Naomi Passman

@NaomiPassman

Naomi is a solicitor with experience in both the private and public sector and has practised in public law including human rights. As a head of an in-house team of lawyers in local government and as deputy director in the Government Legal Service, she has gained extensive leadership experience. 

In the course of her career she has seen how negative stereotypes about women and lack of appropriate support have limited our careers and harmed us in practical and psychological ways. For many years she was the chair of a small local charity running a refuge and outreach service for women experiencing domestic abuse. This experience has given her an understanding of the corrosive effect of male violence on women’s lives and how ingrained it is in our society. 

She is one of the co-chairs and founders of the Sex Equality and Equity Network in the Civil Service. It is there to support those who believe that sex matters for many purposes at work, to fight the discrimination and vilification faced by those of us who believe that and to work towards ensuring that Civil Service workforce policies protect our rights.

“If we cannot accurately define what being a woman is, we cannot begin to provide the services that women and their children need. But more importantly, if we do not speak the truth on this matter, then we open the door to a world where deceptions of all kinds go unchallenged and truth loses all meaning. This can only lead to the disintegration of our democratic freedoms.”