Holyrood’s presiding officer calls for ban on all-male committees

[TheBiologyStupid]

Holyrood’s presiding officer, Alison Johnstone, has called for a ban on all-male committees and for quotas for key governing bodies. She said: “Having women in key roles and ensuring they are properly represented across the parliament helps bring different voices and perspectives to decisions.”
www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/03/holyrood-presiding-officer-ban-all-male-committees-scotland

This is a bit rich, given that the Scottish government's own Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 attempted to define "woman" in such a way that men could serve as non-executive members on Scottish public boards and nevertheless count as women for the purposes of meeting the 50% target of female membership. For Women Scotland (FWS) won a judicial review on appeal in February 2022.

Since then, FWS has lost a second case, but the Scottish government's insistence that "transwomen are women" is looking shaky with the Isla Bryson conviction for two rapes, leaving the outgoing first minister and her would-be successor Humza Yousaf unable or unwilling to say whether Bryson is a man or a woman. Apparently, some men who claim to identify as women are, but others like Bryson, are, in Yousaf's words "at it" and "not a true transwoman". (Although I think he's since said that Bryson has the right to identify as a woman after all - I'm getting nearly as confused as Yousaf now...!)

Gender identity, whether for the purposes of increased female membership of committees or incarceration in the female prison estate, is untenable. Sometimes sex matters and when it does biological sex, and indeed reality, should prevail.

Yep it means fuck all if a woman is anyone who says they are

I'm really disappointed with Alison Johnstone. She's a former athlete and will absolutely know the performance differences between men and women. All these moves to increase female representation are just meaningless when Alison and her Green chums claim biological sex doesn't exist, or if it does it's impossible to determine without a chromosome test or sometimes it does exist but only as a way of accusing people who disagree with the right kind of women who of misogyny. All abuse of Cherry, Rowling and Regan is not misogyny. Logic in Scotland today.

This is what she's asking for

Excellent cartoon - thanks!

Of course, one of the things that triggered Maya Forstater's tribulations was her querying whether a transwoman on an all-male panel would still count as a "manel". It seems that Alison Johnstone hasn't been paying attention.

That Parliament is stuffed to the gunnels with fools. It is idiotic to say “we need more women” and also “women can self identify”

I hope the presiding officer feels some shame at saying that out loud.

How can you know if a committee is "all male"? Unless you have tested everyone's chromosomes. And even then, it's apparently impossible to distinguish males from females. I really don't think we can even know for sure if "all male" committees are an actual thing, ya know.... 🤷🏿‍♀️

😂What a mess. I used to have a lot of respect for AJ, it's a shame she didn't leave the Greens like Andy Wightman so can only presume she is fully on board with their nonsense.

As the problem could be solved by half the men identifying as non binary fluid for the purpose of the meeting, I don't see this being resolved, Holyrood.

This is what happens when you know perfectly well what the fuck a woman is, and that they are at a disadvantage, but your reality revolves around pandering to men. You can repair none of the damage to women unless you're willing to identify them in a way that will piss men off.

Face it. You're going to have to pick one.

Well they won't want to piss the men off now will they!