Reforms proposes "Women and Motherhood Protection Act"

[IwantToRetire]

Reform UK has announced plans to become the most pro-family government in British history, with its Women and Motherhood Protection Act.

The Act would bring together key protections currently scattered across different laws, including equal pay, sex discrimination, employment rights, unfair dismissal and maternity leave. Consolidating these in one clear legal framework will give women, mothers and families stronger protections under the law.

Reform UK believes that mothers should be celebrated and protected, not punished for bringing the next generation into the world.

That is why a Reform UK government would increase the time limit for pregnancy and maternity discrimination claims from three months to 12 months, giving new mothers far more time to challenge unfair treatment in the workplace. It would also preserve equal pay, maintain protections against sex discrimination, strengthen safeguards against dismissal during pregnancy and maternity leave, and enhance redundancy protections for new mothers.

The Act would also go beyond existing maternity protections by introducing explicit rights for breastfeeding mothers, protections for women undergoing fertility treatment, and new leave rights for parents who suffer miscarriage or stillbirth.

Reform UK’s Education, Skills and Equality spokeswoman Suella Braverman said: “As the first Cabinet Minister in British history to take maternity leave, and as a working mother of two children, I understand the challenges women face when balancing a career and family life. No woman should ever feel that becoming a mother will hold her back or leave her with fewer opportunities.”

Britain should be one of the best countries in the world to start and raise a family. That means celebrating motherhood, supporting working mothers and ensuring that women are not forced to choose between having children and building a successful career.

As Suella Braverman said: “A Reform UK government will be the most pro-woman, pro-mother and pro-family government in British history."

https://reformparty.uk/news/reform-uk-vows-to-stand-up-for-women-and-mothers

Opinions are still 'legal' last I heard.

I agree with this.

I think it's vanishingly unlikely Reform will be the party to deliver it.

They go further than just opinions, don’t they?

My engagement was regarding left wing principles & their focus.

Now if you don't mind, could you take your derailing obsession elsewhere?

You spouted your usual misunderstandings about what women on FWR think and why they care.

Disingenuous. I replied to you bringing it up:

At least they have a history of supporting women in the work place.

Single sex spaces 'protecting' women from a few trans people don't have anywhere near the impact on women in the work place that their denial to its access would.

And I simply said why can't we have both. Which as a female person I think is an entirely valid question.

If it's such a pointless diversion, why doesn't the Left simply say "yes we'll protect the identity and rights of female people as a separate thing to trans identifying men" and take the wind right out of the evil Right's sails?

They have always had the power to do that. And yet they don't.

As a woman, I see that as saying very very clearly where they really place my rights and concerns in the grand scheme.

Indeed.

Here is the thing. As much as certain people like to believe they are in the left, the left has abandoned not only women's rights, but worker protections like controlling the movement of labour. Not to mention "anti-racist" stuff like preferencing some on the basis of race.

Whereas it seems we now have Reform and the Tories talking about enshrining some important women's rights, recognising the economic value of motherhood, controlling movement of labour, and denying the validity of racial preferencing.

Why is it again that anyone is supposed to be upset about being called right wing?

Well I thought it would be interesting to discuss their politics in detail because as a few up thread have said, although over the years policies and laws have been introduced to give women more "equality" the out come for many women is still over sexism, and the reality that as the humans who actually give birth, means real life doesn't translate into equality.

But as they haven't actually written a detailed description of how they think women can be protected (equal?) its hard to discuss.

I wonder if they rushed through a press release as the Reform candidate in tomorrow's by election in Mackerfield has now so repeatedly shot himself in the vote, that they are saying Restore will get more votes.

Although of course if the votes are split between Reform and Restore if gives Labour more of a positive outcome.

Is it a more nuanced approach to believe that 'Transwomen are Women'? The Trade Unions en masse have badly let their female members down by happily giving away their existing sex-based rights. Refusing to represent the various nurses at Tribunals. They deserve to have zero female members.

Although it is really tedious to have another thread hijacked so we cant even discuss women's rights, your suggestion that the left has a progressive and nuanced approach is just disproved by reality.

First of all they are denying women's rights at the expense of trans rights.

Unions have been complicit with large employers, such as councils in keeping women's pay unequal - remember that court case?

And are anything but nuanced.

And in practice have become virtually meaningless.

You are just derailing the thread because of some romanticised idea of unions which probably disappeared in the 60s, rather than for instance showing in what way women's rights are helped by unions. When the practice of unions has been anything but that.

If Unions were nuanced then they wouldn't deny women's sex based rights and prioritise trans rights.

You are aware are you of the number of nurses who have had to resort to legal action because their unions didn't help them.

As someone said at the start of the thread it used to be that you could come on a FWR thread and here thought out arguements or ideas.

Just standing on your soap box and making generalised platitudes in the face of reality is just bizarre.

Disingenuous. I replied to you bringing it up:

No. I replied to another commenter bringing it up & you ran with it.

And I simply said why can't we have both. Which as a female person I think is an entirely valid question.

As I already explained exclusion & division isn't in alignment with left wing principles.

Leftist principles lean heavily on inclusion so its more open to accepting broader interpretations of the human experience which is a view shared by men & women of the left. So it simply false to suggest the left/unions has let women down when not all women agree with single sex spaces particularly on the left.

Let's not forget that leftists support protecting people from all religions from discrimination including those with some anti women/gay practices. It's a movement based on a common cause despite differences where their solidarity is a direct product of inclusion.

Leftism is a cult at this point unable to let anyone else have an opinion or angle without having to lie and gaslight and take everyone down rabbit holes explaining in detail how things they say are patently observably and in reality completely wrong.

So tiresome.

First of all they are denying women's rights at the expense of trans rights.

You have to take in to account women on the left are not in full agreement with gender critical ideology as being a threat to women's right so its a misrepresentation to suggest the left & unions are denying women's rights.

You are just derailing the thread because of some romanticised idea of unions which probably disappeared in the 60s, rather than for instance showing in what way women's rights are helped by unions. When the practice of unions has been anything but that.

I wasn't the one who brought up unions. Another commenter took exception to a link I posted from The Guardian where union representatives criticised reform.

As far as having a romanticised view of unions, that's a misrepresentation too. I simply explained their connection to left wing principles & how they were guided by them. I did not suggest unions were perfect or without fault. But to say they haven't done anything positive for women is ahistorical.

Just standing on your soap box and making generalised platitudes in the face of reality is just bizarre.

MN is an opinion discussion forum. Perhaps if you can't cope with challenging views this isn't the place for you.

I note, that you incessantly complain about derailing but yet when it comes to your own pet project derailing you remain mum. Bizarre indeed.

Gaslighting much? I.will.explain.it.slowly.
Women are women because we have female bodies.
Our bodies are the source and site of hundreds and thousands of years of inflicted violence and oppression.
This violence and oppression is visible in every facet of our personal and social lives.
It is also global.
Most of the time the violence comes from men.
When men seek access to the private spaces we have won, we have to go back and re-prosecute that fight because we don't want men in our private spaces. We simply cannot trust them at a population level. It doesn't matter what personal beliefs they have about thier inner selves.
So it sucks the energy from all the other fights we still have to win.
When someone comes along and says "oh well, having men in your spaces is better than having no spaces at all", you must understand that for many women, having men in our spaces is the same thing as having no spaces at all and it is infuriating, and gaslighting of someone to even say that. In fact, it feels like a trap. And frankly women are really tired of being forced to choose between a shit sandwich, and a shit pie.

Not another thread on trans people.?!?
You repeatedly come on a board, the purpose of which is to have discussions about sex and gender, fully aware of the fact most posters have strong views on this subject, and then act shocked and surprised when they express those views.

If you don't want to discuss the impact of trans demands on women and girls, shouldn't you go elsewhere? Unless, of course, the aim of all your overnight posts is to derail women having discussions about their rights.

And it's very much the demands of men that have smothered feminist demands. If anything, the gender critical movement has made feminism stronger by codifying who we are and our rights and protections.

For what it's worth, I feel as if this is Reform trying to take credit for battles women have already won. I do get why they're doing it, particularly if they want to ditch the EA, but Farage has no great track record on women's rights. Then again, neither does Labour and the Left, as we've seen.

I guess my anxiety is around how legislation can be twisted to suit the ends of both Left and Right.

And what is their position on abortion?

It's good to see Reform putting forward their ideas, whether their idea is a good one or not, is yet to be determined. Writing it off simply because it's Reform isn't going to work on me, I'd be interested in the opinions of other more knowledge people as too whether it's a good thing or not. The 'end of the world ' drama llama's can pipe down.

This thread is specifically about:

"Reforms proposes "Women and Motherhood Protection Act"

Do you have anything to say that's relevant to this?

When someone constantly brings every conversation back to a single, specific issue, psychologists refer to this behaviour as mental fixation or perseveration.

Not healthy nor interesting so do yourself (& us) a favour & try to resist this obsessive habit for your own good.

Reform have no official position, treating it as a matter of individual conscience. This is the same approach that Labour and the Tories have traditionally taken, with Labour only adopting an official party policy under Jeremy Corbyn.

Suella Braverman is probably the person whose views are most salient. The right to life pressure group gives her a positive-to-neutral rating, i.e. fairly anti-abortion: https://righttolife.org.uk/votes/fareham-and-waterlooville/suella-braverman

Extending time limit for pregnancy discrimination claims is good. Unpicking equal pay legislation is terrible policy. This will set women's workplace rights back decades.

It’s all a bit vague isn’t it though?
“More protections, more rights” But with no real detail on that that means.

Some of the wording in their proposal needs looking at very carefully, things like ‘Same pay for Same job’ in relation to men v women pay rates. This has potential to be a loop hole, the equalities act says ‘equal pay for equal jobs’ which is how cases like the Next retail v warehouse workers case was able to be successful for the female complainants because the jobs held equal value even though they weren’t the same job description.

I am inherently cynical about anything Reform say because I generally find them to be an abhorrent group of horrible people so I wonder if things like this are an oversight or an intentional design.

What are the specific objections to the below though? Increasing the time for discriminationclaims seems positive to me? Leave for miscarriages and stillbirth seems right (its available at my workplace already). I can't see obvious issues with the other points - apart from being vague.

That is why a Reform UK government would increase the time limit for pregnancy and maternity discrimination claims from three months to 12 months, giving new mothers far more time to challenge unfair treatment in the workplace. It would also preserve equal pay, maintain protections against sex discrimination, strengthen safeguards against dismissal during pregnancy and maternity leave, and enhance redundancy protections for new mothers.

The Act would also go beyond existing maternity protections by introducing explicit rights for breastfeeding mothers, protections for women undergoing fertility treatment, and new leave rights for parents who suffer miscarriage or stillbirth.