Time to homeschool the GVMT?!

[CJA37]

Hi everyone,

I'm a member of WEP and on their Policy Committee for equal parenting and caregiving.

We're launching a campaign to homeschool the government as they don't seem to realise:
12 hours caring for young children + 6 hours teaching older kids + 8 hours working = >24

We're asking everyone who cares about this to take a photo/make a short clip of how you'd homeschool the government to be better for women. Share it on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #homeschooled at 3pm on Saturday 30th Jan.

We're aiming to create an impact so that we can show that there are ideas for better eg legal right to furlough for parents, nursery bailouts etc. More info: www.womensequality.org.uk/home_schooled_action

We know that Covid is having and will continue to have a massive impact on equality so we want to keep that conversation going.

Cheryl

@Winesalot

While the current government continues to make decisions that widen inequality, disrespect children and generally fck things up, then I'm looking for any small thing I can do to stand against that.*

That is interesting Cheryl. So far, this government has also done some things that I cannot imagine Labour doing and things I saw no support from WEP for.

Just one of those things was in at least making an effort to make education around the issue of gender and sex age appropriate and at least staying the whole ‘wrong body’ idea should never be uttered. Where was the WEP placed on supporting the government on that issue? I and many others here on MN were directly writing letters and contacting schools. What action did the WEP take or was the WEP fully in support of groups such as stonewall and mermaids setting the education direction of our children?

We did not do a virtue signaling social media campaign as someone quite rightly points out is good publicity for a membership drive. We actually worked behind the scenes en masse to improve the life of our’s and everyone’s children to let them express themselves how they wish and to never be told by a teacher they might be the opposite sex and ‘in the wrong body’.

And what was the WEP submission to the government in regards to self ID please? Even though you cannot inform us what the WEP definition of the group you seek equality for is, I would like to know what the party did to support women of the female sex during that consultation.

Because really, that is the crux of the situation.

Here is a poll running at the moment about allowing access for males into toilets and showers.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4148800-AIBU-to-think-women-should-not-be-banned-from-Social-media-for-asking-the-question-Thread-2

And the first thread that filled up

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4148030-AIBU-to-think-women-should-not-be-banned-from-Social-media-for-asking-the-question

If your party is a gender based equality party, working to progress women’s hard fought rights to anyone who says they are a woman. You are directly working against the women who need those rights to remain as they were, for females. And we need them still because we had not achieved equality. And now we have males in women’s policy roles proclaiming to be women but with no focus on the issues that are important to us.

Frankly, we don’t need another party telling us that we are transphobic for working to see our needs are met by working to make sure that conflicts of the trans rights don’t reduce our protections. They need their own rights that suit their specific needs but do not dilute the legal protections for us.

I agree this government has made some disastrous decisions. Absolutely disastrous. They should definitely have the home schooling situation highlighted.

However, while you say you feel getting active in the ‘small things’ can help, I feel that you need to make those small things actually count. I don’t feel a social media campaign is anywhere near enough. I assume the party is doing something else, please tell us what else are you doing to enact real change?

Cheryl I’d really like to see a response to this as well

I agree northernfeminist. If a Women’s Equality Party isn’t focused on preventing the bigger picture from changing dramatically, smaller issues are absolutely pointless to defend.

• sports
• education
• employment
• health
• legal system
• emergency services such as refuges
• safeguarding for children and women.

All these are impacted by the inclusion of males. Making the world a better place for all? Does this mean that women will never achieve equality because our resources and our progress is then shared by males who do not have the same needs but feel they should still have access to those resources ?

So, while males are setting the policy for women in their roles as women’s officers and on the panels discussing our needs, that’s equality for women? Or equality for everyone but women again?

Agreed Winesalot It’s treating us like children and WEP has agreed to be akin to a pupils council in a school, supervised by the adults aka the men and told what they can and can’t discuss.

@NorthernIrishFeminist

Agreed Winesalot It’s treating us like children and WEP has agreed to be akin to a pupils council in a school, supervised by the adults aka the men and told what they can and can’t discuss.

What an excellent analogy!

Well, I shall wait for Cheryl to answer some of my previous questions because I would like to think that maybe I have judged too harshly.

That maybe this party has been working behind the scenes to support the progress of women (not redefined to meet the needs of males) on a wider scale and the needs of children. The more the merrier, if that is the case.

This is clearly an engaged and passionate group. The invitation to be involved in the campaign is just that, an invitation. If it’s not for you, so be it.

For those of you asking specifically about the Members Consultation and WEP work on this topic. This is the best place to look: www.womensequality.org.uk/members_consultation

I’m a volunteer for WEP. I'm using the small amount of headspace I have between raising a young son, being a wife, business owner, carer, friend and juggling the mental load in a society where women are still unequal. I'm sure many of you are in the same position. This means that I can't respond to all of the specific questions you're asking. Look at the web page above or send a message to the WEP central office if you want to engage on it further.

I agree that campaigns like this aren't the BIG things, but they are some thing. We're using our limited resources to work on the big things too.

I see the frustration here. I don't think channelling it at me on behalf of the party meets your aims. It might make my day a little more unpleasant, but it doesn’t give you the goal I think you want which is change.

@Winesalot it sounds like you organised and executed a movement with schools that delivered on your aims. To me that's the main thing. If you're disappointed with WEP then take that disappointment and anger to make changes through different channels. If the WEP campaigns aren’t right for you, where will you start your own or take actions large or small to make things better?

I hope that we can all work out ways to make the world a better, fairer place in whatever way that means to us.

It’s hard to feel they’re doing something genuinely positive when they’re bent on undermining the very foundations of women’s rights.

Like if you had a partner who was cheerleading for you to get a pay rise at work, but emotionally abusing you at home.

Mindfuck.

So much this. Perfect analogy.

I don't believe your party should be campaigning on a platform of making things better for women when they are more interested in appeasing transactivists.

I hope one day there will be an actual party for women which is not afraid to stand for them and say no to males.

The Big Lie - how the WEP was always about gender rather than sex www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4058470-the-big-lie-how-the-wep-was-always-about-gender-rather-than-sex

CJA37.

It was not me who organised anything. I was just a participant like the many on this forum who do this. I guess we are self-organising.

If the WEP campaigns aren’t right for you, where will you start your own or take actions large or small to make things better?

What I have discovered is that women are incredibly resourceful. And many of us are happy to look critically at other campaign groups that some call 'hateful' and see what they are up to. We can then choose to join in, or not.

So, you cannot tell me what actions your party took to support women in the GRA consultation? And not about what the WEP did about the content that was being used for sex and relationships educations and other topics at school?

Please don't take my questions as a channeling of disappointment about your party at you as a representative. I am truly interested in what you have to say so that I can make my decision. As I have said.

And I am sure that many others here are interested in what the party has been doing.

OP, we all have full and busy lives in which we juggle a multitude of different responsibilities and still manage to put women front and centre of our feminism. So your life is no different from ours in that respect.

You directing people to the website of the very organisation that believes men can be women, and refusing to answer any questions about what exactly it is you do for actual women reminds me of Matt Hancock turning himself inside out in an effort to avoid answering a simple yes or no question from Piers Morgan. Woeful.

What I have discovered is that women are incredibly resourceful

Actually, this is a lie. I have always known that women are incredibly resourceful. My mother taught me about resourcefulness and I believe her mother was also a resourceful woman. I was taught to do whatever needed to be done.

So, if there is no group that 'fits' my purpose, I just do what I feel needs doing anyway. Hence, I am unaligned politically because I vote on the policies that are important to me and vote accordingly.

While the current government continues to make decisions that widen inequality, disrespect children and generally fck things up, then I'm looking for any small thing I can do to stand against that.*

A lot of your language indicates that you realise that this is just crumbs.

It's so unbelievably frustrating.

You don't stand a chance in hell of affecting any real change, because when it comes to the actual law, you're fucked.

You might well make some inroads into areas that don't really upset the apple cart. But what a waste. There is no real power. There is no real influence. No lasting change. Nothing to build on.

And at the same time, you are actively contributing to sexism by catering to an ideology that intentionally undermines women.

Several of the Labour leadership candidates floundered over the question what is a woman.

All of them being very frustrated with such a silly question, and saying things like, well we all know what a woman is, without actually being able to say so. Breathtaking.

And they do know. As do you.

How far are you ever going to get in language, in law, in biology, in your influence, power or politics if you're not allowed to describe the cohort you want to represent??

Crumbs in the foreground, whilst fucking you over in the background.

And no, it's not personal, of course.

I wonder how much more support you would get if you did acknowledge who it is you're trying to represent.

Try advance searching on the words politically homeless. Bearing mind that this site has 12 million unique users per month. Mostly women.

I'm using the small amount of headspace I have between raising a young son, being a wife, business owner, carer, friend and juggling the mental load in a society where women are still unequal. confused I'm sure many of you are in the same position.

Many of us are indeed in the same position. Almost identical.

CJA37 I appreciate you coming back to reply, as many wouldn't.

I don't think posters here mean to attack you personally - we just have some clear questions that we want answered, and many have no time for a "women's equality" party that thinks any man can be a woman, and goes along with all the misogynistic nastiness and dangerous policies that come with that.

I also appreciate CJA37 coming back to respond and trying to be relentlessly positive. It's just all so and was avoidable.

I think for me, and for many woman, there comes a time when you realise that trying to be relentlessly positive, and be grateful for crumbs, is part of the socialisation and gender shite that is instrumental in keeping women down, and you're finally ready to break free of it and yes, make yourself unpopular as need be, by standing up for actual sex-based fairness and rights.

That can be a long road, I know it took me until my 40s.

CJA37 I’m actually pleased you did post here and to see your recognition that you are juggling the mental load in a society where women are still unequal

Please think harder about the many ways we are unequal and the many reasons given. Also ponder why there is not the same pressure from females to redefine the word man.

You’re a mother, wife and carer, how many of those have a greater impact on females and realistically how much impact on transwomen.

Then please reconsider your involvement in WEP and join us here instead and put some of that energy into the letters to our MPs, big corporations and anywhere else we need to protest to. And help publicise and fund the legal challenges where we’re not after crumbs of consideration but shifts in legislation. These actions can feel just as futile at times but we’re not propping up organisations, like WEP, that are controlled by males that claim to be speaking for us.

There are thousands, if not millions, of potential voters on these boards. I have yet to observe ONE SINGLE POLITICAL PARTY giving a clear signal that biological women are being taken seriously on this issue. Safeguarding? Forget it. Not a major concern, apparently. It is always women and children last, despite all the warm words.

You sound nice OP, and your party are lucky to have you. But for them to claim to represent the women of this country I would say is very far from the truth. If you can't define your electorate, you won't get elected.

I had a look at the consultation that you are doing, I could not really see a timeline on this? When do you expect the results to be released, OP? It does seem to have been quite a balanced witness list.

I’m a volunteer for WEP. I'm using the small amount of headspace I have between raising a young son, being a wife, business owner, carer, friend and juggling the mental load in a society where women are still unequal.

The thing is OP, that unless the WEP decides to change tack from “TWAW” (unlikely, I think we’d agree), you’re actively engaged in promoting policies and an ideology that serve to perpetuate women’s inequality, while claiming to be doing the opposite.

It’s extraordinary.

[quote Ereshkigalangcleg]The Big Lie - how the WEP was always about gender rather than sex www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4058470-the-big-lie-how-the-wep-was-always-about-gender-rather-than-sex[/quote]
the party’s first policy document published in October 2015 stated “We also recognise that the binary words “woman” and “man” do not reflect the gender experience of everyone, and support the right of all to define their sex or gender or to reject gendered divisions as they choose.”

In other words, anyone can be a woman, and 'woman' can mean whatever you want it to mean.
Why the name Women's Equality Party then?

The treatment of Heather Brunskell-Evans was, for me, enough reason to give WEP a wide berth, but those old threads are very illuminating indeed.
OP, don't take it personally. Do read the linked threads about your party if you can find the time.

ahh! so, the consultation process is probably not likely to change the founding principles of the party. Ok. Still I will watch this space

“We also recognise that the binary words “woman” and “man” do not reflect the gender experience of everyone, and support the right of all to define their sex or gender or to reject gendered divisions as they choose.”
You can’t define your sex as you choose ffs! What a pile of unmitigated bullshit.

What a pile of unmitigated bullshit.

I do find myself thinking that very often these days.