Domestic abuse charity allows ‘men who identify as women’ to apply for female-only job

Clare Blom, of the group Women Won’t Wheesht, said they had written to DWA earlier this year to complain and it had changed its practices.

She said: “It is unconscionable that SWA – yet another organisation funded by the Scottish Government – have learnt nothing from their colleagues in Dundee and are gaslighting and lying to their service users by pretending that only women are employed in their ‘women-only’ roles.

“We are deeply disappointed by this wanton disregard for women’s privacy, safety and dignity, not to mention their profound lack of understanding of anti-discriminatory legislation.”

The job advert said the head of policy post was a “key member” of the senior leadership team and would “identify, shape and develop policy priorities”.

It said the successful applicant would be responsible for “leading a diverse range of policy areas and levers for change to end domestic abuse and violence against women and girls in Scotland”.

‘Heresay hunt’

The role also included submitting consultation responses to the government, researching and writing briefings and preparing for SWA to provide evidence in parliament. The Edinburgh-based post has a salary between £41,026 and £47,078.

Applications will be accepted from “women only under Schedule 9, part 1 of the Equality Act 2010”, the advert said.

But it continued that “all women, including women with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, may apply for women-only roles”. SWA declined to comment.

An employment tribunal ruled in May that a transgender woman who heads a Scottish rape charity presided over a “heresy hunt” against a former worker who held gender-critical beliefs.

Roz Adams won her constructive dismissal action against Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC), with the tribunal finding she was harassed and discriminated against over her belief that biological sex is “immutable”.

Mridhul Wadhwa, a trans woman who is the ERCC chief executive, was found to have played a key role in an investigation of Ms Adams that was found to be “somewhat reminiscent of the work of Franz Kafka”.