Suffragettes like Emmeline Pankhurst, Millicent Fawcett and Emily Davison fought for the rights that exist for women in the UK today. Primarily our right to vote. Our right to democracy. But this right is slowly been salami sliced away by the EU, they're slicing away at everything these great women fought for. We cannot control our own laws, our own borders and are subservient to an unelectable, unaccountable, male dominated European Commission.
In some EU countries, women's rights are sliding backwards and countries like Turkey, Serbia and Albania who hope to join the EU are unlikely to become champions of women's rights. BSE can shout and jeer that Britain will never end up like that. But look at the sex attacks in Cologne.
In Germany, a country which is supposedly equal one train operator has felt obliged to create women-only carriages. BSE can attempt to put a positive spin on that as much as they like, but you cannot ignore gender apartheid. This labels all men as abusers and teaching girls that the way they dress makes them "deserve" these savage attacks. Germany is of course an affluent country.
What about women in countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia? These women in poorer EU countries are facing desperate poverty and hardship. The open-board Schengen area has begun an explosion in people trafficking and women being sold for prostitution. Girls as young as 12 are sold by their parents and forced to work as prostitutes. There are no border controls, no passport checks meaning no safety net for this incredibly frightened and vulnerable young girls. These children who should be protected under EU laws has that exact thing working against them. They are forced into labour intensive jobs, sex trafficking and even trafficking of human organs because they have an EU passport. These vile trades are blossoming because the leaders can painlessly evade capture because of EU laws.
The Remain campaign is getting desperate, they keep using the adage that our rights will be in jeopardy if we leave the EU. However, this is wrong, they simply do not know their history. The United Kingdom has a record for being ahead of the time with women's rights; before we even joined the EU this country had passed the Abortion Act, the Divorce Reform Act and the Equal Pay Act. Even after we joined the EU this country continued to be committed to advancing women's rights passing the Sex Discrimination Act, the Employment Protection Act and the Domestic Violence Act. This country is perfectly capable of advocating women's rights as it has done since the suffragettes without the help from overpaid Eurocrats.
The European Union cannot talk about equality because even its commission is not equal. Only 9 out of the 28 EU commissioners are female. Team Juncker is not female friendly, it is not advancing women's rights and it does not give a balanced view. Jean-Claude Juncker may say he wants more female commissioners, however, actions speak louder than words. He has not changed anything, nor does he need to.
Last year, following a sequence of Freedom of Information requests, the leave campaign found sexism was rampant within the European Central Bank. There, not only did men outnumber women 58 to 42% across all jobs, but female managers earned a monthly average of £7,736 less than male colleagues holding the same positions. How did the European Central Bank attempt to excuse this? By saying it was due to a 'larger proportion of male staff members in executive positions at the start of the establishment, some 15 years ago, and the subsequent impact of career progression'. In other words they've made no effort in the last 15 years to rectify the gender inequity amongst their workforce.
The EU may like to portray itself as a supporter of the rights of women, minorities and other minority groups, but it's just empty rhetoric designed to cover up the true misogynistic outlook in Brussels. These statistics prove the EU isn't serious about gender equality, and we should take no lectures on equality from those prepared to stand by an organisation riddled with such double-standards.
We as a country are perfectly capable of advocating women's rights without help from anyone else, especially overpaid Eurocrats. We must lobby the MPs in power, stand up for what we believe in and always vote. Voting to leave the European Union is the safest choice for women. The safest choice for our rights and our future. Do we trust the unelected, unaccountable and often sexist eurocratic elite to govern us? We only have one chance, one vote and one future. It is ours and all you have to do is Vote to Leave on June the 23rd.
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