The year before, while deputy convener for education, Cllr Murray attacked Alex Salmond’s plan for a 40% female quota in boardrooms as “f*ing stupid”
March 2018 Fairplay for Women article, 'Like A Thief In The Night: The Scottish Bill That Stole The Word Woman'
(extract)
"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.
It all started early last year. The Scottish Government consulted on the draft bill between 5 January 2017 and 13 March 2017. Quietly and without fanfare. Non existent media coverage. No one was that bothered. Only 101 responses to the consultation, 66 from groups or organisation and 35 from individuals. Compare this to the >15000 responses received for the Scottish consultation for reform of the Gender Recognition Act this year. This one slipped by unnoticed.
The draft bill was transgender inclusive and included this:
The “gender representation objective” for a public board is that it has
(a) 50% of non-executive members who are female or who identify as female, and
(b) 50% of non-executive members who are male or who identify as male.
But this still wasn’t enough for the transgender lobby.
The Scottish Trans Alliance wanted to remove the phrase ‘who are female’ and ‘who are male’, so as not to create a legal difference between those ‘who are’ and those ‘who identify as’ male or female. They got their way. They always do.
Mary Fee MSP (Scottish Labour) proposed an amendment and it was accepted. The Bill was changed to instead simply refer to ‘women’. No mention of those who are female. No mention of the phrase ‘who identify as’. Just the word women. The same word women that the general public know to mean adult females. The same word defined in the Equality Act 2010 as ‘meaning female of any age’.
This was a clever trick. Everyone knows what woman means don’t they. Why would any unsuspecting politician or member of the public be alarmed by a bill that stated on its first page that its objective was to have 50% who are women.
But this definition of woman also included men.
Hidden in the small print of a bill was a few lines of text which undermines everything women have fought for. For thousands of years women have had to struggle for their rights. We’ve had legal equality for a heartbeat in the Western world and now this.
If that wording sounds familiar that’s because it is. It’s basically the exact same wording used in the Equality Act 2010 to define a transsexual person. It is the criteria by which someone falls under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. This is what protects transgender people from being discriminated against because they are trans.
They have replaced that linguistic mouthful ‘for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex‘ to the simple and easy to remember phrase ‘becoming female’.
No longer is that definition a reference to a ‘transsexual person’ but now as if by magic it’s a reference to ‘a woman’. Who was consulted about this? Who agreed to this change? How dare they wipe away the meaning of a word without our informed consent?
‘Woman’ is now to include men who ‘become female‘. No definition of how though. Not surgery that’s for sure. No medical supervision required. No diagnosis of gender dysphoria. To wish it is to become it. To speak it is to become it.
This definition is so broad that it can include anyone." (continues)
fairplayforwomen.com/scottish_stole_woman/