'Everything about you is criticised': Gina Miller and Tulip Siddiq on women in the public eye
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Version 0 of 1. Gina Miller, businesswoman, campaigner and scourge of the Brexiters, spent International Women’s Day on Wednesday at the European parliament in Brussels, addressing a new network formed in an attempt to promote women’s participation in politics. For Tulip Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, the day was spent at A&E with her daughter, after her GP referred the 11-month-old to hospital with a nasty throat infection. Having spent the previous evening speaking at a panel on the challenges women face globally, and feeling increasingly guilty about her sickening child, there was no question for Siddiq what came first on Wednesday. “Yes, the budget is on but today my child is my priority.” Around a table together late on Wednesday, the two women – both fast talkers with a lot on their minds – rattle through a breathless list of the topics concerning them today: the defeat of the attempt to restart the Dubs scheme on child refugees (“shameful”), domestic violence, soaring rape figures, the uncertain position of EU nationals in the UK, pornography. Prominent among them is the particular challenges faced by women who put their heads above the parapet and seek to participate in public life. On Thursday, Siddiq will interview Miller in parliament on the topic – one on which both are better informed than they would ever wish to be. For Miller, who last year launched a legal challenge against the government’s ability to invoke article 50 without parliamentary approval, that has meant months of scrutiny, criticism and abuse over her temerity in seeking to ensure Parliament had a say on Theresa May’s final Brexit deal. This week, after the government was defeated by the Lords over the issue, there has been another upsurge in abuse, she says – she’s now told her staff to stop opening her mail because of what they are likely to read there. Siddiq, for her part, has been speaking out about the abuse female politicians receive for some time. In June, for instance, she revealed a number of her female parliamentary colleagues had formed a support group to deal with the hateful messages they received online. Less than a fortnight later, her friend Jo Cox was killed. Siddiq, who resigned as a shadow minister in January after refusing to vote in favour of triggering article 50, now holds her constituency surgeries in a Jewish community centre, because it already has security. At events held elsewhere, she is accompanied by police. “What I have taken away from the last seven months is that for a woman to be successful or to be in the public domain, you automatically become a target for abuse,” says Miller. “Everything about you is criticised, and it’s simply not the same for men. That’s why we have such a huge problem with [the representation of] women in the media. Why would you put yourself up in that situation to be targeted so ruthlessly?” Stepping into such a controversial fight, she was prepared for criticism, “but it’s not the message, it’s the messenger that’s under attack”. The tone of the criticism is that “I couldn’t possibly be bright enough or be financially independent enough to do this on my own – so I’m being used by men. Either that, or I’m such a bitch that I’m attacking men”. The businesswoman describes herself as a “tough nut” after working in the predominantly male City (having founded an investment firm with her husband she now runs a philanthropic foundation and, aside from Brexit, campaigns against pensions abuses), and says she has put on “invisible armour” to cope with the abuse. Siddiq, too, describes herself as “a tough middle child, I can handle it”. But for Miller, “at this moment in time, that’s the problem. We should be able to carry on our careers and be women and mothers without fearing that if we show a vulnerable side, that will be attacked. The number of women in politics and TV, in journalism, who have said to me, this is normal [for them] – I’m so angry about that. It’s not normal.” There was a brief window after Cox’s murder where the nation took a breath and the abuse abated, says Siddiq. “It’s very rare that people email you saying: ‘Thank you for being my MP’! But after Brexit it went straight back to the way it was before, just as nasty. No one seemed to have any problems using Jo as an example.” The parliamentary authorities, along with speaker John Bercow, have been admirable in offering advice and support to colleagues coming under criticism, said Siddiq, but the biggest change to the climate of abuse since Cox’s murder is “we take the threats seriously now. I have had this kind of stuff for a long time, and I would say I never really reported it to the police before Jo. I wondered if it was too trivial”. Could something similar – God forbid – happen again? “I do think things have changed in terms of us being more careful. Whether that protects us or not, I don’t know. It was a real wakeup call for all of us women who had had abuse for so long – that sometimes it’s not just words.” And while both she and Miller are “loud”, with a certain amount of power to get a response from the authorities, “there are thousands of women who put up with this every single day”, Siddiq says. What can be done? Siddiq talks about educating boys and young men about the way they think and talk about women, while Miller stresses the responsibility of social media companies, which in her view remain infuriatingly resistant to taking action on abuse. Stronger role models for women would help too, she feels. “But it’s really important to say that I’m not going to stop doing my surgeries,” says Siddiq. “If people think they are going to stop me doing my job, they are sorely mistaken.” Miller agrees: “I’m not going to be bullied into not doing what I think is right. It’s actually made me tougher. It’s emboldened me even more.” |