Sign up
Donate

Where sex matters | Universities

Universities

Universities are creating an intimidating and hostile environment for staff and students who recognise that sex matters. They are not only being denied freedom of expression, but also suffering harassment and discrimination.

Photo of students taking notes by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels

The Reindorf Review and the Forstater case confirmed that it is unlawful to persecute university staff or students because of their beliefs about sex and gender. University leaders should be seeking to rebuild cultures of academic freedom and legal compliance. But it has become clear that many lack the courage or capacity to address the issue. 

What’s the problem? 

Almost all universities in the UK are members of the Stonewall Champions Scheme, and have shown that they will continue to discriminate against academics and students who uphold a distinction between sex and gender.

Academics are being targetted with bullying, harassment and no-platforming at universities across the UK (Sex Matters keeps a database of reports in the media). Many other cases have been reported in the public domain. 

October 2018: The Guardian published a letter from a network of more than 100 academics, most in UK universities, concerned about proposed government reforms to the Gender Recognition Act, and their interaction with the Equality Act.

May 2019: Imperial College London’s vice-provost apologised for liking tweets by the organisation Transgender Trend. 

April 2021: The LSE took no public action when it emerged that a department had promoted a student essay which fantasised about stabbing “TERFs”.

May 2021: Barrister Akua Reindorf’s review of no-platforming at the University of Essex highlighted a culture of fear, policies that violated the Equality Act, and institutionalised discrimination and intimidation by ‘trans rights activists’ within the LGBT group of the university. This should have been a wake-up call for university leadership…

July 2021: Instead, the Vice-Chancellor of Essex issued an extraordinary apology for releasing the review during Pride Month and to “anyone having been made to feel unsafe as a result of the review.” 

October 2021: Protests against Professor Kathleen Stock by a group of students at Sussex University attracted attention to a long-term campaign against her. Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), described the anonymous attacks on Professor Stock and the campaign to have her fired as “disgraceful”. Later that month, she resigned.

There have been several open letters in support of Professor Stock, one by philosophers, one by legal academics. 

In October 2021, Sex Matters co-ordinated a letter calling on the EHRC to undertake a review of policies and practices in UK universities that impose a radical gender orthodoxy, and fail to protect those who recognise that sex is a real and important from bullying and harassment. The responses to that letter concerned us.

February 2022: PhD student Raquel Rosario-Sánchez launched a civil action against Bristol University, saying bosses did not tackle transactivists who subjected her to a two-year “hate campaign”.

Updates

  • Sex Matters at the Battle of Ideas

    Sex Matters at the Battle of Ideas

    The three Sex Matters directors, Fiona McAnena, Maya Forstater and Helen Joyce, all spoke at the Battle of Ideas on Saturday 19th October. This is what they said.  Fiona McAnena: “Gender Wars: no end in sight?” I’m going to talk about three things: The first female driver of a...

    25th October 2024

  • This is a message to all universities: you cannot stand back and allow gender critical academics to be hounded out of their jobs.

    The Jo Phoenix case should be a wake-up call for universities

    In 2019 Professor Jo Phoenix became the target of a campaign of harassment from her colleagues at the Open University (OU) after she raised concerns about the silencing of gender-critical voices in academia. This ramped up in 2021 after she co-founded an academic research network for the rigorous exploration...

    16th May 2024

  • Academics who reject trans ideology face unlawful discrimination

    Legal opinion says promotion policy discriminates on basis of gender-critical beliefs

    Earlier this year Sex Matters was approached by Dr John Armstrong, a reader in mathematics at King’s College London (KCL). Dr Armstrong was applying for promotion, but was concerned that the “EDI” (equality, diversity and inclusion) section of the application, which required applicants to demonstrate their commitment to ideas...

    20th April 2024

  • WPUK Education for Women's Liberation

    Sex Matters at the Education for Women’s Liberation conference

    UCL Women’s Liberation SIG and WPUK Saturday 4th February 9am to 10pm Institute of Education UCL, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL Come and see us at the Women’s Liberation 2023 conference! Visit the Sex Matters stall Pick up petition cards and postcards for Sex Matters campaigns. Meet Maya, Helen and...

    2nd February 2023

  • UCAS’s plan will make this already bad situation worse.

    Why we have written to UCAS about data

    The latest attempt to destroy data on sex by replacing it with data on self-declared “gender identity” is in the higher-education system. The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the national undergraduate admissions service that acts as gatekeeper to all university places, is planning to change an already-flawed question...

    7th December 2022

  • What happens when speech is silenced.

    Helen Joyce speaks at Caius College

    On 25th October 2022, Sex Matters’ Director of Advocacy Helen Joyce spoke at an event at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, entitled “Criticising gender-identity ideology: what happens when speech is silenced”. This page documents the events surrounding the talk. Criticising gender-identity ideology: what happens when speech is silenced...

    15th November 2022

  • Compromises that destroy the human rights of one group are unfair. Solutions are needed that respect everyone’s rights.

    Trans rights are human rights!

    Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation. We believe that universal human rights form a powerful framework for thinking about how a diversity of freedoms can be respected, while protecting against harm and maintaining an open and prosperous society.  It is sometimes argued that those who call for clarity on...

    9th November 2022

  • Open letter to Minouche Shafik of the LSE

    Members of the Open University Gender Critical Research Network have written to Baroness Minouche Shafik, Director of the London School of Economics, to ask for an independent review into the LSE’s Department of Gender Studies. Sex Matters joins them in calling on the LSE to launch an independent investigation...

    6th November 2022

  • Interpreting the law canbe hard – we've made it easy for you

    Sex and the law – share our short guide

    What does intersex mean? Are you allowed to mention someone’s sex if they don’t want you to? Has someone with a gender recognition certificate changed their sex? Do you have the right to privacy when you’re taking your clothes off? Is it discrimination to keep male people out of...

    4th August 2022

  • Information Commissioner strikes down secrecy of Stonewall scheme

    The Information Commissioner has ordered the University of Oxford to disclose the scores and feedback it received from Stonewall as part of the lobby group’s controversial Workplace Equality Index scheme.  Following a Freedom of Information appeal undertaken as part of the “Don’t Submit to Stonewall” campaign initiated by Legal...

    1st July 2022

  • Good ideas that address complex issues are not handed down to us on stone tablets. Good ideas need time, space and the application of intelligence to be formed.

    Reading University VC speaks up for academic freedom

    On 25 April 2022 Dr Holly Lawford-Smith, of the University of Melbourne, gave a seminar at Reading University’s school of law. She analysed Australia’s recent legislation banning conversion therapy, and questioned the rationale for including gender identity alongside sexual orientation. “We champion freedom of expression but…” When local LGBTQ+ organisations learnt...

    23rd May 2022

  • What does it take to get into Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index?

    Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index (WEI) has had a revamp, with new “gold”, “silver” and “bronze” awards. Are these medals anything to be proud of?

    25th February 2022

  • The Insolvency Service is the latest organisation to leave Stonewall

    Government organisation leaves Stonewall over concerns about impartiality and cost

    The government’s Insolvency Service is the latest organisation to leave Stonewall, stating in its internal communications: “Unfortunately, there are concerns around impartiality and upon review, we found that the contract did not represent value for money.” The Insolvency Service joins a growing list of companies and organisations who have...

    10th February 2022

  • “Should UCL subscribe to programmes and submit to an evaluation scheme that are politically and ideologically contested?”

    Why UCL decided to leave Stonewall

    UCL (University College London) has published the documents about its decision not to re-join Stonewall.

    1st February 2022

  • Exposing disinformation about Kathleen Stock

    The intensification of targeting of Professor Kathleen Stock attracted public attention to the long-term campaign against her, and to the larger issue of academic freedom. Claims have been circulating which seek to discredit her and those who support her. We assess each one.

    25th October 2021

  • A concerning response to the academics’ letter

    Signatories to our letter addressed to Baroness Kishwer Falkner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission have received correspondence criticising their decision to sign it, some of which we consider coercive, threatening or discriminatory.

    23rd October 2021

  • Academics write to the EHRC

    In the face of ongoing harassment and discrimination against university staff and students because of their beliefs on sex and gender 240 academics have written to Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chair of the EHRC asking for the EHRC to undertake a “Reindorf Review” for the higher education sector. Download the...

    16th October 2021

  • "I hold a knife to your throat"

    Gender studies and sexualised threats

    Students of Gender Studies at the London School of Economics are taught to view sexualised threats against women in public life (if dressed up in the language of “queer”) as something to applaud.

    26th July 2021

  • Cover of the report: Leadership Starts with the Law

    The Reindorf Review: a wake-up call for universities

    In May 2021 the University of Essex published a review by barrister Akua Reindorf concerning the “deplatforming” of two academics because of their “gender critical” views. The university apologised to the two academics and is working to remedy the deeply concerning issues raised by the review. Sex Matters has...

    23rd June 2021

  • Oxford’s submission to Stonewall

    We are pleased to announce that Michael Biggs, Associate Professor of Sociology at St Cross College, Oxford University, is joining the Sex Matters Board of Directors. Professor Biggs has written this post, as well as a letter to Professor Louise Richardson, Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford, calling...

    6th June 2021

  • The Gender Wars, Academic Freedom and Education

    Guest blog post by Professors Alice Sullivan and Judith Suissa

    25th March 2021

  • Huddersfield University apologises for “transphobic tweets” investigation

    Huddersfield university has been forced to apologise and pay compensation to a PhD student after they subjected him to a lengthy disciplinary investigation over “transphobic” tweets. The University investigated Jonny Best for six months after a fellow student made an anonymous complaint about things he had written online. Best,...

    7th March 2021

Other resources

Publications