Tag Archives: Liberal Democrat Women

Janey Little

Championing gender equity in healthcare

By Janey Little | Wed 14th May 2025 - 8:55 am

Gender inequity is pervasive in healthcare. Between stigma, delayed and incorrect diagnoses, gender bias, not being taken seriously, under-representation in clinical trials, and insufficient funding for health issues impacting women and gender diverse people, women face numerous barriers to high-quality care and equitable outcomes in healthcare. These issues are just the tip of the iceberg, and racism, classism, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia further shape women’s experiences of healthcare.

This week is Women’s Health Week, which was started by the U.S. Department of Health to help raise awareness of women’s health issues. Here are three areas we as Liberal Democrat Women would like to draw attention to for this week.

Abortion

With the Trump administration continuing to attack the right to abortion and reproductive healthcare, now more than ever we as Liberal Democrats must be firm in our support for the right to choose, and in our solidarity with those who have lost that right.

Women across the globe are impacted by the actions of the Trump administration. For example, the global gag rule was reinstated in January, which prevents NGOs who provide abortion services or advocate for abortion rights from receiving aid from the US. Billions of dollars of foreign aid are affected by this, and 690 million women of reproductive agelive in countries impacted by the global gag rule. This is denying women and gender diverse people safe access to healthcare.

In the UK, Liberal Democrat Women will continue to advocate for the decriminalisation of abortion, because nobody deserves to be criminalised for accessing healthcare and making decisions over their own body. Abortion is healthcare.

Healthcare in pregnancy and the neonatal period

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Mary Reid

What are you doing to celebrate International Women’s Day?

By Mary Reid | Sat 23rd February 2019 - 10:50 am

International Women’s Day will be on Friday 8th March. Please share your plans to celebrate it in the comments below.

Here in Southwest London the local parties in the boroughs of Kingston, Sutton, Merton and Richmond have developed several projects, both political and non-political.

First, we are jointly running a conference with Liberal Democrat Women titled “WOMEN: Shaping the future, making a difference!“. A number of influential women have been invited to share their stories with us including Floella Benjamin, Sam Smethers (Fawcett Society), Siobhan Benita (candidate for London Mayor) and Lorely Burt.

There will be workshops led by practitioners on Women in Business, Tech, Political Activism, Community Activism, Creative Industries and Public Life. Christine Cheng will reprieve her TEDx talk on strategies for encouraging women to participate, and Sal Brinton will give a summary speech at the end of the day which should send us out energised and enthused.

The conference is open to anyone, of any gender, sympathetic to the Liberal Democrats.

In addition, councillors in the boroughs have worked with their Councils to develop some public events.

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Flo Clucas

Working towards a Decade for Women – Come and be part of it!

By Flo Clucas | Fri 8th September 2017 - 10:51 am

‘Ce n’est pas la conscience des hommes qui détermine leur être; c’est inversement leur être social qui détermine leur conscience’. Marx

Roughly translated: ‘you are who you are because of your life experience, not the other way round’.

It may seem strange to begin an article on LDW’s elections with a quotation from Marx, but it is apt and points to why LDW exists within the party. LDW next year anticipates launching its ‘Decade for Women’. A decade that will seek to change how women in decision making are perceived, vastly increase the number of the party’s women MPs, Council leaders and …

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Alice Thomas

Opinion: “Victim-blaming” 101: why sexual assault is different to other crimes

By Alice Thomas | Thu 9th April 2015 - 10:49 am

Sussex Police has produced a campaign poster encouraging women to stick together on a night out to reduce their chances of sexual assault. There are so many ways this poster is stupid: it perpetuates the myth of stranger rape as the only “real rape” (an idea which helps acquaintance rapists get away with it over and over again), it ignores male victims of rape, and it suggests women should fear sexual assault more than they value their sexual liberty.

But there’s only one issue I want to address now. On Monday, Caron Lindsay called the poster “victim-blaming”: she was right, and it’s worth explaining why victim-blaming is so much more harmful in cases of sexual assault than other forms of crime.

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Caron Lindsay

Why are police forces getting away with misogynistic, victim-blaming rape prevention campaigns?

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 6th April 2015 - 8:54 pm

I was horrified to hear this afternoon that Sussex Police are launching a campaign to encourage women to stay together to avoid the possibility of rape and sexual assault. This is what they tweeted last week:

So, now your friends come above the perpetrator of any crime when there’s blame to be handed out.

Looking a bit further afield, I found the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Be Smart campaign, which is even worse. Three quarters of the page is taken up with advice for women like:

Would you go alone into a stranger’s house at 11am in the morning? No? So why do it at 2am drunk? Arrange to meet new acquaintances when sober.

It’s the sort of victim blaming nonsense that is counter-productive. Going to someone’s house is not a crime. Raping somebody is against the law. If you had been raped, how likely would you be to report what had happened to you if you thought you might be judged and blamed for the crime that you had been subjected to? I thought we’d moved on from that. To add insult to injury, as an afterthought, there’s an “And for guys” bit at the bottom of the page, reminding them that “rape convictions last forever.” The effects of being rape are pretty much a life sentence, too, you know.

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Alice Thomas

The Gender Agenda #3: Is there such a thing as “Women’s Policy”?

By Alice Thomas | Wed 23rd July 2014 - 11:44 am

LDW stallI was long-winded last time so let’s try brevity: yes, and no.

When people talk about ‘women’s policy’ they usually mean one of three things:

1. Policies which only affect women directly: men (apart from trans men) do not, for example, suffer FGM or need access to abortion, so they will only ever be indirectly affected by policy on those issues.

2. Policies were your gender directly determines your rights and treatment in society: that includes gender separation in schools or prisons, or access to parental leave.

3.  Policies aimed at everyone, but that …

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Alice Thomas

Opinion: The Gender Agenda: What Liberal Democrat Women can do for women candidates

By Alice Thomas | Wed 7th May 2014 - 10:31 am

Campaigning on the doorstep - Lynne FeatherstoneOn May 22nd I’m fighting my first local election as a candidate. I’ve been stuffing envelopes and knocking on doors for other people for 8 years, but with a seat on Islington Council in the balance, this time it seems a little more real.

But I’m lucky. I’m fighting – and fighting hard – alongside a councillor with 8 years experience, and an experienced campaigner who’s already fought a by-election. The ward has two Lib Dem councillors out of three, and if we all get elected, …

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Amna Ahmad

Opinion: The week after the Morrissey Report – what will you do?

By Amna Ahmad | Fri 21st June 2013 - 3:59 pm

Last week Helena Morrissey published the results of her inquiry into how the Liberal Democrats handled allegations of sexual harassment. In our 24 hour news cycle, this may already seem like old news. But it is vital for the future of women in politics that do not allow the report and its conclusions to be forgotten. The change cannot only be top down – it must also be a grassroots movement.

The Lib Dems are not the first institution to be found to have mishandled allegations of sexual harassment. It is particularly galling for party members though, as the picture …

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NewsHound

Liberal Democrat Women reacts to Morrissey report

By NewsHound | Thu 13th June 2013 - 11:30 am

The three acting c0-chairs of Liberal Democrat Women, Dinti Batstone, Tam Langley and Miranda Whitehead have issued a statement on behalf of the organisation giving their reaction to Helena Morrissey’s report on processes and culture within the Liberal Democrats.

We welcome today’s report by Helena Morrissey following her independent inquiry into the processes and culture of our party, and support in full the recommendations she makes for change.

The inquiry was prompted by the sexual harassment allegations against Lord Rennard, although it does not consider the truth or otherwise of the allegations, but rather how they were handled. Morrissey observes that, ‘Overall

…

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Flo Clucas

Opinion: Gender quotas are the sensible way forward

By Flo Clucas | Tue 11th June 2013 - 5:01 pm

laura-willoughby-encurages-women-to-become-council-candidates‘In every aspect of life in which women are undervalued, under-represented or exploited we are dedicated to achieving equality.’ (from the Preamble of the Constitution of Liberal Democrat Women)

John Stuart Mill would have been outraged that, in the second decade of the 21st century, women are still under-valued, exploited and under-represented, for it was he, speaking in the House of Commons in May 1867, who advocated votes for women.

Yet, here we are 150 years later, still trying to have equality in our society. Yes, we have women’s suffrage, but at the present rate of change, we will not have a gender balanced Parliament until 2050.

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Dinti Batstone

Have YOU joined Liberal Democrat Women?

By Dinti Batstone | Tue 7th May 2013 - 4:16 pm

Liberal Democrat Women will formally come into being on 8 June, the culmination of 18 months’ work bringing together the party’s existing women’s organisations: Campaign for Gender Balance and Women Liberal Democrats. In launching Liberal Democrat Women we want to create a more powerful platform for all Liberal Democrats – male and female – who want to see gender equality in Westminster and beyond.

Liberal Democrat Women will focus on 4 core areas of activity: policy, campaigns, women’s representation and networking. It will do everything its predecessor organisations did, and hopefully much more.

To realise this bold ambition we need YOUR help. We need new talent for the first Liberal Democrat Women Executive, which will …

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