Review of 'Losing sight of women's rights: the unregulated introduction of gender self-identification as a case study of policy capture in Scotland'

Reviewer: arnab kumar banerjee

Publication date of review: 2021-05-02

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arnab kumar banerjee2

Losing sight of women's rights: the unregulated introduction of gender self-identification as a case study of policy capture in ScotlandCrossref ScienceOpen

one side story of gender self declaration in scotland.

Average rating:	    Rated 2 of 5.
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Level of validity:	    Rated 1 of 5.
Level of completeness:	    Rated 2 of 5.
Level of comprehensibility:	    Rated 3 of 5.
Competing interests:	None

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Losing sight of women's rights: the unregulated introduction of gender self-identification as a case study of policy capture in Scotland

Kath Murray, Lucy Hunter Blackburn (2019)

Within the last two years, respective proposals by the Scottish and UK Governments to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA) to allow people to change their legal sex based only on making a legally-registered self-declaration have sparked an intense debate on how sex and gender identity should be defined in law and policy. This paper examines how gender self-identification had in fact become a feature of Scottish policy-making and practice, long before public consultation on GRA reform began. The analysis is structured as two case-studies that examine firstly, policy development on the census in relation to the ‘sex’ question, and second, Scottish Prison Service policy on transgender prisoners. The analysis shows that the unregulated roll-out of gender self-identification in Scotland has taken place with weak or non-existent scrutiny and a lack of due process, and that this relates to a process of policy capture, whereby decision-making on sex and gender identity issues has been directed towards the interests of a specific interest group, without due regard for other affected groups or the wider population. The paper raises questions about the adequacy of institutional safeguards against well-organised and highly purposeful lobbying, particularly where any groups detrimentally affected do not have effective representation.

0 comments Cited 15 times     Rated -3 of 5. – based on 1 reviews

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The subject is gender self identification. This topic only affects scotland. So this is not an impactful topic since its reach only is confined to scotland.

The methodology is case study method. It is one of qualitative research method.

The finding is the arbitraryness in policymaking or policy capture in scotland.

First of all in the background of gender self declaration one important law is missing. That is gender recognition act 2004. only equality act 2010 is mentioned many times. This is a serious fault because it shows only one side of the story.

The findings shows that the policymaking is arbitrary but many attempts of governments regarding gender self declaration by government of scotland is found. Even cabinet secretary of scotland issued statement on gender recognition.

Source : https://www.gov.scot/publications/statement-gender-recognition/

scottish government ran new consultations before updating gender laws. The Scottish government has postponed a planned update of gender recognition laws after concluding that it had failed to address concerns about the impact of its proposals. The government is that much careful in drafting gender related law.

Source : https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/20/scotland-to-run-new-consultations-before-updating-gender-law

professor alex sharpe published an article stating that gender self identification would not undermine woman’s right. That article or points from that article are not shown here. This article is also very relevant to this topic.

Source : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-2230.12507

these laws and studies and moves by scottish government must be mentioned here to present a whole picture. But lack of them affects the validity of this study. This is a one side story.

Reference is also one sided since none of these facts are ever mentioned or countered. Reference comes from google scholar, govt. Site, bbc news an other sites giving credibility to the one side story: i mean the side which is shown here. So it is incomplete.

The article is somehow comprehensive as far as logical arrangement of structre is concerned.

Review of 'Losing sight of women's rights: the unregulated introduction of gender self-identification as a case study of policy capture in Scotland'

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Losing sight of women's rights: the unregulated introduction of gender self-identification as a case study of policy capture in Scotland

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