-announcement/
Aug 2028: www.womensaid.org.uk/sos-save-our-services-win-government-announces-refuges-housing-costs-will-continue-to-be-funded-in-welfare-system/
Nov 2018: [[www.womensaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Womens-Aid-Briefing-on-Universal-Credit-November-2018-Short-Version.pdf

As a lifelong socialist, I will say straight off that I welcome Conservatives For Women and will be happy to back any of your campaigns and actions that I agree with. Women have been dumped by our former leftwing comrades (were they ever comrades, or was it just talk?) -- both the Labour establishment and the young radicals, all misogynists to the core.

@unreliableursula

by headlining trans issues as "the most important political issue for you", in the face of all that's going on at the moment, you boost the impression the Tories are hoping trans issues will be a cheap win for recruiting women without giving away anything they actually care about

Yup, very much this.

I am quite capable of making my own judgements and decisions about political parties. Just because I choose to join Conservatives for Women doesn't mean I will blindly vote for them in the next election. It's a group set up to defend women's rights and nothing else. That is on the website and I am happy to join. If I don't like the direction it's taking, I'll come out of it.

That Nov 2018 Women's Aid article is informative on the other ways UC is impacting women leaving abusive relationships.

Another article from 2018 on backing down on the housing issue, with links back to articles from before the U-turn:
Plans to remove women's refuges from UK welfare system dropped
www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/09/plans-to-remove-womens-refuges-from-uk-welfare-system-dropped

A related article by EVAW not about refuges but about the impact of UC on women who may need refuges:
Universal Credit risks increasing women's vulnerability to financial abuse, say women's groups
www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/universal-credit-risks-increasing-womens-vulnerability-to-financial-abuse-say-womens-groups/

I should add, these benefit-related issues aren't long-standing problems which UC has simply failed to solve; they're new problems which the design of UC has caused, and which could easily have been avoided by just continuing previous good practice. That's why groups which care about women's rights have been so angry.

Actually, it's quite good to get these on this thread. It's no bad thing for the Conservatives for Women group to have a list of areas to look at.

There are some fairly easy wins like stopping paying UC for both partners into a single bank account, which has been an abusers' charter (and again was warned about before roll-out).

Domestic abuse victims at risk because universal credit paid into one bank account, campaigners warn
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/universal-credit-domestic-abuse-violence-single-payments-bank-account-benefits-welfare-a8687426.html

Well done on the launch!

C4W stepped up and helped with the Judicial Review campaign, as did LWD and the cross party women. Thank you again!!

Coming together and finding common ground on these issues, whether this means pitching in with individual campaign groups, or cross-party work is absolutely vital.

Really wishing you the best of luck!

I may never vote Tory but it's clear this group is intended to support women and is not just for Tories. Also it's not actually affiliated to the Tory party is my understanding. It's just a bunch of Conservative women members trying to do some good by holding the government's feet to the fire. Liz Truss has done good things for women and at least they seem to know what a woman is! Importantly, the Tories are in government so it feels right to be challenging them to uphold their promise on women's spaces and rights. I'll support this.

I'm in! I do vote conservative, but not a member. Very willing to be much more active 'in the party' on this issue. Might even join if I can do it as one of 'your' conservatives.

I agree strongly about the importance of cross-party working.

Im a life long lefties and Labour party member who campaigned for Corbin.

In all honesty I support you more than any faction in the Labour party. The Labour party activly suppresses womens rights and despises feminist women.

I hope you can get further with the Conservatives that women have with Labour.

I support what you are doing.

To be honest, Im done with the left. The left used to stand for fairness in society and working class people.

The left are a joke now and seem to have frankly gone insane. I cant see Labour ever winning an election, I would vote Tory before voting Labour again, and I was brought up to be a Marxist.

@PerkingFaintly

I agree strongly about the importance of cross-party working.

Absolutely.

If a group have forged links with MPs and Peers from their party and offer to lend a hand with a campaign as far as I am concerned that is all to the good!

LWD, C4W and the cross party group worked their socks off!

@Tanith

"Cross-party group working with other women's group sounds perfect - exactly what we need. I'm in too."

How can it be considered cross party when it's called the Conservatives For Women?

This^ I mean good for you, Tories and all that, but you actually have Conservative in your name! How can you be cross party? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I didn't read it as Conservatives for Women being a cross part group - as you say, the clue is in the name. I understood it to mean that they are open to working cross party with other groups where there is common interest.

In fact that's pretty much what the op says in their opening post.

I'm another homeless leftie wishing you all the very best. Thank you for doing this. Sending you a warm wave across the political divide.