Invitation to the launch of The Women Who Wouldn't Wheest
Join us on Wednesday 5 June
It’s less than a week until The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht is published (30 May) and on Wednesday 5 June, Europe’s biggest grassroots feminist organisation FiLia will host the online book launch. Get your FREE tickets here
The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht has been an absolute joy to work on. Right from the start, Lucy and I we were determined that women in Scotland should be the first to tell the story, in their own words, of what happened when they stood up to a civic and political establishment hell-bent on removing the recognition that sex matters in language, policy and law. Contributors include author JK Rowling, Joanna Cherry MP and Rhona Hotchkiss, a former prison governor.
The women’s stories are focused on the period leading to Nicola Sturgeon’s surprise resignation in February 2023. But events since then have not stood still.
While the book was at the printers, Sturgeon’s chosen successor as First Minister, Humza Yousaf resigned, provoked not least by the Scottish Greens’ - his coalition partners - dismissal of the Cass Review report
And only a few days after the book was announced the landmark judgment in Roz Adams’ employment tribunal, exposed how Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre had come to prioritise beliefs “at the extreme end of gender identity theory” over the needs of women survivors.
In a couple of rare public appearances, one where she was interviewed by transgender activist Juno Dawson, Nicola Sturgeon has tried to reinvent herself as an advocate of “civil discourse”, while conceding for the first time that her handling of gender recognition reform contributed to her decision to resign.
And now a UK General Election has been announced. So with all eyes on Westminster, politicians urgently need to learn from the experience of Scotland. They could start by reading The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht.
We hope you will be able to join us on 5 June, where Lucy and I will be joined by some of the book’s contributors to reflect on the last five years, and where women’s rights may be headed.