We have become used to the erosion of academic freedom in the humanities and social sciences. It is no longer surprising to find that a Gender Studies department holds the institutional view that it is racist and colonialist to say that sex is binary, or promotes a student essay which fantasises about holding a knife to the throat of gender-critical women.
But attacks on academic freedom are not restricted to gender studies and anthropology departments anymore. Academics in all fields are now under pressure to conform to fashionable theories on gender and race. Indeed, science-focused institutions can, paradoxically, be especially susceptible to this, because of their lack of expertise when it comes to social issues.
There is a tension between EDI policies and scientific values across higher education
Imperial College London, which specialises in science, engineering, medicine and business, is a case in point. Through their equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) web pages, they urge staff to be LGBTQ+ allies. The word ‘ally’ is carefully chosen for plausible deniability (what kind of monster wouldn’t want to be an ally to a marginalised community?). But in reality what is being promoted is uncritical allyship with Stonewall, who are mentioned ten times on just one page. This is not subtle: staff are even encouraged to donate to Stonewall.
Even the most senior staff at Imperial seem afraid of expressing opposing views. In 2019, an LGBT allyship network organised a letter criticising professor Simone Buitendijk, then Vice Provost of Education, for the crime of liking and linking to ‘transphobic’ material on Twitter. This included ‘a good piece on gender self-identification and women’s rights’ in The Spectator. After meeting with professor Stephen Curry, Imperial’s Vice Provost (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) Buitendijk issued an abject apology, stating ‘I now realise that social media is not the correct forum for such sensitive debates.’
Buitendijk’s research expertise includes women’s health and diversity in education. The LGBT allyship network opposed her even following academically relevant Twitter accounts they disapproved of. If a Vice Provost can be censored in this way, how will a junior medic ever feel safe questioning practices such as the transitioning of children?
Some of Imperial’s allyship advice is merely comical: ‘Offer to accompany a trans or non-binary person to the bathroom, so they do not have to face any potential transphobia alone.’ However, most of it appears to be carefully designed to promote Stonewall’s political agenda and to suppress any dissent from this view. For example, transphobia is defined as ‘denying [someone’s] gender identity or refusing to accept it.’ Since ‘the College has a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of transphobia’ this arguably discriminates against staff who hold the protected belief that sex is binary. Their allyship advice also includes wearing rainbow lanyards, telling people your pronouns in introductions, and calling out ‘transphobic’ comments. While it is claimed that these measures will create an ‘environment where more people feel safe and comfortable to be themselves,’ they seem better designed to create an environment where nobody dares express gender-critical views.
Imperial provide similar advice on being a white ally. This includes a video explaining that all white people are complicit in racism, and that pointing to black friends and partners as evidence you are not racist simply illustrates ‘white fragility’. Staff are encouraged to donate to Black Lives Matter in the US and instructed, ‘if you have friends or family who take a different stance on these issues… have a hard conversation with them and ask them to rethink their views.’
Imperial’s atmosphere is further chilled by the promotions process which requires all staff to complete a statement of how they have supported EDI.
Academics need to be able to discuss EDI matters without fear, because there are issues that need to be addressed. Only 18.3 per cent of professors at Imperial are female. Female staff should be free to ask if eliminating single-sex spaces is the right policy for them. Imperial have approximately five times as many black staff members working in professional services as they have in academic roles. Lecturers should be allowed to question whether decolonising the curriculum will help with this, and, indeed, whether the science curriculum requires decolonisation at all.
There is a tension between EDI policies and scientific values across higher education. This is because university EDI policy is now largely derived from the demands of three external ranking schemes: the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index, the Race Equality Charter and the Athena Swan Charter. These schemes incentivise universities to focus on what external assessors want, rather than considering for themselves what is best for their staff and students. These schemes are a perfect tool for activists to influence university policy, and they have encouraged the spread of a number of disturbing policies.
For example, the Stonewall scheme asks: ‘Does the organisation have a formal programme or initiative to engage all non-LGBT employees to become LGBT allies?’ and ‘Does the organisation proactively recognise contributions to LGBT inclusion activity during employee performance appraisals?’
The correct answer to both these questions should be: ‘No. That would be improper.’ But clearly Imperial has instead jumped in with both feet.
Scientists may be particularly prone to accepting such poor advice. Those who have not studied the anti-scientific philosophies of queer theory and critical race theory may not feel equipped to debunk them. Scientists may also be unaware that social-science expertise is typically open to debate, and that sometimes a gender-studies professor might say things about sex and gender which are not true.
Scientists now need to accept that they have been badly advised. We must wrest control of EDI from the hands of activists. It is time to make academic freedom and empirical evidence the central pillars of our equalities work.
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