Live webchat with Stella Creasy MP Wednesday 13 Feb 11.30-12.30

grrrranny

I was very surprised that my teenage grandaughters knew nothing about One Billion Rising. Were schools not invoved?

OBR is an international volunteer led movement so everything has been organised by volunteers - we've tried to reach out to everyone we can to get them involved and I've run workshops in colleges as well as school question times but anything anyone can do to spread the word about how to be involved is really helpful so please do tell your granddaughters - and grandsons- about it?

GeraldineGransnet

If diddling about on the sidelines is allowed, GNHQ will come down and join in. <practises dad-dancing steps>

diddling is very welcome- its how I've been taking dancefloors all my life after all....

floozie

Would you ever consider doing a GQ shoot like Louise Mensch?

I wondered when this might come up- I hardly know Louise but she always seemed very nice when I did meet her in parliament. We share the same hair colour but we've got very different lives and different politics so I'm always bemused when people make the comparison...When she resigned I was deluged with calls from journalists about could women have it all... I had to point out, I don't have kids, I don't write novels and I don't have a partner who lives overseas so I had little in common with the situation she found herself in. I gave them all details of male MPs with young families- none of them got called...

DillyDally

I saw on twitter earlier something about speaking up about sex education for young people. Can you tell me more about this?

Yes - the vote tomorrow is about making sex AND relationship education statutory in schools. Right now children will get taught the basics fo sex but there's no guarantee they'll get these lessons- especially in academies and free schools- and there's no guarantee that the lessons will cover issues like consent and domestic violence. Young people themselves say they want to talk about these issues and the pressures / harassment they feel so we want to see the curriculum reformed and required to give this guidance. There are some great resources produced by people like women's aid to help too - and we want to make sure boys and girls have these lessons equally. We've had lots of stories about girls being taken in to sex ed lessons and boys being told to play football...both need to be given responsibility to take responsibility....

fleegle

What's it REALLY like being a woman in Westminster? And I mean REALLY

Hogwarts gone wrong is a strange and marvellous place- its a privilege to be an MP and certainly as a woman there's a way to go to make it a place where everyone can feel welcome. There's the big things- like the outright sexism within our public life culture (seriously if one of you asks if Margaret thatcher is a role model I will bang my head on the desk- just because she was the only woman prime minister does not mean we can't be different!) and the little things- the way in which women representatives are dismissed as 'emotional' or 'excitable', that there's a certain image about what a representative should look like, about how politics is performed that reflect not just westminster culture but cultural expectations as a whole. My workplace is no different to any other in being framed by those attitudes- the point is in all workplaces we need to challenge these so that we don't miss out on the contribution 50% of the public can make!

coldwork

Did your mum and dad support you becoming an MP? It's not the easiest life...all political careers end in failure etc

Ha- my mum and dad have a healthy sense of skepticism about what both their children do (as well as pride I know really) they are also my constituents so they often come to things to heckle.....

flighty

Women of our age are already hugely stretched by caring roles - grandparents, elderly parents - and many of us still have to work (no pensions). How would you set about squaring this circle?

Its one of the key challenges of our age- my colleague the amazing Fiona McTaggart and Harriet Harman are doing some amazing work on this through the older women's policy review group. Rachel Reeves also fought long and hard to try to change the government's pension policy that penalised so many women and liz kendall is leading the work on social care so definitely worth checking out what she's doing- there's a way to go yet! would be interested in your ideas about how else we do this ?

AnneMaria

What would you do to get my vote? In my area we get some 'newsletters' through the door but no one seems to want to fight for my vote.

Actually I'm your worst nightmare as an MP as I don't see myself as a customer complaint desk - so its not about what I'm going to do for you but how we are going to work together! I learnt when I was a councillor the value of working with local residents to get change to happen and I feel the same way now as an MP. I feel the role of an MP is changing- and this is a good thing in my view!- to being advocates for causes and communities, because that's how change happens. We've still a long way to go- I'd love to have less arm chewers (meetings where I would chew my own arm off to leave early because they are so process driven) if you are interested check ou #7days4stow which is one of our projects in Walthamstow to see the difference we are trying to make and the kind of engagement it entails?

dopey

As a London MP, do you understand what caused the riots a couple of years ago.?Do you think there could be a repeat of them?

puts on geeky glasses actually I wrote a lecture for the LSE about this last year and about community resilience. If i could find the link I'd share it! google is your friend?

Am being told I have to go soon- pens down the exam is over apparently.....*looks mournfully at the pile of biscuits yet to be eaten and the long list of tasks for this afternoon...*

fleeble

Is part of One Billion Rising aimed at doing something about female genital mutilation? It seems to me that sometimes it is difficult for those on the liberal-left to challenge practices like this because of cultural sensitivities. Do you think there are some issues that stand above these sorts of sensitivities and shoould be pursued regardless?

challenging FGM is a key part of OBRUK - FGM isn't a cultural practice, but gender violence and should be treated as such. If FGM didn't exist there would be other forms of violence against women as its about control - check out the amazing 28toomany, Daughters of Eve and FORWARD who are working on this and who we have been supporting within OBRUK!