The Women and Equalities Office has been replaced by the Government Equalities Office (with a focus on gender and LGBT rights, women not mentioned)

[AnotherAdultHumanFemale]

I've just seen this on Spinster. The government's Women and Equalities office no longer exists, and instead they have created The Government Equalities Office. In their twitter bio it states 'We are the UK Government Equalities Office, responsible for gender and LGBT equality.' They have also got a rainbow coloured logo.

This is really stressful. What have LGBT rights got to do with women's sex based oppression, the reason for the office in the first place? At the moment those two things are in direct opposition to each other. Who is going to protect women's rights now, if the office set up to do that has been dismantled?

twitter.com/GEOgovuk

Hi everyone looks like there's some confusion regarding this.

From what I can gather it looks like their twitter handle used to have the word 'women' in the title but from what you are saying the office itself has been known as the GEO for a while. The person on spinster said it was a new office so I was going from that information. I have no idea if it used to also be for LGBT and trans people or if the is a new development.

In fairness nearly all of the recent tweets on the geo account linked to in the OP are about, and explicitly mention, women.

Yes, but how are they defining the word 'woman?' If they are using the word gender, which they are, we know that doesn't mean women as a biological sex, it means anyone who 'identifies' as a woman ie men.

I don't think a department that is meant to be protecting women should also have a remit for anything to do with LGBT, because right now those two groups want completely different things. It's a bit like setting up an office for vegans and dairy farmers, or clean air campaigners and bonfire enthusiasts.

It's obvious who will win out in this particular battle, since the TRAs just call anything to do with protecting women's rights 'transphobia' and say it's not 'inclusive' which frustratingly people are buying. I wish they would just create an office for women and women only, adult human females because there are so many big issues still facing us like pitifully low domestic violence and rape convictions as two examples on top of the massive attack on our sex based rights by the very people we are having to share an office with.

I'm really disappointed.

Yes there is, but the problem is that the top role is Minister for Women and Equalities. It should be split between two ministers, and the GEO should be reorganised accordingly.

I don't think anything much has changed. I saw something about it on Twitter. From what I can gather, the women & equalities committee had two twitter accounts and deleted one of them which was hardly used.

Depressing

I don't think a department that is meant to be protecting women should also have a remit for anything to do with LGBT, because right now those two groups want completely different things.

Exactly this. It's unclear whether the GEO even has a "women's unit" as such - does anyone know?

Government Equalities Office: Staff:Written question - 262297

Asked by Dawn Butler (Brent Central)
Asked on: 10 June 2019
Women and Equalities
Government Equalities Office: Staff
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will publish the number of staff employed by the Government Equalities Office by (a) grade and (b) policy areas those staff are assigned to.

Answered by: Victoria Atkins
Answered on: 25 July 2019

As at 14 June 2019, GEO has 110 staff in post (107 FTE).

GEO staff work on a range of priority areas, including work to empower all women to reach their full potential, advancing equality for LGBT people, ensuring our laws protect equality and provide equal rights and driving forward work to put qualities at the heart of government.

This report contains a summary of the history of GEO:
publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmwomeq/356/35604.htm