:: press release ::

September 16, 2008

UUP SEXIST COMMENTS DISGRACEFUL SAYS ROSS 

Alastair Ross MLA has sharply criticised remarks made by former Ulster Unionist Minister Sam Foster in which he questioned a woman’s ability to manage to hold down roles which his own Party colleagues Michael McGimpsey and leader Sir Reg Empey currently fill.  

The senior UUP man made his comments in a letter to the Fermanagh Herald this week.  

Commenting, Mr Ross said,  

“The outrageous comments this week of former UUP Environment Minister Sam Foster should be denounced by all right thinking people and the UUP leadership should immediately distance themselves from the sexist and insulting remarks of the senior Ulster Unionist representative.  

Sam Foster suggests that a woman cannot be a wife and mother and hold public office at the same time, despite many of his male colleagues holding down roles as Ministers,  MLA’s, councillor’s, husbands and a fathers at the same time. The clear message from the senior Ulster Unionist is that women are less able than men.  

It would seem that Sam Foster has been inspired by those Democrats in America who are currently attacking GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin for the simple fact that she has ovaries!  

In the same letter, Mr Foster asserts that the male UUP candidate is better than the female DUP candidate because he is ‘a single person’. Does this mean that married people cannot do as good a job as single people?  

Sam Foster’s letter is as disturbing as it is absurd. It is something that we may have expected to hear century’s ago. People will rightly ask if this level of sexism runs right through the UUP, who currently have no female members on the benches at Stormont.  

I personally am disgusted at this level of mud slinging and believe that individuals should be judges on their credentials and abilities, not on their sex.”