Akua Reindorf is married to Isabelle Trowler

[PineappleTime]

Isabelle Trowler principal social worker is married to prominent GC barrister. I was flabbergasted when I heard this! How has social work become so captured! I can't believe IT could be that far apart from her wife on this subject!

I'm not convinced that one can infer IT's personal views from the corporate entity that is SWE.

I get the impression that there are women who regularly express views on this board that are very much at odds with the corporate diktat of their workplaces - and I also get the impression that some of them have very senior roles. Not everyone is able to speak publicly in the way that AR* does. And, as well as these very public voices, quieter ones also have a role.

*I listened to an interview with AR on the Double Jeopardy podcast, and I got the impression that this issue of sex and gender wasn't something she had been thinking about in particular detail before writing her review - i.e. it is relatively recent. Who knows what IT thought about the same issue before and what she thinks now. (My partner worried about this long before I recognised that she was right!)

Well I hope AR is suitably persuasive over her breakfast cup of coffee. Influencing practice one chief social worker at a time.

That's the thing I don't understand. I can't believe Isabelle is a gender ideologue whilst being happily married to someone so publicly GC. It seems impossible. Maybe she did need persuading a bit? Who knows - but she's supposed to be out there shaping the profession. Is she just sitting on her hands on this issue?

That's a good point. Possibly both Akua and Isabelle were somewhat oblivious before. But she can't remain oblivious if so. And maybe they don't totally align on this stuff which would be normal but they must have some points in common. It's so incongruous.

Surely most sensible people are happy to associate/have relationships with people who have different views in the real world anyway?

The one friendship I've lost over this issue was because she was unable to countenance even being civil to someone with a dissenting opinion and was only happy to continue the relationship on the condition of my staying silent and/or agreeing with her. Which isn't a normal way to conduct relationships as everyone has different perspectives and we can't all agree on everything.

Most sensible people don't want to live in an echo chamber, and I'd argue that surrounding oneself with a range of views is vital for both lawyers and social workers.

I don't know what either of their personal opinions on the issue are (and it's not my business), but most professionals have to separate their personal opinions from their duties (because no-one sets out to be the next legal test case). So regardless of either of their personal opinions, I don't find this fact odd at all.

Personal relationships are complex and private, so we shouldn't expect to be provided with sufficient information to understand what's going on in each of their heads and why they feel the way they do about their spouses.

When did they get together?

If you are married and then it turns you have strongly opposing views on one subject, but in other ways are a great partnership, do you chuck it all in the bin?

Or agree to disagree and avoid the subject entirely?

Appreciate it's obviously harder if you're work actively has an effect and makes the headlines though.

Surely most sensible people are happy to associate/have relationships with people who have different views in the real world anyway?

I consider myself to be pretty sensible and I do disagree with my DH considerably when it comes to politics. But I think I’d struggle if he believed that men can be women and that women weren’t entitled to separate sports / services / spaces or believed that I was mean for expressing those views. I know some women have discovered that their husbands hold such views after years of marriage and I suppose you might take the decision to agree to disagree but I find it hard to imagine I would enter a new relationship with a person who held these beliefs especially if I was considering raising a family or if I might have care needs in the future.

Friendships are different though. I have a few friends who don’t agree with me on this and it does really matter. I just don’t discuss it with them. But their views are unlikely to directly impact on my life so it’s not so important to me.