Women's Sector in Scotland HR policy framework prioritising Trans Women

[IwantToRetire]

I am sure there is more to this "framework" than this pie chart of oppression.

But if any one is interested this framework has just been published and can be read on line or downloaded as a pdf. https://www.wisewomen.org.uk/hr-framework

This Framework has been designed to provide women with a process to recognise violations of their human rights, to explore solutions and identify who has the responsibility to improve the situation. We have provided women with all the information we think they may need, however we recognise that we do not all have the time or wish to access lots of information. The Framework therefore can be used without reading all of the information.

Although according to the chart biological women cant assert their rights as they aren't sufficiently "marginalised".

Or have I misread the chart.

No, I think you've read it right🙄

And gay men are less marginalised than bisexual, asexual or pansexual people, who are in the same segment as lesbians.
And a real oddity - people of average weight are more marginalised than slim people!!

It seems like a pointless exercise because real people and real life are more complicated - a 'cisgender man' [least marginalised] could also have a 'significant disability' [very marginalised], and so be in two places at once...

That's intersectionality, isn't it? - people aren't one-dimensional, we are complicated and our position on the 'power>marginalised' spectrum as set out on a chart like this is not a simple, fixed point.

In fairness, I haven't read the accompanying website.

I think you are supposed to draw an irregular star shape on it to show your level of marginalisation. The bigger the star the more marginalised.

So the Roma (often light brown skin colour) are less marginalised than Black people. It is not that simple, is it? Depending on which statistics you look at (education, employment, health, etc.), they can also be more marginalised.

Via this tool, people could justify further marginalising some marginalised groups.

I've just noticed Lesbians have made it into the most marginalised outer circle, but unlike gay men who are allowed to be a sex category, Lesbians have been muddled in with various identies as opposed to being (like gay men) a biological fact.

The problem is, is that if this is now the recognised training material, framework for the Women's Sector in Scotland is it any wonder that some service providers do not think biological women should have rights equal to others.

I was going to say what is going on in Scotland, but for all I know the Women's Sector in England and Wales also have some hierarchy chaart like this. And I think I am right in saying in Northern Ireland they do.

Isn't the whole point of Equality and Human Rights that there isn't a competition but an acknowledgement that depending on who you are there needs to be an awareness of issues common to the group, heritage you are part of.

Apart from anything else, the wording looks as if it's been lifted wholesale from an American outfit.

They are saying they developed this. Which if true shows how they are still captured.

as the Network developed, the women expressed a desire to learn about and utilise the United Nations Convention on Human Rights as a framework to identify and highlight the experiences of women in Glasgow and beyond.

GWVSN secured funding from Glasgow City Council Community Grants Fund to purchase a Human Rights Course from
Making Rights Real, a national organisation that aims “to support marginalised communities to use the power of human rights to mobilise for economic and social change.”

From this learning Wise Women has supported GWVSN to develop this Human Rights Framework.

Have only just realised it was based on this group's course https://makingrightsreal.org.uk/who-we-are/

I am not in Scotland so not sure what their reputation is.

Ironic that sex matters when it’s “cisgender” men and women, and it matters when talking about gay men and lesbians, but “transgender people” are all apparently equally marginalized because that is the only case where we have to pretend that there’s no advantage due to sex.

I tried working out where I had power and where I was marginalised and realised that they have missed out at least one area. As a woman in my seventies I am largely invisible. I have had years of experience and good skills simply ignored because I am old therefore out of date.

I think you get points for each layer you are away from the centre on any item. So the slim straight healthy man gets 0 points and a cis woman gets one point.

As someone mentioned, pregnancy and age don't feature.

The size scaling is ridiculous. Some people are large for various health conditions. Some are large because they eat too much of the wrong food and dont exercise. You cant equate the two.

And as for scaling skin colour.

Isn't that the position that Diane Abbott took that led to that huge row.

How does a group of people who may firmly believe they have the right analysis then get put in a position of "training" others to think like them.

That's how queer politics got spread. People with an agenda hijacking what should be non partisan training.

If it wasn't so serious you would just want to laugh at the dumbed down approach.

Apart from anything else, the wording looks as if it's been lifted wholesale from an American outfit.

It's not a new chart, I've seen it or an identical version before.

Well if anyone in Glasgow is paying rates to the local Government, this is where part of your money has gone.

To pay for a "course" by a group that is apparently using material already created in the USA!

So we now have the Tyranny of the Minority

In fairness, they say that the chart is adapted, and state their sources.
Can't say fairer than 'stating your sources', eh?

onlytherain I think you are supposed to draw an irregular star shape on it to show your level of marginalisation. The bigger the star the more marginalised.

That's helpful, thanks onlytherain.
If they made a very large copy of the chart, and put it on the floor, you could [if able-bodied, obviously, that would have to be factored in] play a sort of Identity Twister😄

I prefer to think of the old electronic circuits, before printed circuit boards, with wires linking various components. So you'd solder a wire between each of the segments on the chart that are relevant to you...

I’ve come across a variant of this before. I commented that sex was missing and was told it was not intended to be comprehensive. I like (not) the neurodiversity axis on this one. Neurotypicals appear twice and those of us who are (in old terminology) high functioning ND don’t exist. And as for being old…

It gets my second FFS 🤦‍♀️ of the day (the first was for the BBC).

And High School? Can any Scots on here tell us whether Scotland has High Schools or have the authors simply cut and paste this from a US source?

Yes to High Schools. But the FFS remains justified for other reasons.

I think you are supposed to draw an irregular star shape on it to show your level of marginalisation. The bigger the star the more marginalised.

I dont understand that. Surely it would depend on where you start and which "priviledge" you move onto. If it isn't directly opposite but next door (which was how i saw it) I have a nice circle that wavers mostly between outer and second layer in.

Someone needs to attach a list of instructions.

Think of it as putting a dot into each box you fit then drawing lines between them.

So if you are a lesbian (outer circle), able bodied (inner circle), neurotypical (inner) with a PhD (inner) you'll have a sort of spike out as a lesbian. That's your star.

Hope this helps. I'm rubbish at diagrams and would attach one if I could

I did a diagram! NGL it looks dire but hope you see what I mean

I suppose its more that I still dont see what it really shows. Lets just say for every other grouping I am outer, and in between that I am inner.

Does that mean they cancel each other out.

I thought the whole point of practicing equality was not to make it a competition but to try and have some awareness of how for instance being disabled impacts on your life, which isn't the same as being lesbian.

Basically I just dont get it.

And what purpose it serves.

Just to add in case i didn't make it clear when I started the thread, my worry is that this is what is being taught to women's groups in Scotland.

And ironically, because it is being delivered by those in positions of authority" (privilege) they are making others believe that to remain in the women's sector in Scotland they need to show they agree with it.

And if this is what is being pushed as the "correct" approach what happened at ERCC is hardly surprising, and in terms of the heirarchy of disadvantage a woman who has been raped, does not have as much right as a trans woman.

Why do they need a chart to disengage with their brains rather than using them and having some common sense.

I can tell you that chart will have cost a few £££ to develop and then get the artwork made up. Nice cushy work if you can get it. All for something that if you are adequately trained in understanding the actual law, you wouldn't need.

Cos you'd understand the issues properly with out the need for a primary school level tool to make it so oversimplified to the point of 'bollocks'.

What good does it do? Bog all as far as I can see @IwantToRetire (though I;m not a visual/spatial person and it may be fabulous meaningful to someone out there).

But yes I agree, it will have cost a fair few bob, it is just another way of getting across the key message that trans people are the most marginalized ever ever ever, it conveniently provides no examples which could be used to illustrate the complexity of competing claims and there are no opportunities to challenge its basic premise.