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Showing posts from April, 2015

The female vote

Last week, UKIP unveiled their latest policies to try and gain votes in the upcoming General Election. These policies were aimed at attracting "the female vote". The policies cover maternity leave, childcare...and the tax on sanitary products. There's nothing new about this technique of political parties publicising specific policies targeting women: in February the pink minibus of Labour was unveiled - staffed by women, these women were going to go out and talk to women, about women's things. Here, Labour had identified "five areas that Labour has determined are key to women: childcare, social care, domestic violence, equal pay and political representation." But here's the thing: surprisingly, women don't actually spend their entire lives with their interests being defined by their genitals. And they really, really shouldn't be treated as if they are. By pursuing this approach, these political parties are reducing the interests of 50% of t