THE WOMEN'S EQUALITY PARTY
SEX-BASED RIGHTS CAUCUS
Who are WE? Why now?
WE are a collective of Women’s Equality Party members and founding members who are concerned by the roll back of our sex-based rights.
WE are concerned by the direction of the party that WE founded. A political party built with our funds, with our labour, with our passion, informed by our feminist principles.
WE aim to build this website & blog to create a forum for WEP members to understand how self ID impacts on our lives as women, and specifically on our 7 policy areas.
Our movement formed in 2019. Since then our 'Declaration of Sex Based Rights' has collected over 1300 signatures from fellow WEP members and supporters.
Please click here to add your name.
Why now?
Since the Conservative government announced a public consultation of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, government departments and NGOs have been adopting policies of sex self-ID. This has been done without due process and in direct contravention of current law.
Sex self-ID directly undermines the rights of women and girls as written in law. A failure to uphold these rights is a failure to uphold legal responsibilities to protect women and girls. As a result we have seen male sex offenders in women’s prisons, the end of women’s single sex sports, the skewing of sex-based data, and the inclusion of males in rape crisis and DV services. This has been done without the consultation or inclusion of women, without due risk assessment, impact assessment and without due process.
The Conservatives have overseen this with their trademark disregard for the impact of their policies on women and girls.
What’s new?
Three years ago WEP voted to consult the membership on adopting policies of self ID. Specifically to assess the impact of sex self-ID on our seven (sex-based). policy areas.
The consultation appears to be in the long grass.
A member's assembly was designed by Nat Cen to formulate the questions that should be put to the membership. Although this is not what the motion detailed, the process has led to some excellent witnesses testimonies as to why sex-matters, and the devastating impact of self ID on our 7 policy areas.
WE are thankful to
Prof Alice Sullivan, Karen Ingala-Smith, Dr Shrereen Benjamin, Dr Jane Clare Jones, Kristina Harrison, Ruth Serwotka, Rebecca Bull
The WEP consultation and what came before...
In late 2018, a motion was brought to conference. This motion was pro sex self-ID. This motion was not passed and in a clear majority voted for the motion to be 'referred back'.
The motion was deeply problematic in many ways. One such issue was its proposal to remove the ‘spousal veto’. The spousal veto (introduced by the coalition government 2013) refers to the legal right for a spouse to annul their marriage if their partner changes their legal sex. The idea that WEP would be passing a motion that would compel a woman to be married against her will, and remove her right to annulment is extraordinary. A key example of how poor quality debate translates into poor quality policy.
Since the Conservatives put self-ID on the table, WEP has maintained an uneasy silence as headline after headline have exposed the many ways that sex self-ID puts women at risk, and how it undermines our legal rights and protections.
Where WEP should have been leading and facilitating respectful, fact-based discussions, a deafening silence resounded. In their absence, half-fact, poor quality information and misleading information was allowed to flourish. Any woman seeking a discussion or clarification was vilified, misrepresented and silenced. Concerns were framed as bigotry, asserting of our rights and language became acts of hate.
WEPs inability to stand for balanced respectful debate, placed and continues to place women at risk.
'Woman' is not a costume, it is not a feeling, it is not an identity..."
@WepWomen
#WorthyOfRespect #WomenWontWheesht
#debate #sexnotgender #sexmatters #WomenCount
#WEPWomensDeclaration #WorthyOfRespect
'If you don't understand, ask questions.
If you are uncomfortable asking questions, then say you are uncomfortable and ask them anyway...' Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
#womensvoices
WEP CONSULTATION: OUR AIMS & PLEDGES
Empowering Women & Girls
WE will work to ensure the Member's Assembly and following Member's Consultation is balanced and fair.
WE will fact check information that is presented to the assembly and membership.
WE will provide high quality, fact checked resources and blogs as part of our evidence base, and as a point of reference for members.
WE will amplify the voices of women who do not feel, for many reasons can speak safely or publicly on this issue.
WE will promote compassionate, respectful and evidence based discourse.
WE will provide a glossary of terms for those navigating this complex area.
WE stand for quality policies that embed the sex based rights of women & girls.
WE stand for policies that recognise and respond to the unique discrimination faced by women & girls because of our sex.
WE will respect the confidentiality of any woman who brings concerns to us.
WE will support women in the disciplinary process who have been targeted because of their feminist views.
WE will not tolerate any bullying, intimidation or doxxing of any of our caucus members and will use the party mechanisms to make WEP a safe place for feminist discussion once again.
@WEPwomen
#WEPfactcheck #WEPWomensDeclaration #WEPconf2020
#sexmatters #sexnotgender #debate
*This website is a work in progress. WE will be developing pages for each WEP policy area and how sex self ID impacts upon it. Please see regularly for updates.*
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All donations are gratefully received
All funds will go to:
Basic campaign costs (printing, domain name, zoom account, campaign sundries).
Subsidise tools for inclusion such as child care for single parents or audio subtitles etc
Any surplus funds will be donated to Daughters of Eve.
Daughters of Eve is a non profit organisation that works to protect girls and young women who are at risk from female genital mutilation (FGM).
Contact your Councillors #Questions4Candidates
This May, many local councillors will be standing for election.
Join the #WPUK Campaign & use this guidance to ask them our three questions for councillors and help us build a picture of how things stand for women and girls across the UK.
Help us find out where they stand and what they will do to uphold the rights of women and girls in their wards.
'Calls to rewrite the Equality Act to eradicate single-sex spaces that safeguard the needs of those who wish to be accommodated in that space by those that will not have the experiences, the understanding, nor the true lived experiences of being girl, or woman, is unacceptable'
Onjali Rauf, CEO Herstory
