'Matt Goodwin really doesn’t like women'
Reform by-election candidate Matt Goodwin has said that young girls and women should be given a “biological reality” check about their fertility.
In a video on his personal YouTube channel from 2024, Reform’s Gorton and Denton by-election candidate said that “many women in Britain are having children much too late in life”.
In the video which The Independent unearthed, he argued: “We need to explain and educate young children, the next generation, the severity of this crisis.”
He added: “We need to also explain to young girls and women the biological reality of this crisis. Many women in Britain are having children much too late in life, and they would prefer to have children much earlier on.”
These comments come after it was revealed Goodwin had previously suggested in a 2023 Substack post that women without children should be taxed more as a punishment.
Goodwin’s ideas have been compared to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, which is set in a society that forces women to bear children to tackle a fertility crisis.
Speaking on a podcast with Jordan Peterson, Goodwin agreed with the alt-right Canadian psychologist’s claim that universities have become hotbeds of “politically correct authoritarianism” because they are full of “childless women”.
Goodwin agreed that he had read papers about “the feminisation of higher education over the last 50 years”.
Responding to Goodwin’s comments about women’s fertility, Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell said: “The message to women from Reform’s Matthew Goodwin appears to be ‘know your place’.
“After it was exposed that Goodwin wants to tax millions of childless women, he’s now bemoaning women’s right to education. It’s utterly astonishing, misogynistic, and vile.”
Eliza Hatch, founder of Cheer Up Luv, a campaign group that raises awareness of sexual harassment, said: “If you blinked and thought you’d accidentally woken up in Gilead – you’d be forgiven. Because Reform UK’s candidate for the upcoming by-election Matt Goodwin’s take on the impending birthrate crisis is like a direct reading from the pages of Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale.”
She added: “There is no denying a fall in births, fewer people can afford to have children, and fewer women want to put their careers and lives on hold to perform this service for the pleasure of having a 60k motherhood penalty in earnings, minimal government support and subpar maternity care.
“We have already seen a sexist narrative take hold that feminism is responsible, women are the problem – and so if they are not complying, they will have to be controlled into submission.
“This view used to be fringe, something that was whispered online, repeated in manosphere forums – now it is just being spoken out loud by potential rulers of our country. And I’m terrified about what that opens the door to.”
Hatch also pointed out that “There never seems to be any conversation amongst rightwing politicians or commentators about the very essential other half of this “crisis” – which is men.”
X account Blade of the Sun, wrote: “Reform candidate Matt Goodwin has said that young girls should be told to have children earlier in life. Do you really want someone like that in Parliament with power over children?”.
Journalist Don McGowan commented: “Matt Goodwin really doesn’t like women.
“Particularly women in academia, who he appears not to consider worthy, and that those who are childless specifically, are dangerous to his right-wing ideology.
“This seems to stem from his belief that benefits should be removed or reduced from childless women.”
McGowan added: “Perhaps he may not be the best choice for public office?”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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