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