https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/keeping-sight-of-womens-rights-in-policy-and-law Our background Over the past two and a half years, we have researched and written about women’s sex-based rights and gender self-identification across different areas of public policy in the UK. We engage regularly with key decision makers and, within a short period of time, have established a strong record of impact based on…
Read More New crowdfunder: Keeping sight of women’s rights in policy and law
The report on our activity for the six month period from December 2020 to May 2021 can be downloaded here 31 May 2021 Hate crime A substantial proportion of our time was spent scrutinising the Scottish Government’s controversial Hate Crime and Public Order Bill, as it passed through the Scottish Parliament. Our primary concerns were…
We recognise that both sex and self-identified gender may be relevant to people‘s lived experiences, and believe that public authorities need to ensure that the interests of everyone are balanced fairly, in the least discriminatory way possible.To achieve this, public policy-making needs to recognise the importance of sex as a protected characteristic under the Equality…
Read More Our view on sex, gender identity and policy-making
MBM factcheck on 2021 Holyrood election claims PDF Throughout the election campaign, candidates have been asked about their views on single-sex spaces, the Equality Act, and how women should be defined in policy and law. This factcheck briefing examines claims made by candidates from different political parties at four hustings events (Engender, Scotsman, STUC and…
Against a backdrop of active debate about women’s sex-based rights, this blog reviews the manifestos for the five parties represented in the last Scottish Parliament, as well as those we could find for the other eight parties which are standing candidates in the eight Scottish Parliament regions. We carried out a word search for both…
Read More Review of party manifesto commitments relating to women’s sex-based rights
Review of Dhejne et al's findings Download BackgroundIn 2011 Dhejne et al. published a peer-reviewed academic paper setting out findings from a cohort study aimed at estimating the ‘mortality, morbidity, and criminal rate after surgical sex reassignment of transsexual persons’ (2011: 1). Using a range of administrative data, including hospital records, census data and criminal…
ForWomenScotland (FWS) announced earlier this week that they are seeking leave to appeal against the judgement in their case against the Scottish Government. Just as the Scottish Parliament went into recess for the election, Lady Wise found that the Scottish Government had acted within its powers in defining “woman” in the Gender Representation on Public…
The Stage 3 debate on the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Bill will take place this Thursday, 10 December. The purpose of the bill is to improve access to healthcare services for victims of rape and sexual assaults. One issue that emerged during the Stage 1 considerations of the bill was the…
Read More Sex and gender in the Forensic Medical Services Bill
Today’s statement by Liz Truss brings much needed clarity on the UK Government’s proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act. We have previously argued that a shift to a system of self-declaration, without the requirement for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, would considerably expand the scope of the Act beyond its original aims. The reduction…
Read More MBM response to the UK Government GRA announcement
Over the weekend, it was reported in The Sunday Times that the UK Government is scrapping plans to allow individuals in England and Wales to change legal sex simply by making a statutory declaration (often referred to as self-identification). The article also suggested that the UK Government will seek to strengthen provisions in the Equality…
Read More A fork in the road? Comparing plans for gender recognition reform across the UK
