Maya Forstater

Yes I think that male people are not women. I dont think being a woman/female is a matter of identity or womanly feelings. It is biology. People of either sex should not be constrained (or discriminated against) if they dont conform to traditional gender expectations

this is really disappointing. trans women are women. In fact trans women face much more discrimination than cis women do, and we should be elevating their voices. (PS "biology" is as complex as economics and there is no use trying to apply high school bio to the real world.)

Many groups of people face more discrimination than women as a broad group. Elevating their voices does not require that we call all of those people 'women'. Smashing stereotypes is great. Erasing the category of female people is not.

trans women are particularly vulnerable women, and since the push to include women on panels is about supporting the voices of women as a group, and trans women's voices actually need particular support, we should be specifically championing their inclusion.

+1. Also, this quest for a definition of female is unhelpful. Any attempt to impose a neat, mutually exclusive definition or typology is doomed to failure. The real world is a messy spread: clusters of characteristics. Definitions are inadequate & thus pointless, in all things.

For those unfamiliar with this line of argument (that I wholeheartedly agree with), I like this thread as an introduction:https://twitter.com/ScienceVet2/status/1035246030500061184 …