Labour or the Conservatives – which of them best supports sex equality?
Philip Davies: ‘Feminist zealots want women to have their cake and eat it’
How interesting that The Guardian has discovered footage of Conservative MP Philip Davies speaking at a conference on men’s rights, the day after Labour leadership candidates clashed over women’s representation.
Philip Davies (yes, him again) said he saw no reason not to speak at a conference organised by the Justice for Men and Boys Party, even though he belongs to the Tories.
But much of what he said agrees with the beliefs of J4MB. He accused feminists of fighting – not for equality, but for women to have an advantage over men, suggesting that they “are very quick to point out that women need special protections and treatment”.
He added that, in his opinion, this had led to an “‘equality but only when it suits’” agenda.
He quoted examples about increasing the numbers of women on company boards and female representation in parliament, contrasting it with “a deafening silence” on increasing the number of men who have custody of their children or who have careers as midwives.
Meanwhile, in the Labour leadership hustings on August 11, Jeremy Corbyn said, “as a party we should be supporting policies that bring about a much better gender balance in our society.”
He also talked about ending a systemic problem in which certain jobs are seen to be women-only or men-only. He also demanded the closure of the gender pay gap.
Owen Smith talked about sharing the top jobs in the Shadow Cabinet evenly between men and women. This Writer cannot entirely support such a policy as I believe it is important to allocate such positions according to ability – not gender.
This of course means that there will be occasions when more women should have top jobs than men, and it is a tragedy that, in modern times, I still feel the need to make that clear.
He added that it was important for Labour to encourage female participation in politics because it is “tough” trying to succeed as a woman in that field.
Which of the above do you think has the right ideas? Following on from that, which do you think should be able to take their ideas further, as part of a UK government?
A Tory MP has spoken at a men’s rights conference hosted by an anti-feminism party, telling the audience that “feminist zealots really do want women to have their cake and eat it”.
Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley, delivered a 45-minute speech at the International Conference on Men’s Issues, organised by the Justice for Men and Boys party (J4MB).
Davies, who sits on the Commons justice committee, told the conference at the ExCel centre in London that Britain’s justice system was skewed in favour of women and discriminated against men.
J4MB states on its website that it intends to target the 20 most marginal Conservative constituencies in the next general election and has the income to fund its candidates’ £500 deposits.
Davies, a pro-Brexit campaigner who backed Andrea Leadsom for the Tory leadership, appeared alongside anti-feminist bloggers who have likened the activist Malala Yousafzai to Osama bin Laden and called single mothers “bona fide idiots”.
J4MB issues awards for “lying feminist of the month”, “toxic feminist of the month” and “whiny feminist of the month”, and promotes inflammatory articles on its website including a piece titled 13 reasons women lie about being raped.
Davies has voted against equalities legislation, argued against equality targets in the workplace and once tabled a private member’s bill that would have repealed the Sex Discrimination Act 2002.
Source: Feminist zealots want women to have their cake and eat it, says Tory MP | Politics | The Guardian
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Tories are far too divisive to stand for any form of equality whatsoever.
I’m generally with you on this Mike. I believe that jobs should be given to those best fitted and with the greatest ability. However, for this to be fair, jobs need to be rewarded rather differently than they are today. I am all for male midwives, if that is what they want to be. However, those sort of jobs are very poorly paid compared to what men usually expect. Until the lower-paid jobs that are traditionally done by women are recognised as being as important as those done by men there will always be that divide.
There also needs to be a change in the education system that points kids in the male/female direction before they even recognise the difference in their futures. This carries on after school with colleges and apprenticeships continuing the traditional trends.
Lastly, of course, is the obvious distinction of women taking time out to have babies, a job which, unfortunately, we have not found a way round. Employers still tend to want employees who are there 100% or so.
Gender equality has come to mean something entirely different from what was originally sought. Now it stands for favouritism in order to meet quotas. A wholly wrong approach.
Women worked in the factories during WW2 and only paid half what the men were, the same is true of the land girls. There was definitely a need for equality.
BUT and it’s a biggy, appointments made should be on merit, NOT gender, so screaming and hysterical women bitching and whining about not getting top positions because more men had qualified is just plain embarrassing.
I don’t and never did want preferential treatment and now we have women in the armed forces, the police and on the Boards as well as PM’s. All of them should be entitled to equal pay and equal status but not “affirmative action” which puts incompetent women in jobs, to the detriment of better qualified men, just to be seen as “equal opportunities”.
Equity means fair not bias!
“This Writer cannot entirely support such a policy as I believe it is important to allocate such positions according to ability – not gender.”
Meritocracy is a myth, people arrive to places because of their connections more than because of their competence. This is why it is important to get women in top places so that they can be part of that network. Real equality will come when women will be allowed to be as incompetent as men on their jobs and not get it pinned down on their gender.
You’re entitled to your opinion.
I hope you’re not using it to suggest that I am mistaken in mine!