Tag: feminism

Harriet Harman has claimed that the arrival in parliament of a fresh generation of “Tory feminist” MPs alongside men with modern attitudes has the power to boost the women’s rights movement. The Labour MP, who has been parliament’s leading feminist advocate for decades, said the changing nature of female Conservative politicians from the “doughty tweedy matrons” of the past to today’s feminists had been critical. Women march in London to call for gender equality Read more Speaking before International Women’s Day on Thursday and a speech on Tuesday night about her experience as a female MP, Harman said: “The whole agenda for women in the House of Commons has changed, firstly because of the numbers – there are more than 200 female MPs now. But, secondly and critically, there has been a dramatic change in the nature of Conservative women MPs. We have now got feminists on the Tory side, who are very different from the doughty tweedy matrons of the past. She also praised former education secretary Justine Greening, as well as Anne Milton, Rachel McLean and Mims Davies, and said there were “loads more”. #MeToo has changed the mood. But only improved policy can change the reality | Harriet Harman Read more The comments are a significant shift for Harman, who once branded May as “no sister” on women’s rights, arguing that Britain’s second female prime minister had voted for cuts to programmes that were vital for women. “It is also about the change in the attitude of male MPs – the ‘new man’ has arrived in parliament,” she said. Harman also read out a letter from another SNP politician, Stephen Gethins, after he spoke about his responsibility to his wife.

On Sunday, 68 per cent of the members of the Social Democrats (SPD) voted for another Grand Coalition with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union CDU (and Christian Social Union in Bavaria). Some have remarked that hers was a quiet power, that she changed the style of politics in the German Federal Republic. Before Merkel became Chancellor in 2005, no woman had held high political office. It is often overlooked that West Germany effectively banned women’s right to choose before the unification of Germany in 1990. On her watch, Germany became a more social democracy – with small “s”. The late Guido Westerwelle became Germany’s first openly gay Cabinet Minister when he served as Merkel’s foreign secretary between 2009 and 2013. But what is most remarkable is the near dominance of women in the two largest parties. After an internal jockeying for position, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was chosen as the new Secretary General of the CDU. In Germany, politics is a feminist issue. Matthew Qvortrup’s book Angela Merkel: Europe’s Most Influential Leader is published by Duckworth.

Sweden's feminist party says it will base its election campaign on similar 'pink policies' to those adopted in the past, despite a change in political climate. Party leader Gudrun Schyman said that Sweden and Europe had seen fundamental political changes since the last general election in 2014. The Feminist Initiative (FI) leader said she believed her party, which remains on the fringes of Swedish politics, was now the only one on the country's political landscape to see human rights as a priority. FI's policies include increasing the number of UN quota refugees taken in by Sweden, removing obstacles to family reunification, giving amnesty to refugees who have waited for a long time to have their cases settled and reintroducing permanent residency as the normal form in humanitarian cases. READ ALSO: Sweden reports shorter waiting times for asylum decisions Schyman, who shares leadership of the party with the newly-elected Gita Navabi, portrays FI as the only stable element in Swedish politics, saying that the party's election platform does not actually include any significant departures from previous policies. She cites the prominence of nationalistic movements, money spent on defence and refugee policies as factors that have changed in Sweden in recent years. Other key FI policies include reducing military spending, cutting tax deductions known as ROT and RUT deductions, and increasing taxation of meat consumption and air travel.The party is also interested in reducing working hours, with a long-term goal of a 30-hour week. FI's chances of taking in seats in parliament after September's election currently look slim, with support at around two percent in recent polls, well short of the four percent threshold for parliamentary representation. However, the party can point to a doubling in members and four times as many local organisations as evidence of growth since the previous election. "I meet many people who are bitterly disappointed [with established parties on the left] and who are excited by the proposals we have," Schyman said.

The campaign manufactures T-shirts emblazoned with the Orwellian phrases "Abortion is freedom" and "Everyone knows I had an abortion." In the last few days, a video surfaced of radical-feminist actress Martha Plimpton interviewing abortion provider Dr. Willie Parker for a #ShoutYourAbortion event in Seattle. Being there was special because, as she noted: "I also had my first abortion here at the Seattle Planned Parenthood! This resulted in sustained applause and cheers. The feminists are so ethically obtuse they want to compare their abortion experiences to reviews of a Chinese restaurant. Removing the stigma clearly requires denying the unborn baby has any humanity. Parker energetically denied science in this War on Stigma. He joked, "If you really believe that abortion is murder, call 911 and see if the police will come to an abortion clinic." "I've never killed a baby," he claimed. Like, start crying a little bit every time you think about him kind of hero."