Our article on gender self-ID and policy capture in Scottish public policy

[MurrayBlackburnMackenzie]

We wanted to bring your attention to an article in the academic journal Scottish Affairs, which has been published today. It’s about gender self-identification, Scottish public policymaking and policy capture, a topic we’ve seen debated in FWR on more than one occasion!

We’re delighted to say the article is published on an open access basis, so you can all read the full text and share it as you see fit on social media and elsewhere.

www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/scot.2019.0284

We think Mumsnet is an important resource for women and we have definitely benefitted from following debates on here.

Like so many women involved in this debate, we have been doing this work in our own time on an unpaid basis, squeezed around work, childcare and other responsibilities. We do this work because we care very much about women's rights and we are pleased to be able to bring our skills to bear in analysing policy and practice.

You can read more about the work we’ve done to date on our blog. We welcome all feedback, so please do drop us a line via our contact form.

www.mbmpolicy.wordpress.com

Thank you!

Bump

Thanks for your work on this, MurrayBlackburnMackenzie.

The Scottish Government is planning to issue a draft GRA reform bill for consultation during the session now starting - they announced this today.

Murray Blackburn McKenzie are one of the very impressive small groups of Scottish women researching, analysing and critiquing this area, and they are crowdfunding (link in tweet) to allow them to properly devote time to their work on that draft. As they point out, whatever goes on in Scotland is likely to have considerable importance for any similar proposals brought by the Westminster government too.

I know that links to fundraisers are not allowed (? or are strongly discouraged) here on Mumsnet, but there is a link in this tweet.

twitter.com/mbmpolicy/status/1168884498928459778

I think the point about the importance of this (Scottish) draft bill to the whole of the UK cannot be overstated. And women in Scotland have been doing some incredible work that we in the rest of the UK have been able to draw on. This is going to be such an important project, and MBM will make a brilliant job of it,.

Thank you to everyone involved in this.

Brilliant job. Thank you!

Thanks for the really invaluable work you've done!

Thought we'd come on and bump this thread as our article will disappear behind the journal paywall in a couple of weeks.

The issues remain as relevant as ever. Sadly.

euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/scot.2019.0284

Thank you so much for your work on this.

Congratulations @MurrayBlackburnMackenzie !

I got an email

"On 27th October 2019 we successfully raised £8,780 with 293 supporters in 56 days"

(Did anyone get/make a PDF from that article that they could send me, please?? I didn't cotton on that free access was for a limited time )

euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/scot.2019.0284

Hi @MoleSmokes

Email us via our website and we will send you a PDF of the paper.

murrayblackburnmackenzie.org/

Thank you so much for your support of our work!

Kath, Lucy and Lisa

Bump, lets keep the momentum going with this post!
Thank you to @MurrayBlackburnMackenzie.

Thank you.

Thank you @MurrayBlackburnMackenzie !! Will do!

Have you put this on the Scotsnet forum under Other Stuff?

Back again, as we have just reported on the work we've been undertaking these past few months (as supported by some wonderful Mumsnetters - THANK YOU!).

We're now preparing our response to the Scottish Government's consultation on GRA reform (deadline 17 March) which we'll post on our website soon.

This is what we've been up to...

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/sex-and-gender-self-identification-in-policymaking/updates/110230#start

Kath, Lucy and Lisa

Thank you! You are all doing great work

truly in your debt. Thank you.

You’ve certainly been busy! Thank you so much for all the hard work & time spent

Thank you very much for your commitment and hard work. Your expertise is invaluable.

Thank you so very much for this important work, for sharing it with us, and for your courage in the face of such aggression. Things will only change in this conversation - women's rights will only be protected - because of people willing to speak up, and out. It's immensely helpful that you have done so in such a measured, well-evidenced, and scholarly way.

I also very much admire Scottish Affairs for their refusal to be bullied into silencing you.

Bumping. This is important, I think.

Just logging in to say that our Scottish Affairs paper on gender self-identification and policy capture can now be read on an open access basis via this link: www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/files/109539755/MurrayBlackburnSA2019LosingSightOfWomenRights.pdf

We had a piece earlier this week in Scottish Legal News about the changed definition of 'woman' in the Gender Representation on Public Boards Act 2018: www.scottishlegal.com/article/blog-shifting-sands-on-the-definition-of-woman-in-scots-law

And we have another paper coming out in the next edition of the Edinburgh Law Review, reviewing the introduction of self-declaration laws in other jurisdictions and suggesting lessons for UK lawmakers considering reform. We'll be posting a version of that paper on our website in the next couple of weeks.

Kath, Lucy and Lisa

Returning to this thread one last time, as we have published a response to a critique of our original paper.

In July this year, the editor of Scottish Affairs accepted a paper which was a critique of our original article, and invited us to generate a reply. We understand that both papers will be published outside the paywall on the Scottish Affairs website shortly, along with our original paper, to enable readers to review the full exchange.

In the meantime, we have published a longer version of our response which you can read here:

murrayblackburnmackenzie.org/2020/11/13/losing-sight-of-womens-rights-again-a-response-to-cowan-et-al/

Again, our heartfelt thanks to all the wonderful Mumsnetters who have been so supportive of our work to date.

Thank you.
Kath, Lucy and Lisa

for all your hard work

Yes, thank you all so much - your work is invaluable to those of us up here in Scotland