Arol Vorderman said she is “absolutely disgusted” by the two’s words and actions Government ministers as the TV presenter appeared before MPs to discuss menopause and the workplace.
The former Countdown star said Women’s Secretary Maria Caulfield couldn’t “be bothered to show up” because she refused to appear before the Women and the Equal Opportunities Commission.
Vorderman added that she was left “shocked” by comments from the Equality Minister Kemi Badenoch who did appear before the committee at the beginning of the month.
At that hearing, the minister rejected suggestions to give menopause a special legally protected status.
Ms Badenoch argued that women can already benefit from anti-discrimination measures based on age, gender and disability and said menopause was on a long list of characteristics campaigners argued should be included in the Equality Act, including “red hair have” or “be short”.
In an impassioned response at a hearing on Wednesday, Vorderman said: “As a woman, a post-menopausal woman from a working-class background, I couldn’t refrain from the patronizing statements she made. I thought they were offensive, they were offensive to all women.”
She said Ms Badenoch typically compared women going through “horrible, horrible menopausal symptoms” to redheads or short people.
Women make up almost half of the working population and yet these are the two women in government who are supposed to represent the female population. I was disgusted to be honest, both absolutely disgusted me
Vorderman, who is a patron of the Menopause Mandate campaign group, added: “What am I listening to here? It’s the 21st century. This was like going back 100 years to when women were just allowed to vote. I could not believe it.
“Women make up almost half of the workforce and yet these are the two women in government who should represent the female population. I was, to be quite honest, disgusted with both of them, absolutely disgusting.”
Mariella Frostrupchairman of Menopause Mandate, suggested the government could be “meno-washing” rather than taking real action on menopause and women’s rights as she also accused Ms Caulfield of not bothering to show up
She referred to the fact that she had been to companies, lectured about menopause and heard about the policies they have, but then talked to female employees who told her “it’s all lies, they don’t do anything” .
She said the current situation feels like “treading water, which is only amplified by the minister not bothering to show up”.
We don’t really need a women’s health ambassador or an HRT czar or a menopause ambassador if only we had equal treatment
She added: “They will appoint (the government) any number of tsars and ambassadors and you name it, but actually we are not a minority, we are 52% of the population, we don’t really need a health ambassador for women or an HRT czar or a menopause ambassador if only we had equal treatment.”
She told MPs that Ms Caulfield’s absence “leads me to suspect that the government is paying lip service to it, perhaps washing itself, as are the companies I’ve visited where women are complaining about it”.
Committee Chair Caroline Nokes confirmed at the end of the session that Ms Caulfield is expected to appear for a hearing in June.
She said the employment minister has offered Guy Opperman to appear alongside Helen Tomlinson, who was appointed this month as England’s first menopausal champion.