The moment I saw the picture of the pink bus I knew Labour’s women launch was doomed. I’ve been to enough vaguely feminist events to know that two questions inevitably crop up. First, why aren’t any men involved with this? Second, isn’t pointing out that women are disadvantaged in any way deeply patronising, because it paints them as helpless victims? To this, there has recently been added a third query: are there any women’s issues at all, any more?
This challenge comes from both ends of the ideological spectrum. Libertarians assert that the pay gap exists because women “choose” to have children and damage their careers; and in any case shouldn’t we be talking about parents’ issues? Variations of “what about the men” ring through this argument: what about the men who look after children? What about male rape victims? What about male victims of domestic violence? What about male circumcision? From people who are in most other ways their polar opposites comes a similar challenge: not all women are biologically female, so isn’t it exclusionary to mark childcare and vaginal rape and abortion out as women’s issues?
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