Latest news with #JoPhoenix
The Herald Scotland
01-07-2025
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
Universities did not protect gender-critical academics from harassment
The report – on barriers to research on sex and gender identity – has called for staff and students who take part in freedom-restricting harassment to face 'consequences commensurate with the seriousness of the offence'. Universities should critically review their policies and practices to remove 'partisan policies and messaging on questions of sex and gender', it added. The report follows a review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, which was commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology under the former Conservative government in February 2024. It came after high-profile cases of academics who faced harassment relating to their gender-critical views garnered media attention in recent years. In March, the Office for Students (OfS) issued a fine of £585,000 to the University of Sussex for failing to uphold freedom of speech. The watchdog's investigation into the university was launched after protests called for the dismissal of academic Professor Kathleen Stock in 2021 over her views on gender identity. The OfS concluded the university's trans and non-binary equality policy statement had 'a chilling effect' of possible self-censorship of students and staff on campus. In January last year, an academic won an unfair dismissal claim against the Open University (OU) after she was discriminated against and harassed because of her gender-critical beliefs. An employment tribunal found Professor Jo Phoenix – who was compared with 'a racist uncle at the Christmas table' – was forced to quit her job because of a 'hostile environment' created by colleagues and 'insufficient protection' from the university. Prof Sullivan's latest report cites evidence from a number of academics – including Prof Stock and Prof Phoenix – who have challenged the theory that sex is always less important than gender identity. Protests called for the dismissal of Professor Kathleen Stock in 2021 over her views on gender identity (Oxford Union Society/PA) It said: 'Several respondents to this review have suffered extreme personal consequences, both to their careers and to their physical and mental health, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and extensive sick leave as a result of bullying, harassment and discrimination. 'The failure to adequately support and defend these individuals is a stain on the higher education sector.' The review concluded: 'Campaigns of harassment have had devastating consequences for individuals and created a wider chilling effect for academia and the research community. 'University policies have often adhered to the tenets of gender-identity theory, thus embedding discriminatory practices. 'In cases where individual academics or students have tried to resolve issues using internal mechanisms, these processes have often proven inadequate. 'Going to an employment tribunal is an exceptionally onerous and potentially career-ending step. 'Statements from higher education management representatives and bodies have typically downplayed and denied problems with academic freedom, dismissing or minimising concerns as 'media noise' or 'culture wars'.' Report author Prof Sullivan, from the UCL Social Research Institute, said: 'The evidence I have collected raises stark concerns about barriers to academic freedom in UK universities. 'Researchers investigating vital issues have been subjected to sustained campaigns of intimidation simply for acknowledging the biological and social importance of sex. 'Excessive and cumbersome bureaucratic processes have exacerbated the problem by providing levers for activists to exert influence. 'Academic institutions need to examine their policies and processes carefully to avoid these unintended outcomes.' Among a series of recommendations, the report said senior leaders in higher education should acknowledge the reality of bullying and harassment by internal activists and 'take on board the lessons of the Phoenix judgment'. Prof Phoenix, who resigned from the OU in December 2021 after she was harassed for her gender-critical views, said: 'I just suggested that there was a different evidence base from which we could make assessments about the potential harms of placing males who identify as trans in female prisons and I set up a research network. That was all I ever did. 'But it was enough for the activist academics to stop my criminological research career in its track and to do so permanently.' A Government spokeswoman said: 'We are taking strong action to protect academic freedom and free speech, which are fundamental to our world-leading universities. 'This includes introducing new duties on universities to ensure they are robust in promoting and protecting free speech on campus. 'It also comes alongside the firm steps the Office for Students is already taking, through fines and new guidance, to ensure universities remain beacons of academic freedom.' A Universities UK (UUK) spokeswoman said: 'We agree that universities must protect and defend academic freedom and freedom of speech. 'They are bound to do so by law and, in England, there is a new regulatory approach under the Freedom of Speech Act which is about to come into force. 'These are complex issues. In practice universities are bound by law to protect the free speech of individuals who have very different views on contentious topics. 'They are required both to allow and facilitate protest, and to prevent that protest creating an intimidatory or chilling environment on campus or from preventing staff and students from pursuing their work and studies. 'We will carefully consider this report as part of our work in supporting universities as they navigate these difficult issues.'
Daily Mail
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
LAURA TROTT: Labour MUST issue guidance to keep our children safe
Ten months ago, the Education Secretary had no issue with trans women using female toilets. Prior to that, the now-Prime Minister gave us some advice, that '99.9 per cent of women don't have a penis'. Yet this week, we have seen a jaw-dropping act of political gymnastics. The Education Secretary claimed that 'we have always supported the protection of single-sex spaces based on biological sex'. Always? Really? The Education Secretary seems to think that if you repeat something enough, it makes it true. It doesn't. We have seen this time and time again. For example, the Education Secretary says she supports academies, but her legislation abolishes them in all but name. Their rhetoric is devoid of reality, but the British public will not be taken for fools. It's the same with biological reality. Women across the country know exactly what's been going on: Labour has spent years pandering to ideological extremists, bullying those who dared to speak up for women's rights. Bridget Phillipson may believe the revisionist fairy tales she's spinning but there's action she could take right now if she's serious about protecting women and girls. Following the Supreme Court's landmark ruling that biological sex does matter, the Government must stop dithering and publish the long-overdue guidance for schools to follow to help them make decisions regarding gender-questioning children. That guidance provides much-needed clarity and includes sensible steps such as parents not being excluded from decisions taken by a school in relation to requests by their child to 'socially transition' and single-sex spaces must be protected for the safeguarding of all children. We also began work on banning gender identity ideology from classrooms because, let's be honest: teaching children that 'sex is a spectrum' is not education, it's indoctrination. But the new Education Secretary slammed the brakes on progress. She claimed the guidance 'drifted into partisan language' and called it a 'political football'. It is not partisan to protect young minds from being polluted with adult concepts of gender identity. Children deserve facts, not ideology. Labour blames the delay in implementing this guidance on the Cass Review, a devastating, forensic report that laid bare the medical scandal that had unfolded in front of our eyes. That report was published more than a year ago. One year and a Supreme Court judgment later, the Government still isn't ready to act. Why are they dithering while they could be protecting children? This goes beyond schools. One of Bridget Phillipson's first moves in office was to try to scrap our Free Speech Act, an action that would have protected gender-critical voices. Labour would rather listen to student union activists than to women who've been hounded out of their jobs simply for stating simple biological reality. While Labour paused that legislation, brave women such as Professor Jo Phoenix were forced to spend eye-watering sums on legal fees, fighting for their rights, some even remortgaging their homes to do so. Professor Phoenix herself said that if the Act had been in force, she would have been spared the nightmare. Delay has an impact. What thanks did these women get? No apology. No remorse. Not even a word for the former Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who was vilified by her own party, and forced out, for speaking the truth. So yes, it's welcome to hear Labour finally acknowledge basic reality. But that's not enough. Words are cheap. We need action. Implement the policies that were already in motion to safeguard children. Deliver the guidance to protect them. Because if the Education Secretary thinks she can just rewrite history and get away with it, she's sorely mistaken.
