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'Ideology is a TOWER of CARDS!' Maeve Halligan on gender ideology, young women and her viral speech
Jul 14, 2026
Cambridge student Maeve Halligan has declared gender ideology is a “very, very fragile tower of cards”, arguing its supporters avoid debate because they know “they would lose”.The president of the Cambridge University Society of Women was speaking to GB News after her speech on modern LGBTQ+ activism attracted millions of views online.
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0:00
Hello, I'm Connie Shaw and I'm at the ARC Conference and I'm joined by my friend Maeve Halligan who is the president of the Cambridge University Society of Women and also a master's student at the University of Cambridge
0:10
Now Maeve, I think millions of people now have seen your phenomenal speech at the Cambridge Union where you were debating in favour of the motion that modern LGBTQ plus activism fails its community
0:23
how do you feel about the reaction to your speech because it is absolutely just it's so
0:31
phenomenal I think it's a real turning point in young people amongst this debate um yeah well
0:37
I think that I was really pleased with how the speech went um in that I you know I found out I
0:43
was going to be speaking at the Cambridge Union quite short notice for various reasons and then
0:47
when I did it I think a lot of sort of emotion and conviction had really built up for me and
0:53
And I just wanted to put the chamber through a bit of a whistle-stop tour of what I think
0:58
are some of the main issues with gender ideology in its current iteration, and that is the
1:02
harm it does to children, the harm it does to lesbian and gay people, and the harm that
1:05
it does to women and our rights. Now, the reason that I think the speech gained traction, and I'm very, very grateful for
1:11
that, is because it's very rare that young women are seen to be talking about this
1:17
I mean, it's funny that I'm talking to you because, of course, in this country, you've been extremely vocal
1:21
you're at the forefront of young women fighting against gender ideology. However, that doesn't take away from the fact that it's not normal
1:28
for women like us, young women, to do this. So I think what the speech did, it normalised it
1:34
It gives people permission to say, I agree with that. It gives them something to point to, to refer to
1:38
which means they don't necessarily have to do all of the mental effort themselves
1:42
Yeah. And in terms of young women, as much as we're two young women who do talk about this issue
1:48
and are opposed to the harms that transgender ideology creates. It's also young women who are the main enforcers of this ideology
1:56
It's young women who are the ones who try to punish other young women
2:00
such as ourselves, for talking against it. Why do you think that is and what has it also been like
2:05
forming the Society of Women at Cambridge? How do your members feel about all of this
2:10
And do you think that it's been a success? And do you think that things are going to change going forwards now at university
2:15
Sure, OK, so a few things to address there. I mean, you and I, as you say, understand that although we may be, you know, openly and publicly against gender ideology and will contest it in the kind of public sphere, it is also the case that, yeah, our peers are its biggest cheerleaders, its biggest supporters
2:31
Now, I think it's funny because that's actually really self-destructive. You know, this harms women's rights. And as a young woman, especially, you're more vulnerable in some senses
2:36
and, you know, it's very disappointing and it makes me sad, really, I'll say it
2:42
when I see women of my age or a bit younger cheering on something that functionally erases
2:48
their right to single-sex spaces, their right to fairness in sport, their right to, you know, safety while incarcerated in prisons
2:54
Of course, that's, you know, timely at the moment given the recent victory in Scotland. With the Society of Women that I set up with two friends at Cambridge
3:01
that was three young women really putting themselves in the firing line so we knew that there would be backlash
3:06
and vitriol and all the rest of it, but we understood that it was so important to bring together young women
3:11
not just under the banner of a gender-critical stance, but to promote women's rights more generally
3:15
and get us back on a path where we can talk about women's issues
3:19
without constantly talking about trans. We wanted to do that, so it was a simple question of
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is this worth it? Is this backlash, is this vitriol worth it? Should we weather this for the sake of our broader cause
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which is getting modern feminism even, back on a more sensible path
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and bringing together young women into that fold and stopping them feeling scared about speaking up for themselves as women
3:41
And thus far, I'm very happy to say that the Society of Women's first academic year is now concluded
3:46
I'm moving on, which is interesting, and I'm excited to see what they do next. It has been successful
3:51
We've enjoyed huge, widespread public support, internal support within our university among
3:56
staff and other students, of course. We've achieved something really, really big
4:01
I'm very, very proud of my co-founders and the members. And yeah, as I say, I'm really grateful to all in online and wider society who have encouraged us, looked out for us, platformed us, donated and all the rest of it
4:14
So it's been great. I'm joined now by the founder and CEO of Tally Money, Cameron Parry
4:19
So what is Tally Money and what does it do? So you get an everyday account in your individual name, you get an account number and sort code
4:27
but instead of having an account denominated in pound sterling with your bank, you have
4:32
milligrams of gold, which we brand as Tally. The reason why we chose gold everybody understands gold It universally understood and accepted It been increasing at over 11 on average for the last 25 years against the pound In the last two years it up 60 against the pound
4:47
So if you had, you know, £10,000 in a tally account two years ago, it's now got £16,000 worth of value
4:54
The gold hasn't changed, but the value and your purchasing power has
4:58
So banks can't keep up with that performance. How easy is it to get a tally money account then
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If you're a UK resident, it's really easy. Just go to your app store, download the app
5:09
You'll need photo ID. You can onboard yourself in a couple of minutes. Just your passport or your driving license
5:14
Yep, and you're up and away. So you know what you're getting. It's very simple, low fees
5:20
It's transparent. There's no hidden fees. There's no effect spreads depending on the amount you put in
5:25
And you just get to go ahead and be productive in your daily life
5:29
build up your savings again because it's useful to do it now. I was going to say, so you're not, you don't necessarily, people are watching this going, oh, it sounds a bit scary
5:36
You can open a tally money account, transfer. Is there a minimum amount you have to transfer
5:42
So you might think, I'm just going to play with this. I'm going to put 100 quid in it that I've got this month
5:46
And I'm either going to spend it and see if I feel like I'm getting more value for money from my sale, from the things I'm buying
5:51
Or I'm going to save it and watch how that compares to maybe 100 quid in your current account
5:56
To find out more and to get an exclusive GB News offer, simply scan the QR code or click the link in the description
6:09
I know we both get asked this question quite a lot. Why did you do this
6:13
I heard someone else at the conference ask you yesterday, were you scared when you did this
6:18
Made the speech or set the society up? And you said yes. And the person said, well, why did you do it
6:23
Why was this so important to you? because it's such an unusual thing
6:28
And, you know, hopefully we'll see more of it, more young women, more young people in general being able to talk out against these sort of authoritarian
6:34
naturally authoritarian ideologies. What was it for you? And is it even possible to explain that motivation
6:40
Because I was scared. That's why it's important. When you step back and you take a look at the situation as it stands
6:47
of course, I mean, you can spend time sort of laughing, lamenting, raging
6:52
This situation is absolutely mad. You know, we're two young women talking about the fact that we're seen as rebels at best and pariahs at worst for the fact that we're willing to say, oh, actually, men aren't women
7:02
It's Turf sort of the new punk. Some women like to say so because it's that fringe and weird, supposedly
7:07
Like the world's topsy-turvy. Anyway, because it's scary as a young woman to speak up, because the backlash is so disproportionately awful, that's precisely why we have to do it more so than ever and do it openly and proudly and do it together
7:20
like uniting more women especially but also you know there's clearly space for young men in this
7:25
debate but uniting us you know inspiring one another lifting each other up picking each other
7:31
up when we're down when we're crushed over and over again by institutions organizations and
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individuals that want to hurt us that's how we're going to achieve this i believe that we'll win i
7:40
don't feel naive in being optimistic anymore and doing it together is what gives me that optimism
7:44
when i'm working with other young women when i've done stuff with you we've done activism stuff together for a couple of years
7:49
That's what gives me hope. And it's no coincidence that women older than us
7:53
have also organized and got together organizations such as Women Scotland, of course
7:58
who had that resounding legal victory last April in the UK Supreme Court
8:02
Sex Matters, who are kind of friends of ours almost and have always encouraged us
8:07
You know, the LGB Alliance, to an extent, is extremely, you know, has been pivotal in this debate
8:12
especially on behalf of the LGB community. You know, there are so many organizations here
8:17
and the Cambridge University Society of Women, it's the first, I hope
8:22
of what will be a far, far bigger group of young women organising
8:27
It's our time. Talking about the society, what kind of things do your members say
8:32
when they come to you and they join the society? Because you've said and you tell people
8:37
that people are scared. Obviously, young women are scared because it's scary
8:42
What has it meant to those young women to have this community? because I and my follow-up question as well for this is do you think that students at your university and more widely who have been
8:54
Involved in the backlash to this movement Do you think that they are afraid that something like the Society of Women will gain so much
9:03
Popularity that their own arguments will be proven incorrect or they genuinely believe that what you're doing is so evil that it shouldn't be allowed
9:10
And they think that you're making it up when you say that you have many members The first thing I say is I have to consciously not try to psychoyse these people The members of the student body and it a minority but they very very vocal
9:26
which is a common trend within this debate. The members of the student body who have been the sort of ringleaders of the backlash
9:31
not necessarily even people I could name, but just off the top of my head, and specific student societies, you know, and all the rest of it
9:39
I struggle to want to ever relate to them. so I'm not going to sit here and say
9:43
I know they secretly agree with me I don't know that but what I do know is regardless
9:48
if they disagree if all I basically embody is a threat to their sense of moral righteousness regardless
9:56
their treatment of a group of young women who have organised on the basis of sex
10:01
done so publicly and promoted important causes within the women's movement such as it is
10:07
causes like attacking porn culture for the harm that it does to our society
10:11
contesting prostitution and its dangers and the sex industry and denying this total lie
10:17
that it's empowering for women to be paid for their bodies and all the rest of it
10:21
The fact that you've got students attacking, coming up to me in the street
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calling me fascist, Nazi, saying that I shouldn't be permitted to be at the university
10:30
saying I'm too stupid to be there, saying that the fact that I'm a TERF is testament to the fact that I'm just unintelligent
10:35
that is never going to be okay in the first place. I could be actually saying something bad
10:40
and their treatment of me is still not justified. But the reason that they seek to attack
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you know, in such kind of low ways and not debate is because I do think, I will speculate
10:50
I think they do know that their conviction, their ideology is a very, very fragile tower of cards
10:58
And when they debate, if they debated, they would lose. I mean, how often do you see, for example
11:06
you know, trans rights activists or trans identifying individuals themselves consciously and decidedly walking into debating scenarios
11:14
Never. Never. And the results after the debate concluded and the voting
11:19
you spoke about how that kind of testifies to what you're saying. You may have lost the debate according to the votes in the union
11:26
but what's your ysis of the actual numbers and how people voted? Yeah, so the thing to remember about the debating unions
11:34
at Cambridge and Oxford and many other different universities is that you vote publicly
11:40
You have to physically walk through a door and everyone sees which door you walk through
11:43
You vote with your feet, as they say. That means that you are under scrutiny or you feel that you are, so you might as well be
11:53
So I'm not going to pretend that that means that vote was necessarily going to be representative of attitudes in the room once I'd finished speaking
12:02
I didn't speak last, I was penultimate. You vote with your feet, it's public. and I think the fact that there were over 50 abstentions
12:11
bear in mind the votes opposing the motion, so opposing me, there were 70 of them, 18
12:18
Those abstentions, I said it at the time, I believe that's the start of something
12:22
I think there's defiance there. If you'll reference, that's a very high number of abstentions. I think, you know, if nothing else
12:31
the speech didn't necessarily change minds, but it got people to just start thinking
12:34
sow a little seed of doubt, a new idea. I know for a fact that there are students in that room
12:40
who had literally never heard this point of view, let alone from a young woman who looks like them
12:44
talks like them. You know? And if that's true, then I did my job
12:50
And on that note, I'm really, really happy to set up the Society of Women
12:54
I said in the speech that I was only at Cambridge for a year, and that's how I decided to spend my time there
12:58
And in large part, that's true. I'll look back and, you know, I'll laugh at the backlash and the vitriol
13:04
I already do. and more importantly, I will smile thinking about the work that we did together
13:08
You know, your involvement and all the rest of it. I think this is the start of something. I'm excited
13:14
And so obviously, as I said at the start, we are at the ARC conference and I would always describe it as a conference to bring people together
13:20
who want to save Western civilisation and what makes the West so brilliant
13:24
And we've seen in polling, and it's obvious just from our own experiences at university
13:28
and just what we see people say and hear from young women
13:31
that it is young women disproportionately who are absolutely sliding so quickly
13:38
to very authoritarian, progressive, progressive left-wing stances. And as I said from our own experiences
13:46
it's nearly always young women, the same ages as us, who are determined to stop us from saying what we think
13:53
about this issue in particular. What do you think it is for young women who their political stances become their identity so strongly that they cannot bear someone disagreeing with them i mean it almost as if someone disagreeing with them undermines
14:06
their own personal identity is how i see it i mean how do you see it yeah no no well i'd say
14:11
let's say young women are being radicalized and um i've discussed before as of you the fact that
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a lot of the time older generations older than ours you know we're gen z but but um millennials
14:21
and above will be so worried about young men and boys at the moment
14:25
and fear that they're sort of discovering the manosphere and they're all going to go and worship Andrew Tate
14:29
And it's terrifying. That's happening, but it's not happening anywhere near the level
14:36
with the sort of ferocity that we're seeing in young women. Their shift left is frightening
14:43
Personally, I also find it extremely frustrating because part of the modern left-leaning viewpoint
14:50
And let's, you know, let's not delude ourselves. It's a kind of box-checking exercise, the omni-causes it's called
14:55
So you have to support many, many things and hate many, many other things. And if you miss off just one of these criteria, you're out
15:01
You're ousted, you know, cancelled or whatever. Anyway, so all of these causes that they support, a lot of them
15:08
yeah, with this ferocity as I'm describing, that's so emotional. This is emotional politics for these women
15:13
So they're thinking all the time about the kind of social currency of their views
15:18
they're thinking about what they perceive to be kind, what isn't kind
15:22
I mean, you and I are absolutely aligned in the fact that I think that, you know
15:25
using the opposite pronoun or pretending that a man can be a woman, I don't think that's kind
15:30
I don't think it's kind to lie to children and all the rest of it. But they have decided that the morally righteous, the virtuous thing to think
15:39
and therefore to do and to wave placards about are certain views that just are incompatible with one another, by the way
15:46
I mean, the classic example that is discussed is something like queers for Palestine. You know, we're talking about homosexual individuals or self-proclaimed queers
15:53
personally not a slur that I would use. You know, they're talking about a space, a place in which they would be persecuted
16:01
and harassed and in some cases killed. You know, everybody says turkeys for Christmas and stuff
16:06
And glib as that is, there's truth in it. There's such self-delusion going on here
16:11
And young women are at the absolute forefront of it, partly because young women are excellent policers
16:16
of other people's social behavior. Because we operate in groups, we are tribal
16:20
we fear social ostracization, or most of us do. You know, they're very, very good at making sure
16:27
that everybody toes the line and nobody rocks the boat. And sorry to mix my metaphors
16:31
but that means that it makes it all the harder. Every day that this goes on and perpetuates
16:37
it makes it all the harder to leave this kind of cultish following of certain political lines
16:41
that women absolutely enforce. So because young women are the biggest cheerleaders of this
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it's also tough for us to rebel. But again, that's why it's more important
16:51
that we do exactly that when we can. What would be your message to those women
16:54
who are caught up in this? Because mine would be that if you are so confident in your views
16:59
you shouldn't have any problem with someone disagreeing with you and having that conversation
17:04
But like you said, it's quite scary. And I feel a sort of..
17:08
I want to take these women in too and have these conversations with them
17:11
I'm up on them, yeah. I don't think they're a lost cause. I don't think you do either. I have days where, oh my gosh, I'm frustrated
17:17
partly because I refuse to think that I'm somehow exceptional, or that you are, with respect. I think we're normal young women who like going to the pub and talking to our friends
17:24
and who do like hanging out in groups. And people who hate us seem to think that we don't do these normal things
17:30
That is crucial for them. They have to dehumanise us. They have to. And I kind of get it. If they make us into monsters
17:36
they don't have to engage with us as people, as women. Yeah. My message I would say is, yeah, I haven't given up on them
17:42
I said in the speech, I don't think that you're bad people. A couple of people who totally agree with us almost laughed at me for that, but I stand
17:49
by it. I don't think they're bad people. But I also applaud the room, and I guess generally I applaud people to be brave in
17:57
terms of be willing to challenge your own ideas, self-interrogate. God knows we spent years doing that
18:02
I spent a long time thinking, you know, wondering why I was being called a bigot for something
18:08
that I thought was as simple as 2 plus 2 is 4. And I self-interrogated
18:11
In fact, I try to engage with the other side of this all the time, and I do. And oftentimes it's successful and it's constructive
18:17
It's so funny when people say, have you ever spoken to a trans person? It's like all the time
18:21
And actually it was speaking to them and listening to them that made me realize that this is all a load of rubbish
18:26
and that they are vulnerable people who need people who are brave enough to say the truth
18:30
Maeve Halligan, thank you so much. And I'm so grateful for what you have done at the University of Cambridge
18:36
And I know that there will be so many young women out there who feel the same way. Thank you
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