Equality policies no longer listing “sex” as a protected characteristic

Sex (including transgender)

Are they for real? They can't just 'update' the law on a whim.

I would suggest something along the lines of

Re. the nine protected characteristics listed in your equality policy, please be aware that they are:
age
disability
gender reassignment
marriage and civil partnership
pregnancy and maternity
race
religion or belief
sex
sexual orientation

www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/equality-act/protected-characteristics

ie. it should say sex, not gender. Although these terms used to be interchangeable, given the current debate I'm sure we agree that it is important that the school's document accurately reflects the law so that there is no ambiguity.

I've just checked my dd's school and they have an interesting variation.
They have all 9 correctly but after sex they have 'including transgender'

Sex (including transgender)

So according to them Transgender is a sex.

What I find worrying, is the suggestion by the Women and Equalities Select Committee among many, is the suggestion that the occupational requirements provision be done away with. Schools routinely, and quite legally, advertise for women PE teachers to teach girls' PE. This is important because the teacher needs to be able to enter the changing room in cases such as medical emergency. I'm sure no one here needs me to spell out the potential consequences of removing occupational requirements exemptions.

"The school acknowledges the difference between gender and sex, and will regard both as protected characteristics."
Boldly stating their intention to violate the law? Criminy!

I suggest copying and linking the relevant section of the EA when you advise them they are in violation of the EA2010.
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/4

An issue in tech is "contributor covenants" and "codes of conduct" that omit sex. www.contributor-covenant.org/version/1/4/code-of-conduct has "sexual characteristics" but not "sex", and I've seen derivatives of this that have "sexual characteristics" omitted, such as that used by Google. British organisations are copying these CoCs verbatim without modifying them to reflect the EA2010.

I've just checked my DD's primary school's equality policy. It states the Equalities act of 2010 lists 9 characteristics, and states gender (and not sex), as Goldhat said above. Is there a stock email that I could copy to send to the school? I am not very good at formulating wording.

I did it by email, copying in my local councillor. Better to have a paper trail.

I got one of my employers’ equality policy changed back to reflect ‘sex‘ and ‘gender reassignment’ ...which they had replaced with made-up ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender’ categories. They couldn’t really argue. The law’s the law.

Organisations aren't just taking Stonewall's word for it though, are they? In some cases at least, they're paying Stonewall for the privilege of having the law misrepresented to them.

My local council changed theirs too, when pointed it out.

It’s very satisfying to do, though frustrating we are having to insist that public bodies use the legal definition as it is stated in law.

Fairplay for Women also have information about the lobbying that has been done and how organisations have been misled in thinking gender is a protected characteristic:

fairplayforwomen.com/resources/law/

"The school acknowledges the difference between gender and sex, and will regard
both as protected characteristics."

I'm reading it again and I don't think they do understand the difference between sex and gender. The fact they explicitly state they know and understand the difference has thrown me a bit, but if they knew what gender is then they wouldn't list it as a protected characteristic surely? For example, I remember a girl at school being called a lesbian in a derogatory way because she had cut her hair short in the style that is considered masculine. That would be bullying on the basis of her sex and her (perceived) sexuality. Gender isn't the thing that needs to be protected there, in fact gender is a big cause of the problem because it's our societal gender norms that tell us girls should have long hair. Unless I'm overlooking something.

Not sure if this has been posted yet but here is evidence collected by WPUK about Stonewall and other trans groups campaigning to get sex removed as a protected characteristic:

womansplaceuk.org/references-to-removal-of-single-sex-exemptions/

HarrietTheFly I read "accept on the basis of female gender" to mean they will accept trans girls but not trans boys. And that what they are really saying is "We're defined as a single-sex school but we're actually a single-gender school". (Which I'm pretty sure is illegal as the law stands).

The sexes are male and female. The terms men and women only refer to adults

Ah, so I'd be right to contact them regarding their wording?

@HarrietTheFly

Until you posted that, I hadn't considered the implications all of this stuff would have for an all-girls school or all-boys.

I'm trying to find more information on their website to clarify if they are a single sex school or not, but I can't find anything. I suppose I'll have to write and ask. I must admit, I'm a bit nervous about writing to them. I've written to many companies and organisations around this issue but I don't like that this is something that involves DD. I'd hate for her to be labelled as the one with the "bigoted" mother. I have very strong reasons for wanting her to attend an all girl's secondary school though. I'm really disappointed to see this might not be one.

Sex (and Gender)

The school acknowledges the difference between gender and sex, and will regard
both as protected characteristics.

As a single sex school our admission arrangements allow selection at age 11 on the
basis of female gender

I found the above on the equalities policy for a girl's secondary school in an area we are planning to move to in the next few years.

My understanding is:

1. They know the difference between sex and gender, though are regarding both as protected characteristics because they feel it is appropriate to make up laws or something? (Gender reassignment is listed separately).
2. They are a single sex school
3. Here I am a bit lost. Do they mean they would not accept a "male gender identifying" female child but would accept a "female gender identifying" male child?

Had my heart set on my dd going to this school...

The sexes are male and female. The terms men and women only refer to adults.

My local council says:
Sex (men, women, other)

Is other for intersex?

I’ve checked my employer’s, local NHS trust, and local councils. All do say ‘sex’.

Ever so slightly disappointed to be deprived of the opportunity to stir things up.... 😂

Was also pleasantly surprised this week to receive my invitation for a cervical smear and see that it referred to women instead of ‘people with a cervix’ 💪🏻

Without going into too much detail, I regularly review social housing tenancy agreements for councils and housing associations to ensure they are fit for purpose.
I always ensure the Equality and harassment sections, record 'Sex' as a relevant protected characteristic/ground.
I cannot tell you how many have sex missing or use gender or depressingly just reference gender reassignment.
I suspect many were written when gender was synonymous with sex but these days it isn't good enough.