50:50 Parliament Campaign to Encourage Women in Politics now have TWO Transwomen on the Panel

[gardenbird48]

I saw 50:50 women tweet to Sue Pascoe Chair of the Conservative Women’s Organisation some time ago on their #askhertostand, but then I couldn’t find the tweet and thought maybe they’d realised their mistake (can you guess?) and deleted it.

However, how wrong I was! There are now two people that have extremely limited ‘lived experience’ as a female (Sue was a married father and successful businessman and Master to Foxhounds until a few years ago). The other person has said hi on here recently.

I don’t mean to be rude but surely the whole point of encouraging women to stand for Parliament is to help overcome the barriers women face in entering politics. Any barriers that trans people face are rather different. It is also interesting that on a panel of three for their ‘Encouraging LGBT+ Women to Stand’ campaign, there us only one person with actual lived experience of being a woman (I am hoping that Mandu Reid of the WEP was born female at least...??)

In the same way that, forced to choose, I’d rather share changing rooms with men who have no interest in using women’s changing rooms than the males who are insistent they must be in there. It’s the insistence on being in women’s spaces that is the problem.

This.

I think that they will (very cowardly) delete the whole thread.

No matter. I too have saved that post.

Fucking ridiculous that we feel the need to do that.

Barracker ❤️

This woman says no too Robyn.

You do not have authority to speak for women.

No matter how difficult your personal experience has been it is not the same as mine and many women's.

I worked hard to overcome sex stereotypes to qualify in a male dominated career. I was paid less than men because I am a woman. I took a career break to have children and nearly died giving birth to my first child.

I was on a temporary contract when i had my first child and that contract was not extended because I had so much time off because the pregnancy made me ill.

I eventually got back to work still on lower pay than male counterparts (including my own husband) due to the time I'd had off for pregnancy.

So when our children's disabilities became apparent and one of us had to give up work to facilitate them it was me who earned less and had to give up the career i'd worked so hard for from a financial point of view.

I am the one who is now financially dependant, I have no savings, no pension.

This is the experience of so many women because of their sex.

You cannot and do not speak for me and other women.

This is so upsetting. I really do despair of the future for women and girls worldwide.

It's not progress, not for us.

@Barracker

I fear this could be the point at which you are evicted from MN, however

I really hope not. I reviewed my post multiple times before posting in a concerted attempt to stay both within talk guidelines, and 'in the spirit'.

There are no personal attacks, no incivility, no false claims, no 'misgendering'. No hatred. No 'hate speech'. It's all in good faith. I've been on Mumsnet for over a decade and I have always tried to abide by the rules whilst they exist, even if I have lobbied for rules to be reconsidered.

I believe my posts are honest and fair.

It's a genuine, sincere extension of a request to a member of the opposite sex to me to waive their right to have us all censored or banned for using the word man in relation to them specifically. That power can be waived. Or it can be wielded. But MNHQ will abide by the wishes of the subject, whether those wishes are to waive that censorship power or wield it.

Hello

When deciding what to delete we lay quite a lot of emphasis on whether posts are thoughtful and contributing something to the discussion - Barracker's post seems to us to fit that criteria.

However we would like to say something about opposing voices in FWR, which (however you slice it) are in pretty short supply. Robin is one person who has posted around four times on this thread and has received multiple challenges and questions, and some personal attacks that we've had to delete.

As you all know we host these discussions at considerable cost to Mumsnet. We do this because we think (hope) reasoned discussion exploring opposing views is valuable and can be constructive.

In that spirit we'd like to remind you that Robin is just one person. We've probably all had the experience of being a lone voice in an online discussion where the opinion is flowing very much against us and we all know it's an uncomfortable place to be. We'd ask you to keep our aim of civility in mind. So long as any poster stays within our TG they're welcome to post here.

Thanks

However we would like to say something about opposing voices in FWR, which (however you slice it) are in pretty short supply.

There is this thing Rowan called #nodebate which you might've heard of?

For the record, if any part of what I wrote somehow inadvertently breaks a guideline on what I'm allowed to say, I'm willing to edit that part.

If MNHQ can help me identify which part needs editing, I am entirely willing to attempt to make the same case whilst also better complying with the rules on what we may say. I think I complied. But if MNHQ think I failed, I'm willing to have another crack at it if MNHQ are willing to help me.

We will see plenty of #nodebate on here.

Mark my words..

Cross posted with RowanMumsnet

Thank you for the clarification

I, for one, welcome RobinMoiraWhite specifically to answer the reasoned post that MNHQ appear to have said will not be deleted. I am extremely interested in their response.

Mmm! Power equations be damned really.

@SheGonBringThatAttitudeHome2

However we would like to say something about opposing voices in FWR, which (however you slice it) are in pretty short supply.

There is this thing Rowan called #nodebate which you might've heard of?

There is - and we'd hope MNers would recognise we're one of the few platforms that hasn't signed up to the principle, in either ideological direction. The whole reason we're doing this is because we're #YesDebate.

@Winesalot

Mmm! Power equations be damned really.

Well, yes, one poor MRA would also get an avalanche of challenge, but the mods would be unlikely to tell the women here to play nice in that situation. Funny how it all works, eh?

@lifeturnsonadime

This woman says no too Robyn.

You do not have authority to speak for women.

No matter how difficult your personal experience has been it is not the same as mine and many women's.

I worked hard to overcome sex stereotypes to qualify in a male dominated career. I was paid less than men because I am a woman. I took a career break to have children and nearly died giving birth to my first child.

I was on a temporary contract when i had my first child and that contract was not extended because I had so much time off because the pregnancy made me ill.

I eventually got back to work still on lower pay than male counterparts (including my own husband) due to the time I'd had off for pregnancy.

So when our children's disabilities became apparent and one of us had to give up work to facilitate them it was me who earned less and had to give up the career i'd worked so hard for from a financial point of view.

I am the one who is now financially dependant, I have no savings, no pension.

This is the experience of so many women because of their sex.

You cannot and do not speak for me and other women.

This is so upsetting. I really do despair of the future for women and girls worldwide.

It's not progress, not for us.

Fucking hell, Life, I could pretty much have written your post word for word.

And it was such a surprise at the time. I never thought I’d go from out earning DP pre-pregnancy to being dependent because ‘DC needs one of us, and we can only afford for it to be you.’

I think a great many very young women think it’ll never happen to them.

There is - and we'd hope MNers would recognise we're one of the few platforms that hasn't signed up to the principle, in either ideological direction. The whole reason we're doing this is because we're #YesDebate.

Thank you.

Thank you rowanmumsnet I look forward to this thread continuing, including responses from Robinmoirawhite as it is such an important issue to discuss.

Thank you for your post Barracker. It made me see the power imbalance between men and women on this issue all the more starkly. We aren't allowed to speak the truth unless we are granted permission. Chilling.

Well. I cannot say more as I am on the step with everyone else.

But, it also has something to do with roles people are appointed to...

My view is that we all need to listen to each other to understand how we can make progress together.

That's the new "be kind".

... we'd hope MNers would recognise we're one of the few platforms that hasn't signed up to the principle, in either ideological direction.

It's only in one direction. I think you really know that!

‘DC needs one of us, and we can only afford for it to be you.’

This ^^. Absolutely true.

Thank you for the clarification, rowan, that’s helpful. I would really like to see a response to Barracker’s question.

Thanks @Ereshkigalangcleg and @Barracker

Have to go do some other work (about how entrenched societal expectations mean that responsibility for domestic care, childcare and vulnerable relatives has left women totally overloaded and heading for burnout under lockdown...) but would like to say please don't 'call out' other MNers who aren't even on this thread - it's exactly the kind of 'chasing off' of posters representing other views that we want to avoid. Play the ball, not the MNer - please