Discrimination against men in the UK

The UKMM is the only organisation to study and document the various discriminations against men in the UK.

Our booklet on this, Discrimination Against Men in the UK, is available in our publications section - The Bookshelf.

We provide a synopsis below, based on our proposal and arguments at a debate "Has feminism gone too far ?" at the University of Kent at Canterbury on the evening of 8 March 2001.

The facts

Men are discriminated against in all areas of life. We identify discriminations in :

The most significant issues affecting men’s rights and their lives are :

• Matrimonial & Family Law – this is wrecking the lives of about 100,000 innocent men and 200,000 children every year, i.e. about 3,000,000 men over the last 30 years,

• Social Security – men are about �20,000 disadvantaged by state pensions alone,

• Representation in Parliament – men have no remedies for these injustices in Parliament or Government, which continue to pass anti-man legislation.

Specific issues are identified :

1. Education

• significant numbers of women-only courses, from which men excluded

• funding for such courses e.g. women-returners, which is not available to men.

2. Employment

• programmes to ‘encourage women into certain professions’, while none to encourage men e.g. Women Into Science & Engineering (WISE)

• training courses for women-only e.g. women-returners

• male unemployment rate is higher

• changes in types of industry, away from men-based manufacturing to women-based service industries, while no support to assist men at all

3. Taxation

• widow’s bereavement allowance, none for widowers

• transfer of personal allowances husband to wife, not vice versa

4. Social Security

• state pension age difference of 5 years, combined with average age of death, men pay in 5 years longer and draw out 11 years less – about �20,000 difference in the investment

• widow’s benefits, no widower’s

• widowed parents allowances for widows, not widowers

• benefit levels higher for women with children then men in same situation

• about 4 other differences due to different qualifying periods for NI contributions e.g. sickness rates and reduction of unemployment benefits for occupational pension incomes

Some of these have been and are the subject of European & Human Rights Law challenges by PARITY.

5. Social Protection

• concessions based on state pension age differences still apply widely e.g. bus passes

Bus pass case in European Law about to be successful – but men have been forced to sue their own government just to get a fair deal.

6. Health Care

• preventative healthcare programmes for female cancers, and none for male

• research spending on female cancers massively higher than for male

• and this despite men’s life expectancy already being 6 years less than women’s

• circumcision on men is still allowed by law, while being a criminal offence on women

7. Civil Law

• sexual harassment charges used deliberately by women against men they wish to attack

8. Criminal Law

• women treated more leniently than men in criminal sentences, especially if they claim they ‘did it to look after their children’

• false allegations of rape used effectively by women against men they wish to attack

9. Matrimonial & Family Law

• treatment of men in separating families is clearly that of systematic persecution, with innocent men being stripped of their children, homes, life savings, future income and pensions – the statistics are horrifying

• this has been due to corruption of the written law by judges, assisted by lawyers who wish to make money out of the process, in introducing ‘no-fault’ divorce

• specific policies to deny men rights in the family e.g. the NAPO policy

• feminists in positions to massively influence law-making, with evil laws enacted, such as :

• CSA
• FLA96 – implementation of S4 withheld, and the architect of it was Brenda Hoggett, now a judge in CoA
• pension rights changes

• feminists in CoA who continue to ignore the written law

• specific agenda by feminists, and their allies in the homosexual groups, to destroy marriage and men’s rights in the family

Present laws give men no rights in marriage. They allow women to get pregnant and be supported by the father & the state. They allow women to dispose of a husband, yet keep the other benefits of the marriage, and to make a profit from marriage. Men do not have any such options in life, and are having their lives seriously wrecked by unscrupulous women aided by the corrupt ‘no-fault’ system.

10. 'Women-only' syndrome

• ‘women only’ library and swimming pool sessions

• meanwhile women want entry to men-only clubs etc, rather than establish their own clubs they appear simply to want to prevent men having their own

11. Media Representation

• much denigration of men in press and media

• almost no coverage of the issues which UKMM are concerned with, yet usually massive coverage of women’s issues e.g. breast cancer issues regularly

12. Representation in Women's and Men's Groups

• enormous support for women in women’s organisations

• funding from central and local government for women’s groups

• no such support for men’s groups

13. Representation in Parliament & Government

• despite more men in Parliament and Government, many anti-men laws passed in last 30 years e.g. SDA75, CSA, FLA96, attempts to restrict men’s rights to defend themselves in rape cases

• women-only shortlists last general election, and calls for this at next

• Ministers for Women, none for men

• Equal Opportunities Commission in reality supports further privileges for women, and does not take on men’s cases as it is required to by SDA75 – trivial women’s cases taken on (e.g. Common Ridings), but serious men’s cases ignored (e.g. NAPO policy)

The arguments

Despite these discriminations against men, the UK has an industry built on the ethos of assisting women who are ‘disadvantaged and need protection’, including the Equal Opportunities Commission, Ministers for Women, etc, and many well-funded women’s groups. These bodies are not addressing equality for women, but further privileges for women. Taxpayers, including men taxpayers, contribute very significantly towards this industry.

Women have simultaneously :

• assumed male roles in education and employment,

• refused to concede any female roles in the family to men,

• deliberately continued to accept privileges in social security etc, which were based on the previous financial dependency of women on men, while this no longer exists.

The situation we now have is that women have many lifestyle alternatives, while men have few. Further, men’s lives are being seriously damaged by a degenerate legal system and many unjust social security etc provisions.

The Big Lie

We regard the assertion that women are disadvantaged as The Big Lie of our time. And feminism is based on The Big Lie.

The conclusions

There can be no greater folly or degeneracy than to provide further support, via Ministers for Women etc, to the most privileged group in our society - women - while denying the disadvantaged, suppressed and persecuted group - men - any representation at all. Feminism is about women getting something for nothing.

The question of whether "feminism has gone too far" is perhaps less important than "why feminism was established at all". Feminism is an aberration, like nazism & communism - a blight on our society.

Comment : Do you recognise any of these discriminations affecting your life ?