Briefing against women ministers in Westminster

Yes, go by the talent and skill, not the gender.

If anyone has a problem with the women requesting a change in the boys club culture and not to be anonymously briefed against so be it- we are all entitled to different views.

Yes obviously that is what we think.

Agree it’s disgusting behaviour.
Men never behaved so badly when I was working. Preferred to work with men though, to be honest. Women were bitchy!

Maremia

Yes, go by the talent and skill, not the gender.

Hear, hear 👏👏👏

Let's hope he would disapprove of briefing against ANY minister.

I couldn’t imagine Esther McVey putting up with that.

But also, yes, root out any misogyny.
Establish an even playing field, so that talent is not ignored because of gender.

valdali

In another thread, "quotas" for gender & ethnicity in the workplace were widely deplored.
The article Galaxy kindly linked, says Burnham has been asked to commit to a 50/50 split for ministers and staff. Am I alone in thinking that this is a kind of "quota"?
Personally I think he should look for the most effective and qualified people for each role, & I believe that will include a lot of women, but it should be on merit surely?

Labour were quite open about a minimum quota of women to try to address the imbalance. Lots of complaints at the time, but their argument was that there needed to be a change to the "like me" syndrome that we only saw Cameron lookalikes or Wilson more rugged look and sound.

Certainly, the Tories seemed to try harder with female PMs and now leader of the opposition, but they did not change what went behind - they were happy to have females but only if they acted like male politicians - dictatorial; they could not cope with a collaborative style