Tories “know what a woman is” – but what have they actually done for us?

‘We know what a woman is. Keir Starmer doesn’t’, tweeted the Tories, signalling the start of another week of them desperately trying to be relevant – by weaponising trans rights. 

Here we go again

This of course stood alongside another disastrous outing from Kemi Badenoch where she attempted to explain how hospital wards would ban trans women without being horrifically inappropriate.

The big argument around excluding trans women from hospital wards, toilets, changing rooms, and general life is that any man could ‘dress up as a woman’ and walk in to abuse women and kids. The problem with this though is men don’t need to do that to abuse women and kids, they just abuse them in broad daylight and people still don’t believe victims.

Another glaring issue this brings up is that this isn’t about trans women. It’s that many men can’t keep their hands to themselves and think they’re entitled to women’s bodies. 

They’re our bosses, teachers, family members, partners, police officers, elected officials, and more. And the most powerful of abusers are surrounded by equally vile people in power who support them and silence their victims.

And so we move on to the Tories.

Tories: serial misogynists, rapists, and bullies

How many Tory MPs and donors have been accused of bullying, harassing, abusing, and raping women and girls? More than 56 MPs were named in a report on sexual misconduct, But how many weren’t named? The true figure for that one I’m afraid is something we may never know.

For all Badenoch, Sunak, and many others claim they want to make the UK safer for women their actions say the opposite. The tweet from the prime minister read “biological sex matters. We’re protecting women and girls”, but this is patently untrue.

Whilst they’re pledging to restrict trans women’s rights they’ve actually made life much worse for all women. 

Making life worse for all women

One in three women have experienced some form of physical violence at the hands of a partner. Instead of helping them, the past decade has seen women’s domestic violence services and refuge shelters pushed to breaking point thanks to Tory cuts. 

One in 30 women in the UK are sexually assaulted every year and yet the conviction rate for rape is less than 2%. In the past five years, 800 police officers were accused of rape and sexual assault. However only 10 were convicted and at least 350 of them are still serving in the police force. 

The Tories have also made no attempt to support women trying to escape abuse – and in the instance of disabled women, their policies often ensure they have no way of getting out. 

Disabled women

Disabled women often find it harder to escape domestic abuse as their abusers are usually their main caregivers. Though also often violent abuse is very often mental and financial. Disabled women are often trapped in abusive situations by the benefits system that disqualifies them if their partner earns too much meaning they have no money of their own to get out or means to escape.

Outside of abuse, there’s also the way women are consistently kept down in general life. Women earn on average much less than men, in fact the Trades Union Congress (TUC) estimates that women work 52 days unpaid a year that men are paid for. The gap is much worse for disabled women who can earn up to SEVEN GRAND less than non-disabled men a year. 

There’s also the fact women are still seen as the primary caregiver so expected to look after children, husbands, parents, and disabled family members for free. Carers allowance is a pittance and childcare costs are unattainable.

The cost of living crisis

While we’re on the subject of kids, the Tories also brought in the two-child benefit cap, meaning you can only get government support for your first two children. There is a clause to this, however, if a third child is the product of rape – but would you really want that on your kids record?

Women are also at the brunt-end of the cost of living crisis. Women are already lower paid so they have less money to spend on food and bills. They are more likely to be reliant on services that have been cut. Women go without food in their own homes to feed their children.

And since the Tories love to talk about how much of a danger trans women are in healthcare – let’s talk about how dire it is for women seeking any medical attention. 

Health inequalities

The UK APPG on endometriosis surveyed over 10,000 women about their experiences prior to diagnosis. 58% visited a GP more than 10 times. 21% visited doctors in hospital 10 times or more. 53% went to A&E. 27% went to A&E three times or more. 38% said that they had symptoms for 10 years or longer. 

The ADHD Foundation estimates that girls are three times less likely to be diagnosed than boys and on average are diagnosed nine years later. They say that 50-75% of the one million UK women with ADHD are undiagnosed.

Women in the UK are 50% more likely than men to be misdiagnosed after a heart attack. It was thought up until 2021 that this was before symptoms presented differently, but it was actually attributed to women being so used to not being believed by a doctor that they come with a list where men can go “ouch here” and are believed

Women are often not believed or treated as making up health problems for attention. A 2018 review found that men are viewed as “brave” for seeking help for pain, whereas women are perceived as ‘hysterical’ “emotional” and “choosing to not want to get better”.

Tories: abusing trans women to lay cover for their failures

Trans people meanwhile are twice as likely to sexually assaulted or abused and four times more likely to be the victim of a violent crime. One in eight trans employees have been attacked by a colleague or customer and a quarter of trans people have experienced homelessness.

The truth is the Tories don’t actually care about “what a woman is” or where people pee, they just want to stoke further division to ensure that the plebs aren’t looking at how they’ve failed the country – and especially women. 

But just FYI – Thatcher’s grave is a gender-neutral toilet

Featured image via Matthew McNicholas – YouTube