RapeCrisis Scotland / Facebook (Left), Edinburgh RapeCrisis / Facebook (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) has abandoned its commitment to define the term “woman,” despite an independent review finding that its radical gender policies have harmed survivors.
The organization, which receives over £3 million in government funding each year, initially pledged to define “woman” after an expert review found that the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC)’s radical gender ideology had harmed survivors and failed to protect women-only spaces.
After conducting the review, Chartered Quality Professional Vicky Ling recommended that RCS clearly define “woman” and “female” to prevent further harm to survivors. However, after a year of deliberation, RCS’s document states: “When we use ‘woman’, we mean anyone who self-identifies as a woman.”
RCS plans to instead provide “dedicated spaces” in rape crisis centers for “women born as women” while also allowing men who say they are women in other areas of the center, GB News reported.
According to GB News, the independent review was commissioned after the tribunal ruled that ERCC had been operating under an “extreme” gender ideology during the leadership of Mridul Wadhwa, a man who says he is a woman.
Wadhwa claimed in 2021 that “bigoted” rape survivors uncomfortable with biological males in women’s spaces should expect to be “challenged on [their] prejudices.” Wadhwa resigned following Ling’s review.
The independent review also found that former ERCC staff member Roz Adams was forced out of the ERCC for pushing for clarity on how to respond to rape survivors who asked if a support worker was a man or a woman.
Meanwhile, a male sexual predator with a documented hostility toward women claimed to have “received extensive support” from the ERCC, The Telegraph reported.
Nathan Downing was convicted on 10 charges, including assault, sexual assault, and domestic abuse against both male and female victims. An assessment determined he was “at high risk” of reoffending and identified concerning traits such as hostility toward women, lack of empathy, sexual preoccupation, and deviant sexual preferences.
Scottish Tory Shadow Minister for Equalities Tess White claimed that the RCS’s decision has caused women to be “once again been let down by an organisation that is supposed to support them.”
She said, “It is unacceptable that RCS still cannot give women reassurance that they will be able to access single-sex spaces at these centres.”
