Employer stating that the Aurora women's leadership programme is open to anyone who identifies as a woman

[keepincool]

My employer is promoting participation in various EDI leadership initiatives, including Advance HE’s Aurora programme, which is designed to support women in higher education leadership. The programme is advertised as open to "colleagues who identify as women," although the official Aurora info doesn't state that men who identify as female are eligible. Men are invited to engage as champions, mentors, or supporters via platforms such as Twitter (#iamaurora) or Connect AHE.

A look at other institutions shows that other universities extend eligibility to the Aurora programme to non binary and trans - except the University of St Andrews, who specify that to be eligible you must be "a woman".

Given the recent UK Supreme Court ruling clarifying that “sex” under the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex, is my employer’s approach unlawful? The programme was set up to take positive action to address the under-representation of women in leadership positions in the sector. We now have clarification that women means biological women.

Well of course it is directly unlawful

Yes, it's unlawful if they are excluding some but not all men. Ideally you need a man to complain about being excluded although I appreciate that it may be hard to find such a volunteer.

There aren't many GC women willing to raise their heads above the parapet where I am, not sure any men would be braver. There is one gc colleague (I haven't met her personally), who is sometimes mentioned on these threads, I'm contemplating outing myself to her. My problem is the particular directorate that I work in, and being low down on the grade structure, could make things difficult for me personally. I hate being such a wimp, and following the Sandie Peggie threads makes me feel worse, as she had no workplace allies willing to support her.

We are slowly seeing more challenges coming in since the ruling and some policies have been updated, but it's painful watching the various groups tie themselves in knots to reach a decision.

Could you create a throwaway email account and contact them from there?

I think this is the best and most straight forward.

Just ask as their web pages throughout just talk about women, but it seems external groups are redefining that.

Ask them to be clear and suggest that they update their website to show they are in line with the recent Supreme Court ruling and really important that those saying they support the initiative do so in a legaly correct and respectful of the intentions way.

https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/programmes-events/aurora/aurora-faqs#Participant

That's what I'm thinking of doing. I'm also going to join my local WRN, I think a few colleagues are also members.

Just realised you might have meant contact Advance HE from a throwaway account? I'm happy to contact them from my personal email address, although I suspect they may want to be quietly 'inclusive'.

Section 158 (positive action) requires beneficiaries to share a protected characteristic, in this case, female sex (including transmen). Gender reassignment is a different protected characteristic, and being non-binary isn't a protected characteristic at all.

If transwomen are underrepresented in a sphere, they would be suitable subjects for positive action in their own right, but they can't be lumped in with the women. That's not inclusive, it's just inappropriate, because their existing levels of representation are independent of each other.

keepincool

I hate being such a wimp, and following the Sandie Peggie threads makes me feel worse, as she had no workplace allies willing to support her.

Don't be, the majority aren't brave and keep their heads down as self preservation. It's why the Gestapo, Kempei Tai, NKVD etc were effec.

I'm a GC academic and have got my university to change wording on some things. DM me and we can jointly contact them (as it's Advance HE it could be any university I think?).
I have several well known GC academic friends too.

Your company is breaking the law, and in such a way you can reasonably expect to be discriminated against if you complain to them about it (even though thats also illegal).
You can contact EHRC yourself as a whistle blower and ask them to deal with it.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/guidance/whistleblowing

Well I identify as a woman.

Oh, hold on, I AM a woman!

My university is doing the exact same thing. We have a prominent male GC colleague (who also gets mentioned in threads on here!) but he does an awful lot already (as many female colleagues - myself included - are still too fearful to speak up).