"You get low-level sexism all the time. I've defended other women in the chamber. I know women who work for me, certainly Black women, have found Westminster to be oppressive. Lots of men shush me because I'm quite rowdy. I get lots of comments like "calm down, the honourable lady acts with her heart". In the post-Me Too world, you get joking comments like "am I allowed to ask you to pass the milk?" or "I don't know if I'm allowed to say this to me, but you look lovely". ... Quite a lot of Tory men treat me like I'm some sort of exotic bird. People act like I'm either a pain or something to be marvelled at. You can see sometimes in meetings, women are asked to do things like get the tea. The expectation of them being stupid and annoying is quite common – that is very irritating. There is a power imbalance, there is an element of impunity."
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Members of the Parliament of the United KingdomPeople from BirminghamLabour Party (UK) politiciansFeminists from EnglandWomen politicians in the United Kingdom
Original Language: English
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On misogyny in the Palace of Westminster. Quoted in Maya Oppenheim "Fishnets and Tinder: Women MPs reveal toxic sexism in Westminster" The Independent (10 January 2023).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jess_Phillips
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Jess Phillips
Jessica Rose Phillips (née Trainor; born 9 October 1981) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she was Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding in Keir Starmer's Opposition frontbench from 2020 to 2023, when she resigned over a vote on the Gaza conflict. In July 2024, following the 2024 general election, she was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office with her pre
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