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So @WENWales - that's the Women's Equality Network in Wales for anyone not familiar their work - has produced a toolkit for schools and youth groups to use with 4-11 year olds on International Womens Day #IWD2021
We had a look.
We had a look.
One of the first things you see - right on page 4 - is a handy list of 'Key terms'.
Here are some gems.
Here are some gems.
Woman/girl: a female person. This includes transwomen and girls, as well as ciswomen and girls.
So, the category of female people now include male people according to the Women's Equality Network Wales. That's going to make recording and analysing discrimination interesting.
So, the category of female people now include male people according to the Women's Equality Network Wales. That's going to make recording and analysing discrimination interesting.
Sex: assigned to a person at birth based on genitals and reproductive organs.
'Assigned' not 'observed'.
This is nonsense language with no legal or medical basis outside of the tiny fraction of boys and girls born with rare Differences of Sexual Development.
'Assigned' not 'observed'.
This is nonsense language with no legal or medical basis outside of the tiny fraction of boys and girls born with rare Differences of Sexual Development.
Still, maybe we should be grateful that an organisation that asserts that males can be females at least recognises the material reality of reproductive organs.
Gender identity: a person's innate sense of their own gender, whether male, female or something else...which may or may not correspond to the sex assigned at birth.
So are 'male' and 'female' sexes or gender identities now?
So are 'male' and 'female' sexes or gender identities now?
This also assumes that a 'gender identity' is something that we all have, a free-floating essence unrelated to the material reality of our biology and the sexist gender stereotypes we are surrounded with our whole lives.
There is no factual basis for 'gender identity'. Some people may feel very strongly that they have one. Many more do not. To present this to children as a fact of life is not honest.
It really is incredibly wearying and worrying that an organisation supposedly devoted to tackling the discrimination that women face because of their sex cannot or will not recognise the difference between gender and sex.
We need a clear open discussion about this issue. A discussion where women can express their concerns without being shouted down as bigots or facing threats to them, their families and their jobs.
