The Scottish Government and female erasure

[howonearthdidwegethere]

They've extended a programme providing free sanitary products.

A whole press release and not one mention of women or girls.

news.gov.scot/news/expanding-access-to-free-sanitary-products

It's not the first time either. The last press release did the same:

news.gov.scot/news/students-to-get-free-access-to-sanitary-products

I remember the days when the most embarrassing, least mentioned thing in sanitary towel advertising was the towel and the blood, not the woman wearing it.

I love erasure. And Marc Almond who isn’t so good looking now that he’s got old.

The band were great. However, the mental linguistics involved in creating a press release that doesn’t exclude people who do not have periods!
Girls and women who don’t have periods deal with it, yet --men and boys-- other people who naturally would never have periods have to be mollycoddled

And it's done so subtly that the omission will slip by most readers. "...everyone who menstruate," (sic), "over 20,000 people are already benefitting from this initiative."

At least "everyone" and "people" are vastly more respectful terms than 'menstruators'. They erase everyone equally.

'Prison Information Sheet' by Scottish Women

Demonstrates the absence of involvement by women & absence of impact assessments on the impact for women.

twitter: twitter.com/Scottish_Women/status/1083694812409282560

scottish-women.com/2019/01/11/prison-information-sheet/

Fairplay for Women:
'Like A Thief In The Night: The Scottish Bill That Stole The Word Woman'
21/3/2018
"Last year while we were all looking the other way and distracted by the UK government’s proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act the word woman was stolen from us. It was sneakily done by the Scottish parliament and hidden behind a smoke screen. That smoke screen was The Gender Representation on Public Boards Bill.

The Bill introduced the ‘gender representation objective’ – a target that women should make up 50% of non-executive board membership.

The purpose of this bill was admirable. It was to help women overcome the institutional sexism we suffer due to our sex. Positive action to redress the imbalances that have arisen from centuries of historical disadvantage. It was to acknowledge the reality that institutionalised inequality and sexist attitudes stop most women from reaching their full potential in public life. Financial barriers, income inequality, the gender pay gap, sexist attitudes, gender stereotyping, women’s disproportionate share of caring responsibilities, the undervaluing of women’s paid work, and media portrayals of women, to name but a few influences, all play a role in the sexism that prevents a fair number of women being involved in public life.

But in a cruel twist of irony it was also to be the perfect trojan horse to steal the very meaning of the words woman and female from us. " (continues)
fairplayforwomen.com/scottish_stole_woman/