Manifesto

Manifesto for gender parity:
Our long-term objectives…

Education

 We work towards a future where:

  • Boys and girls get equal support and opportunity with neither gender falling behind.
  • Similar numbers of men and women attend university
  • The incentives for men and women to enter training in a field where there is a majority of the opposite sex are equivalent.

Family and parenting

 We work towards a future where:

  • Both the father and the mother have a right to have their names on the birth certificate.
  • Reproductive decisions and responsibilities are taken by men and women equally. Abortion is viewed as a last resort option. While the mother must make the final decision, discussion which include the father of alternatives should be the first option.
  • Both parents are valued and the positive influence on children of two-parent families is recognised.
  • The important role of the father in the healthy and safe development of the child is recognised as equal to the role of the mother.
  • Men have the right to a paternity test when a claim of paternity is made.
  • Mediation is the required first option when a relationship (especially with children) breaks down.
  • There is a legal presumption of shared custody is made when deciding childcare after separation.
  • False accusations of child or domestic abuse are treated as domestic abuse and perverting the course of justice.
  • There is an equitable distribution of assets when a relationship has broken down.
  • Parental alienation is an offence; both a form of child abuse and of domestic abuse.

Sexual and physical assault, criminal justice

We work towards a future where:

  • A reformed Benchbook results in men and women receiving and serving approximately equal prison sentences for the same offence in prisons of equal standard and having equal access to rehabilitation.
  • Accused people are given anonymity until proven guilty.
  • There is equal recognition of the failure of incarceration to reduce re-offending.
  • There are shelters and support available for victims of domestic abuse for both sexes in proportion to their needs.
  • Physical and sexual abuse of and by both genders, including the most serious cases of forced, non-consensual sex are clearly defined, require evidence and receive equivalent sentences.
  • There is a strategy against violence to all (not just women and girls) so that the number of male and female victims of physical assault and suicide is drastically reduced.
  • We have a mental health strategy to reduce suicide which meets the needs of both women and men.

Work and pay

 We work towards a future where:

  • The Gender Pay Gap is recognised as not caused by unfair practices but by choices and natural outcomes.
  • Men’s contribution in building, road-building, refuse collection, electricity supply, water and sewerage, lorry driving, fishing, shipping etc is recognised and women’s contribution to primary teaching, nursing etc. are equally valued.
  • People achieve high-status roles by and ability qualification, effort and experience.
  • It is widely recognised that, when paid and unpaid work are both counted, men and women work similar hours.
  • Society values the service of those men who do most of the dangerous jobs as they suffer the vast majority of work-related death and injury.

Medicine and health

 We work towards a future where:

  • Both male and female genital mutilation below the age of consent is outlawed.
  • Parity in funding for research on diseases which affect one gender.
  • There is no rough sleeping

Relative value of men and women

 We work towards a future where:

  • Male and female suffering are considered as equal.
  • All lives are equally valued.

…and also

 We work towards a future where:

  • Male-only and female-only organisations/spaces are valued.

Version agreed 14 6 20