In a stunning victory for the campaign against gender segregation in British universities, Universities UK has now dropped its controversial guidelines which would have allowed visiting speakers to segregate students on the basis of their gender.
In a stunning victory for the Campaign Against Gender Segregation in universities, Universities UK has dropped controversial guidelines which would have allowed visiting speakers to segregate students on the basis of their gender.
After our protest on Tuesday, followed by interventions by the Prime Minister David Cameron and shadow business secretary Chuka Ummuna, Universities UK has now said it will review the controversial guidelines.
As the Guardian reports:
Universities UK said a controversial case study setting out the guidance was being withdrawn while it reviewed its stance, but insisted the legal position remained unclear on whether the voluntary separation of men and women could be allowed at events such as lectures on Islam by visiting speakers.
Cameron’s spokesman had earlier said Universities UK should urgently review the guidance.
His intervention followed comments by the education secretary, Michael Gove, who accused the body that represents universities of “pandering to extremists”.
As we reported earlier, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) released a statement saying that segregation as proposed by the vice-chancellors’ body was “not permissible” under existing equality laws.
This was followed by a statement from David Cameron saying “He does not believe that guest speakers should be allowed to address segregated audiences, so he believes that Universities UK should urgently review its guidance.”
Everyone involved in the campaign should congratulate themselves for all their hard work and remain vigilant: Universities UK has said it is going to “clarify” the guidance. It’s important to see precisely what that means before celebrating.
Well done, all the same.
Here, again, is why we were protesting against the guidelines. And again, from the Campaign Against Gender Segregation in British Universities.
12 Responses to “Gender segregation guidelines withdrawn by Universities UK”
swatnan
The problem is in the word ‘voluntary’; there’s little you can do if people want to deny themselves their freedoms. Or is there? If yoiu consider they’ve been conditioned and brainwashed in a certain way of thinking through years of up bringing and what a ‘holy book’ says. We have to take a stand and say enough is enough.
David
Ayatollahs came to per in Iran in 1979. The first thing they introduced was the segregation of students at universities under sharia law. Remember, devil manifest itself in many ways… through solidarity and vigilance we can maintain our freedom. The very person who demands a segregated audience should not be given any platform to air his primitive and rotten opinion.
ThisIsTheEnd
Don’t understand this “What about single sex schools” argument which pro-segregation advocates use. There is no segregation WITHIN a single sex school. The debate is about segregation within a mixed gender environment. Another illustration of the weakness of segregation/apartheid arguments
Aaron Aarons
Although I’m no expert on the education systems in the U.K., I find it hard to believe that “nobody has ever had a problem with” “single-sex grammar schools that have been producing the country’s top students for hundreds of years”, especially given that, for most of that time, they produced mainly males to take their place in the in the management for the capitalist class of Britain and the Empire.
Aaron Aarons
I would think that “the politically correct brigade” are those, like me and like most of the writers here, who oppose allowing speakers, sponsoring groups, or university officials to impose gender segregation on an audience. Opposition to persecution of Muslims, Christians, Jews, or whatever for their beliefs or their group identification does not mean letting them impose their practices on society or to use public resources to engage in those practices.