Women's concerns not addressed by either major party in UK

The UK Mumsnet (Moms on the internet) 

As in the United States, British politics is essentially based around a two-party system, divided between Left and Right. A snap election has been called for July 4 of this year, and “interest groups” are now making their voices heard, feeling around to see which of the two major parties, Conservative or Labour, is willing to offer more of what they seek.

One such group is TMV, The Muslim Vote, which has issued 18 demands of the Labour party, mostly related to demands to support Hamas (despite its abuse of Muslims in Gaza), alleged Islamophobia, and rights and benefits for Muslims living in Britain. 

Another group is Mumsnet, which has issued not demands but a 25-page manifesto laying out the main areas of concern of its approximately 9 million users. Mumsnet is an internet forum which is open to anyone but, as the name suggests, caters mostly to matters of interest to mothers. According to its founder and chief executive, Justine Roberts,

Women are disproportionately represented among undecided voters … this is where the election will be won and lost.

Politically-engaged moms

Though the Mumsnet site mostly features forums on family-centered matters, over recent years plenty of political discussion has been seen there, especially in the areas where family, culture, and politics overlap, such as the sex-gender debate. Some see Mumsnet as a “safe space” where women (and men) can express what are referred to often as “gender-critical” views — in other words, men are men and women are women. Many users are very politically engaged and keep each other updated on developments, as one recent post on the adoption of "gender self-ID" in Germany reveals:

So that's Canada, Spain, Malta, Ireland, Germany where the word woman is meaningless.

In Britain, where the Cass Review recently demolished the entire basis for gender transition and lambasted all those who had supported the mutilation of the country's youth, attitudes towards trans ideology are one of the political battlegrounds in the upcoming election. On Mumsnet, many express their fear and horror at how men are being allowed to encroach on more and more female-only spaces. Others ask for advice on “what to say when my six-year-old daughter tells me she wants to be a boy.” Still others wonder whether politicians who claim to have retreated from aggressively pro-trans-ideology positions can be trusted. 

The Conservative party has recently attempted to push back against organizations such as Stonewall and Mermaids, and has placed various restrictions on steps toward so-called gender transitioning in schools, making it clear, for example, that parents are not to be kept in the dark about their children's transitions. The Labour party's position is less clear (and keeps shifting).

We want politicians to listen to us

At this point, where the tide seems to be about to turn, Roberts has stepped in with her Manifesto, hoping to seize the opportunity to extract real promises from the main political leaders. 

76 percent of our users tell us they think women's voices are not heard at the top level of government: we're challenging politicians to change that, engage with these issues, and prove that they are listening to women.

Spend ten minutes browsing Mumsnet, and you’ll see that every single day, women and girls are told that society considers them less than men. The failure to tackle male violence against women, the gender pay gap, the crisis in maternity care - all of these examples are indicative of a political culture which sees “women’s problems” as less important than men’s.

Ahead of the General Election, and based on what our 9m — overwhelmingly female — users have told us over the past four and a half years, we’ve compiled this Mumsnet Manifesto, with a series of policy asks for the next government.

76% of our users tell us they think women’s voices are not heard at the top levels of government: we’re challenging politicians to change that, engage with these issues and prove that they are listening to women.

Our asks for the next government

1. A statutory inquiry into maternity care
2. Immediate action to tackle birth trauma
3. Guarantee of hands-on breastfeeding support for every new mum
4. Reform of formula marketing regulations to ensure they are not penalising families
5. Make women and girls safe
6. Reform family law to protect survivors of domestic abuse
7. Mandatory publication of parental leave for large employers
8. Improved paternity leave
9. Action to improve female representation in politics
10. Decriminalisation of abortion
11. Reform of the Equality Act to ensure women can access single-sex spaces
12. A Parliamentary vote on assisted dying

Safety first — on the maternity ward…

Many of the points could equally have been demanded by women in the United States, such as deplorable standards in maternity wards. The Mumsnet Manifesto points out that,

Medical advances mean birth should be safer than ever. Instead we have reached a point where women's expectations are so low that they feel they are “lucky” if they walk out of hospital with a healthy baby, no matter the mental or physical ordeal they go through to reach that point.

The Manifesto notes that 65 percent of the UK's maternity units have been declared “not up to standard” following official inspections. 25 percent of Mumsnet users, surveyed in recent years, said that they and/or their babies were left “in danger” due to poor perinatal care.

… and on the streets

Another key point in the Manifesto relates to a declining sense of safety on Britain's streets:

Women and girls do not feel safe on our streets and they have little faith in the police and the criminal justice system to protect them. 83 percent of Mumsnet users say the police are not doing enough to ensure the safety of women and girls…

“I would be unlikely to report a sexual assault or rape to the police and I would not encourage my daughter to do so, as I think the experience is often retraumatizing and rarely leads to justice being delivered…” said one Mumsnet survey responder.

And — protection from transwomen

Mumsnet users want to see tougher sentencing for violent offenders and abusers, which could go some way to restoring their faith in the judicial system. In other areas, their demands are more on the Left of the political spectrum, such as the decriminalization of abortion, paid paternity leave, and government intervention to make it harder for employers to disfavor hiring pregnant women or women of childbearing age.

But when it comes to the “trans issue,” the Manifesto is far more conservative in inclination, insisting that,

… sex refers to biological sex, protecting women's right to access female-only spaces such as hospital wards, changing rooms and refuges.

Therefore, they want any future government to clear up all legal ambiguity and ensure that women's rights to single-sex spaces are protected.

‘Women: where the election will be won or lost’

Whether or not Roberts is exaggerating when she claims that the women's vote is “where the election will be won or lost” remains to be seen. However, the Manifesto does note that, 

… surveys show that 98 percent of Mumsnet users vote in all or most general elections.

Responses on the forum to the publication of the Manifesto have been overwhelmingly positive. One user posted a comment describing her feelings upon reading the Manifesto:

It's really chilling to see each of those quotes and realize how much of a battle is still ahead.

‘What is a woman?’ still one of the big questions

This is actually not Mumsnet's first foray into the political scene. Two years ago, Roberts met with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson at 10 Downing Street, and their 20-minute interview was later posted on YouTube.

Characteristically, the interview was a blend of pointed questions on the hot political issues of the day, and some more personal questions. Since then, however, the political scene in the UK has shifted and gender-sex issues have moved further to the forefront, with women feeling more and more that they are being sacrificed to woke ideology.

Keir Starmer, the head of the Labour party, aroused fury and ridicule when he was challenged to define a woman and replied, 

For 99.9 percent of women, it is completely biological…

Other members of his party, mostly on the more extreme Left, have been outspoken, though, in their blanket adoption of woke positions. But they have also been feeling the public backlash when canvassing for political support on doorsteps and being told, “You guys don't know what a woman is.”

Women's Party?

Mumsnet recently started using its own AI tool to assess the site users' views on various political issues as well as their support for the two main UK political parties. According to AI analysis, support for Labour on Mumsnet greatly outweighs that for the Conservative party, but many of the users dispute the accuracy of this assessment, noting their distrust of Labour policies and personalities.

As in the United States, the views of many other undecided voters have no clear political home — hence the Manifesto, an appeal to all parties to listen to the voices of the nation's mothers.

Could a new political party be their home?