Joanna Cherry

The SNP has a woman problem

(Getty Images)

John Swinney said this week the SNP doesn’t have a problem with women. I disagree. Of course, some of the unsung founders of the party were women. Some of the party’s strongest and most famous politicians have been women – from Winnie Ewing, Margo MacDonald and Nicola Sturgeon. Yet under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon, the rights of women in Scotland became conditional on their acceptance of gender identity theory.

While the legislation which sought to enshrine this notion in law was struck down by a Scottish court – which agreed with the Westminster government and feminist campaigners that the bill impinged on the rights of women under the Equality Act – the policy of self-identification has, by stealth, become embedded across Scotland’s public institutions and in Scotland’s governing party.

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Written by
Joanna Cherry

Joanna Cherry KC is the former SNP MP for Edinburgh South West and has previously served as the party's spokesperson for home affairs and justice. She returned to the Scottish bar this year.

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