Jessica Butcher, newly appointed to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, criticised #MeToo and said women who suffered discrimination should find a way round it rather than complaining.

I want to bring out more aspects to my Observer story /THREAD https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/22/new-equalities-commissioner-attacked-modern-feminism-and-metoo

First, her comments on #MeToo : “Men have had their careers and reputations ruined overnight by MeToo – some possibly justly, but without any due process, no innocence until proven guilty”

I asked her to name any men who had their reputations unjustly ruined by MeToo

She did not

A CPS report estimated there is one prosecution for a false rape claim out of every 161 rape cases prosecuted. A TUC survey found women were more likely to be victimised as a result of reporting sexual harassment than they were to report a satisfactory outcome to their complaint.

Butcher on discrimination: Even if it was due to discrimination, the most productive reaction to that is not wounded insecurity, go cry to someone about how you might have been gender-discriminated against, but it’s to actually ... the onus to circumvent the situation in some way

This is particularly fascinating, since the EHRC literally exists to tackle inequality and discrimination and periodically intervenes in anti-discrimination lawsuits.

I asked her the following. I did not receive a reply to these specific points.

You may have already seen her comments on Page 3 but if not, here they are:

“Working-class girls have been deprived of jobs that they love such as Page 3 girls and [Formula One] grid girls because other women disapprove of them. What happened to ‘my body, my choice’?”

Then there’s her comments on the gender pay gap. I’m not saying that she seems to think it’s a good thing... but...

Monitoring the gender pay gap is a *big* area of EHRC activity - https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/bylchau-cyflog/gender-pay-gap-our-enforcement-action

As @SianCElliott of the TUC says, a large element of the gender pay gap (and other inequality-driven pay gaps) is about forced choice, not free choice

Now, a couple of things we couldn’t fit into the article. Butcher is a digital entrepreneur, so let’s call this BONUS CONTENT...