by Joanna Williams, Spectator
Last summer’s supreme court ruling that the legal definition of ‘woman’ is ‘biological female’ was celebrated by feminists heralding the end of woke. They were right to party. The judgment should have meant game over for trans rights activists. By now, one would have thought, there would be no more men in women’s toilets or changing rooms. But in the clearest sign yet that women cannot give up the fight, there comes news that the government is advertising for a senior civil servant to ‘lead on trans equality’.
This is not a minor role. The recruit will be a policy manager at the cabinet office, heading up some of the government’s ‘top priorities’. According to the advert, the new member of staff will work as ‘part of the Office for Equality and Opportunity wide team’ with responsibility for ‘handling the implications of the recent supreme court case […], leading on the implications of the ruling on trans people.’ In case potential recruits are in any doubt about where their sympathies should lie, the specification is clear: they will be in charge of ensuring the government can ‘take steps to improve outcomes for trans people in the UK’.
Readers might be forgiven for thinking that, nine months on from the ruling, the government might be wanting to hire senior civil servants who can ‘improve outcomes for women’. But no. There have been no adverts for cabinet office policy managers tasked with overseeing change in hospitals, prisons, universities and workplaces where women have suffered the indignity of having to undress in front of biological males, or had their free speech curtailed for saying exactly what the supreme court confirmed. There is no nice salary and generous pension on offer for someone to evaluate the state of women’s sex-based rights.
Advertising for a senior civil servant to ‘lead on trans equality’ reveals Labour ministers to be in no rush to implement policies and practices that risk the ire of transgender activists. Indeed, Bridget Phillipson, the government’s women and equalities minister, has been on a go-slow ever since the supreme court judgment was announced last April. She stands accused of delaying the publication of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) guidance on sex and single-sex spaces, which would require businesses and public bodies to protect women-only spaces.