It's time for Rape Crisis Scotland to show they are on the side of women

Crazy as it may seem, the question at the heart of the breakdown of Scotland’s rape crisis network is “what is a woman?” A service whose first centre was opened by feminists in Glasgow in 1977 to provide support for women survivors of sexual violence has been riven for years by a row over gender-identity theory.

On one side are women who believe that women are adult human females, and that the vital service they offer should be for women only and provided by female-only staff. Nothing controversial there, you would think. After all, Scotland’s rape crisis movement was powered by feminist thought – that sexual violence is the ugliest manifestation of male power over women.

It made sense then that the support services for survivors were provided by women. From the outset, men – even the most empathetic, non-threatening of men – had no place in the rape crisis movement. Nor did they expect one.

‘Warrior for women’s rights’

Until, that is, the group of influential women who currently control Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS), the movement’s national body, deemed that the service should also be open to men who identify as women. Not only should such men be offered support if they are victims of male sexual violence, but they should be allowed to work in rape crisis centres as counsellors. Their position – that a man is a woman if he says he is – is supported, indeed encouraged, by the Scottish Government, the charity’s main funder, as well as leading politicians.

Mridul Wadhwa, born male but who identifies as a woman, became the face of this new intersectional rape crisis movement. Wadhwa rose through its ranks to to become chief executive of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) with the enthusiastic backing of Sandy Brindley, RCS’s chief executive. She variously described her colleague as an “amazing sister” and a “warrior for women’s rights”.

Rape crisis centres were developed by feminists in the 1970s to provide support for women survivors of sexual violence (Picture: Keystone/Hulton Archive) | Getty Images

A recent independent review thought differently, however. It was set up after an employment tribunal found that Roz Adams, a former ERCC employee, had been the victim of a “heresy hunt” at her work because she believed that women should get a female-only service. The review concluded that the chief executive had not acted professionally and Wadhwa was effectively forced to quit. The review also insisted that RCS should “facilitate a shared definition" of "women". As I write, Brindley and her team have still to agree what is a woman.

Glasgow Rape Crisis Centre breaks away

Earlier this week, the women who run the Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis Centre had had enough. They issued a statement severing their relationship with the national body. It read: "We were created to provide support by and for women. We believe, and women have consistently told us, that single-sex services delivered by an all-female workforce are crucial to help them heal from sexual trauma. This approach remains our priority but is at odds with Rape Crisis Scotland."

As Scotland’s rape crisis movement disintegrated, Brindley appeared on national television to insist that “trans women are women” – that is, a man who identifies as female is indeed a woman for the purposes of the network which she heads up. She also said that women survivors of sexual violence should be able to get single-sex services, but only “if that is what they need”.

Ms Brindley, have you not been listening these past few years? Single sex-services are indeed what women need – and want – at what is arguably the most vulnerable time of their lives. The rape crisis movement does not belong to you and your supporters who believe that human beings can change their sex.

It was set up by women with no money and no political support to provide services for female survivors of male sexual violence. It was, and remains, the most potent, practical symbol of feminism, of a woman’s right to have control over her body, her mind, her life. Scotland’s rape crisis movement belongs to the women of Scotland. Not one woman. Not any man. But to the women of Scotland.

Heavily disputed theory

My heart aches for any human being who has been raped. Male or female. Everyone should be able to access help when they need it. But surely the influential LGBTI charity, the Equality Network, and its partner Scottish Trans, could establish appropriate support services for people who identify as transgender. And the Scottish Government should be willing to fund them.

The Equality Network has been very successful over recent years at embedding gender identity theory across a whole range of public services, within civil society, the charity sector and government, to the detriment of women’s single-sex services, as the recent row shows. They should now focus their energies on providing practical support to the people they represent instead of forcing society to accept a heavily disputed theory. Wadhwa – who features on the front page of the Scottish Trans website – could offer guidance, and I am sure Brindley would be willing to volunteer her expertise.

Nearly 50 years after feminists set up the rape crisis movement, it is a matter of national shame that women survivors are asked to sacrifice their privacy so that a small group of men feel comfortable. It borders on abuse that women are forced to welcome men into a service whose founding principle was, and should remain, single sex. And we are all fed up being “kind” when our hard-won rights, based on our sex, are compromised.

Glasgow led the way when women there set up the country’s first rape crisis centre – or collective as it was back then. Today, a new generation of Glasgow women are leading the way when they say they are going to “hold fast” to their principles and maintain a single-sex service. It’s now up to the women who run Rape Crisis Scotland to show whose side they are on.