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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Elect Her and Equip Her: anyone involved?

5 replies

Bouffe · 23/11/2023 15:56

Anyone else aware of this group, set up to get more women standing for elections at all levels in the political system — everything from Parish Councillor to MP?

Mindful that someone needs to stand up in elections as a GC candidate, I attended several of their online events a couple of years ago. They were useful and everyone on screen seemed female and the whole set-up very woman-centred. There were strong hints that I wasn't the only GC women in the virtual room. At least one of the other women went on to become a community councillor in Monmouth.

Anyway, with 2024 elections looming, a few weeks ago I crossed the border to Cardiff to attend the event Elect Her was involved in at the Senedd, figuring that general advice for Wales could be applied in my neck of the woods too. I shouldn't have been so surprised at how aggressively trans-friendly the event was (Elect Her was open to Hims as well) but over the course of a day, in various workshops, I saw GC woman after GC woman being silenced and shut down. At lunchtime in the cafe a woman, presumably one of the organisers from the lanyard around her neck, got very shouty with a woman of colour whom she'd overheard having a conversation about GC issues. When the GC woman said politely that she was having a private conversation the other woman went into 'I feel unsafe, call security' mode and for the rest of the event was accompanied by a security guard wherever she went.

Despite this joke of an event, when I got an email from Elect Her offering the chance to register for an online course called Equip Her, I thought I'd give it a go. I had to register and to do that I had to answer some questions: Do I identify as female? Do I identify as LGBTQIA+?

I've sent the obligatory fuck off with your identity politics nonsense email. I notice there's been a change of personnel. Someone called Lee Chalmers used to run it, now it's changed. Anyone involved? Thoughts? Inside information?

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guinnessguzzler · 23/11/2023 16:30

Someone I used to know works there but I knew her before any of this became an issue so don't really know her views.

Looking at the list on their website of reasons why getting women in to politics is good, I do wonder if (m)any of those would equally apply to TW.

Bouffe · 23/11/2023 18:16

Yes, their objective seems to be good, and I'm persisting with them because I can see that this is the kind of initiative that's needed to give women the skills and confidence to stand for office. But there is no reason at all why their registration process couldn't just ask for sex at birth, F or M and then another optional question about gender identity, with a Do you have a GRC? question for equalities purposes.

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stealtheatingtunnocks · 24/11/2023 10:14

They had an event at Holyrood where some 20 year old women told a room of 2nd wavers that “even mums” could be politically engaged.

That summed it up for me. It’s a sham, I’d like to know who does their funding and how it is allocated and if they have ever given any support to women who don’t think that some of the taller, faster, stronger women in the room are the same

Bouffe · 24/11/2023 14:50

This is the team:
https://www.elect-her.org.uk/meet-our-team

I've got a feeling that since I posted this yesterday their surnames have been removed, because I googled a couple of them to find out their career histories. But perhaps they are fully named on another page and I'm being paranoid.

It was clear at the Cardiff event that it was being run almost entirely by women under 40 and those of us who are older had to deal with a lot of disapproving glances and some real 'fuck-off Nana' attitudes. I don't know how much actual input Elect Her had because although they were on the publicity the event was held by the GI believers of the Welsh Government in the Senedd.

I worked in the third sector briefly and very quickly realised whose benefit it was being run for — which wasn't the service-users. I can imagine a group like this would look very attractive to funders.

Meet our Team — Elect Her

https://www.elect-her.org.uk/meet-our-team

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