-
Labour Women Voices
Abortion (Roe vs Wade) Attitudes Biology vs Culture (Sex & Gender) Clinics Education & Training Equality Funding Health & Illness Human Rights Language & Terminology Legal & the Law Mental Health Politics Prisons Psychology Research & Reading Research Safety Single Sex / Spaces Social Inclusion Sport Tavistock VAWG
Labour Women Voices is an informal group of women, all members of the UK Labour Party, who want to explore and better understand the issues and challenges around sex, gender and identity in our modern world. Our aim here is to share and examine as much evidence as possible with you, our readers.
Our overall position is that we respect the right of everyone, regardless of gender or other self-identification, to live their lives without fear or discrimination, provided only that they don’t thereby harm others. To that end we insist that biological women and girls have safe spaces in particular personally vulnerable at-risk situations, as discussed on this website…..
-
The meanings of words (TERF, CIS and other terms)
There are some words in the ‘language’ of sex and gender which many find objectionable.
Examples might be ‘CIS’ and ‘TERF’; but for outside observers these terms are meaningless.
How can they – and maybe other similarly triggering terms? – be explained? Are they legitimate terms?
[Read and discuss more about Language and terminology.]
**
The GC Academia Network has some interesting things to say about terms such as TERF: https://www.gcacademianetwork.org/
-
Gender transitioning, recognition and single sex provisions.
Are the current UK arrangements for single sex services adequate?
Some background: In the UK a change in gender of an adult can be confirmed by a Gender Recognition Certificate, a route to transitioning which has been available since the Gender Recognition Act of 2004, effective in April 2005.
This 2004 Act was brought into further focus by the 2010 Equality Act, which merged together nine main pieces of legislation:
- the Equal Pay Act 1970
- the Sex Discrimination Act 1975
- the Race Relations Act 1976
- the Disability Discrimination Act 1995
- the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003
- the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
- the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006
- the Equality Act 2006, Part 2
- the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007.
One important part of the 2010 Act was to identify nine protected characteristics which can be aspects of unlawful discrimination in public situations (work, schools, public services, transport…) under the Act.
-
How important are biology and genetics?
We are all mammals, with much the same physical design as other similar animals. How much should this fact should affect our every day behaviour as wo/men is a matter of debate.
What does ‘the science’ tell us?
The issues are really around basic human / mammalian physiology and also psychology / behaviour.
Human physiology is shaped by genetic influences (chromosomes) but is much more complicated than most people realise.
But this isn’t necessarily prescriptive – humans have much more varied behaviours than any other animal. There are however general patterns in regard to eg parental behaviour, for those who decide to go in that direction. (Some other animals also may never reproduce; and eg same sex coupling sometimes occurs in other species.)
And then there are the many psychology group behaviour aspects, eg, groups which are threatened (or see themselves as such) will behave aggressive-defensibly and reinforce their feelings of difference – which is why keeping channels of communication open is both so important and so hard, not least in politics, which is already a polarised context.
**
Human physiology and genetics
Issues around sex and gender are extraordinarily complex. Not only are there the usual challenges – for any student of the human condition – around the interplay of what was previously called ‘nature vs nurture’, but there are also extremely strongly held feelings and views on all sides about the ‘meanings’ of these terms.
This is no straightforward exercise in human physiology. Genetics, zoology and psychology are all part of the mix, along inevitably with a fair dash of politics. We will take each of these aspects in turn.
-
The psychology of sex, gender, groups and trauma
Two intersecting aspects of psychology may be particularly relevant to issues around sex and gender. One is self perception (who do I think I am?) and the other is group dynamics (how do the people around me / those with whom I associate) defend my / our identities?
Every person has an identity and character shaped by both genetics and context. These factors become even more complex when considering group psychology, which has dynamics even beyond those influencing individual behaviour.
This becomes relevant to many perspectives and much decision-making. People in groups often make decisions or choices which are more ‘extreme’ than the ones they would likely have made as individuals. This phenomenon, group polarisation, can have significant impact on the positioning of those seeking to clarify or resolve issues of common concern. This tendency may be further exacerbated by reference to social media such as Twitter or Facebook, and can also lead to attitude polarisation, where groups become increasingly distant from each other in the course of disagreements.
It might be thought that such polarisation has occurred in respect of some aspects of the current debates about gender and sex.
Another important finding in social psychology is that some groups of people, who have experiences of trauma which they then share with each other, may become isolated and exclusionary of others. This tendency is explored by amongst others the psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk.
**
Eric W, Dolan, Young women’s psychological distress increases when they change their identity away from the heterosexual norm
-
Wellbeing and mental health
Some people find their concepts of themselves or others stressful or worrying.
Who is at risk of such forms of distress? What evidence clarifies such distress? for various people at various times?
And how can the people at risk best be supported?
[Read and discuss more about Mental health and Psychology.]
-
Reading and references: Websites
There are several other websites which focus on the politics of sex and gender in the UK:
[Read and discuss more about various categories of References.]
https://labourwomensdeclaration.org.uk/ 
https://women-uniting.co.uk/ 
https://sex-matters.org/ https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us
Wikipedia: Feminist views on transgender topics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_views_on_transgender_topics
**
**
Fair play for women have a useful website. Their summary of the single sex exceptions in the Equality Act is particularly good https://fairplayforwomen.com/equality-act-2010_womens-rights/
**
equalitynorthsomerset.wordpress.com
**
-
Reading and references: Social media
Please share here Facebook, Twitter and other social media which bring together news about politics, sex and gender – the relevance and reasonableness of which are yours to decide:
Twitter
Amanda trans rights = human rights: @AmandaQuirk
Gender Critical Autistics: @GCAutistics
Gender-Critical Citations: @terfcitations
EdinburghTransWomen: @edintranswome
Black Trans Women & Girls Lives Matter: @TransFeminism
FaceBook
**
This substack by Colin Wright is interesting. He’s very gender critical, from the perspective of an evolutionary biologist. He seems to have followed the path of so many people in this topic – starting out with the odd comment and article but ending up devoting most of his time to this issue!
https://www.realityslaststand.com/**
-
Reading and references: Books
Many books have been written about the politics of sex and gender.
[Read and discuss more about various categories of References.]
We list here just a few:
Joyce, Helen (2021), TRANS: When Ideology Meets Reality, One World Publications, London
Stock, Kathleen (2021), Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, Fleet, London
LWV is an informal safe network for women in the UK Labour Party to exchange thoughts and ideas about politics, sex and gender.
Labour Women Voices 
The EHRC guidance on single sex spaces here :
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/what-equality-act-says-about-protected-characteristics-sex-and-gender
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/separate-and-single-sex-service-providers-guide-equality-act-sex-and-gender
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/when-you-can-provide-separate-or-single-sex-service
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/gender-reassignment-provisions-equality-act