Why I am not applying for the Fawcett Society CEO job - Maya Forstater

[stumbledin]

When they first advertised for this job in October 2020 I applied, in order to make clear to the Fawcett Society Trustees the choice they had. Would they go ALL-IN with gender ideology, would they be BRAVE and hire someone willing to stand up for women’s rights or would they try to be CAUTIOUS and hire another fence sitter?

mforstater.medium.com/courage-calls-to-courage-why-i-am-not-applying-for-the-fawcett-society-ceo-job-52f96de21e05

(For whatever reason Fawcett appointed an interim CEO last year.)

There are loads of threads about Fawcett but this was a recent one www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4234244-Fawcett-Society concering interim CEO

And Maya attends Fawcett AGM (to be read with added perspective!) www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4091698-Maya-attends-the-Fawcett-Society-AGM

About previous CEO leaving www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4072069-Sam-Smethers-CE-Leaving-Fawcett-Society

I am so embarrassed for AH. She’s made herself look utterly ridiculous

@Councilworker

The author does not even bother to fact check that they have Maya Forstater's name correct. That's how much of a shit they give at Fawcett

This!!

She knows full well there is no middle way, how can there be? Either women are entitled to women only spaces or they’re not, you can’t half allow men into women’s spaces, you can’t force women to accept it, women will simply self select out and eventually start court proceedings for discrimination on the grounds of sex and/or religion and we’re back to square one.

What a feeble excuse for an interview.
Very disappointing.

Shitty article. You should be sitting on a board if you are not prepared to make difficult but important decisions- that’s literally your job, setting the strategic course of the organisation.
A women’s equality organisation that is not brave enough to fight for women’s sex based rights can absolutely fuck the fuck off, they have made themselves completely irrelevant.

*not be sitting on a board

Also, I’d be interested to know how many women have left or not joined her menopause group because there are transwomen in it? I sure as fuck wouldn’t be discussing my body with men, why would they even want to be there? What could they possibly be getting out of it?

I am sure the Fawcett Society have sat in a bunker for the last few years with their fingers in their ears, surrounded by the all important "accessories"

Ayesha Azarika: I haven’t even said anything on the topic. Why would I? I’m not an idiot. Until now…

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

rebelle since it appears to be easier for transwomen to get oestrogen than many perimenopausal women who desperately need it, perhaps they have some insights. Seriously though, I totally agree. A trans woman has absolutely nothing to contribute to a menopause group and can only be there for validation and kicks. What is wrong with women who prioritise that over the needs of their own sex to have a place to discuss actual biological, female issues? It’s bad enough when that woman is not on the board of the Fawcett Society but when she is it’s unbelievable.

Can someone link the article with the accesorising thing in it? Struggling to find...

I am still pure rage. Just signed up for £30 pm for Sex matters. I will have to reduce my dds for some other charities, but if the Fawcett society are the yardstick for charities representing women, then fuck that. She can stick her accessories up her arse.

Didn't Sam Smethers once tweet that her personal view was more GC?

I agree, the Fawcett Society needs to get off the fence. The Board should have stood up to the interim CEO and let her resign. I can't see how the Fawcett Society can support trans people at the expense of women without changing its articles. I suspect there is an awful lot of debate internally about this. But the charity sector is pretty woke so I think there will be few people on the side of Maya Forstater.

@DonnieDark

Can someone link the article with the accesorising thing in it? Struggling to find...

Link in second post.

www.standard.co.uk/comment/cruelty-hate-trans-debate-moderate-voices-heard-b940913.html

@PronounssheRa

Trans women are not only welcome, they are cherished — we have all learned from their stories and world class ability to accessorise.

What the fuck does the ability to accessorise have to so with being a women, is this really what the fawcett society has become. That article is just cringe worthy.

It’s the most patronising and offensive thing I’ve read in a long, long time - and I spend too much time on GC Twitter. Fucking unbelievable.

Cherished!!!! 🤯

Am still wondering what possible reason a transwoman could have to join a menopause support group.

But meanwhile, have joined Sex Matters as I have just had a £5 a month come free for some reason, it can be better spent there I think.

AH is rightly getting an extremely hard time. Someone asked why a transwoman would join a menopause group and the answers are stunning. David Aaronovitch was very good.

Her article is embarrassing and very ill informed. Her threat to resign should be taken up tomorrow.

Is that on twitter, Anne?

Oh Lord, read this article in the paper on the Tube this evening. That paragraph about the menopause group, ffs! It was all I could do not to throw the paper across the carriage. And there she is on Twitter accusing Maya of ‘yelling.’ If you’re not prepared to stand up for women, fecking step aside!

@AnneLovesGilbert

AH is rightly getting an extremely hard time. Someone asked why a transwoman would join a menopause group and the answers are stunning. David Aaronovitch was very good.

Do you have a link?

I've always really liked AH. I might even forgive her for being a bit pathetic. What I can't forgive is her attitude to Maya, painting her as some kind of monster on twitter. One of the things I admire most about Maya is her always reasonable tone and manner despite so much provocation. Fawcett can FO and I'm now off to join Sex Matters with a monthly donation.

FOJN - our posts (just after op) must have conincided with each other.

By the way I am not totally on board with MF comment / article. I absolutely think she has been brave and resolute in terms of her own court case and standing up for women's sex based rights.

But its a bit of a leap to then say that makes me the best choice to be a CEO! (said in the most friendly of ways)

But yes, which is why I posted the links to the earlier threads about Fawcett, they seem to have been shifting further and further away from women's sex based rights. So if Sam Smethers had hinted at that it was no doubt a coup for the other side that she left and then so did Jenni Murray.

I wonder what they think there purpose is now and if they even consider that they might find themselves of the wrong side of history.

I can remember in the early days of WLM conferences Fawcett would often have a stall, but the organisation seemed to just consist of a quite elderly couple keeping the embers of what had been a forceful organisation staggering along. At some point it re-invented itself as a safe MOR equalist group and started to get more funding. Funnily enought because radical Women's Liberation reawakened women's fight for their rights. But they were always at arms length.

And now, not even sure what their purpose is. It doesn't seem that they are thought of very highly by Government.

And I suppose with a Board of Trustees and an interim CEO probably thinking more in terms of how will this look on my professional CV I suspect it will never be anything more than an women's organisation that can turn up at events as toke feminists.

I can’t accessorise. Yet another way I have been doing womaning wrong!

Maybe I should label myself a non-woman because, although I have periods and a menopause group would be relevant for me in the future, I don't accessorise so won't get the point of those meetings.

I just need to accept I can no longer use the word woman to represent me.
Sadly all woman are equal but some TW are more equal than others.