Ruth Lewis

Proofreader/editor who knows words and language matter. Woman who knows sex matters. MoMaB director and breastfeeding counsellor who knows bfing matters.

[Ruth Lewis @brupe]

@cwknews @BBCWomansHour I am one of those 6, now all ex-trustees. I had my accreditation as a breastfeeding counsellor taken from me for 'disparaging LLL' and talking to the press ^. I would be delighted to talk to @BBCWomansHour about the different ways supporting male lactation is a problem.

[Victoria Smith @glosswitch]

This doesn't seem to be about everyone having somewhere (which was already the case), but ensuring women have nowhere of their own

[TransgenderTrend @Transgendertrd]

This school had toilet blocks of cubicles with floor to ceiling doors with M or F signs, shared washbasins in the middle, open onto the corridor. This is exactly the set-up used by so many schools now.

Judgment: Indirect sex discrimination against female pupils.

[Akua Reindorf KC @akuareindorf]

I can tell you why it’s unworkable in your workplace.

It’s not about the workplace.

[Ruth Lewis @brupe]

Wtaf?!? 🤬

[Nimco Ali (OBE) @NimkoAli]

Glamour, the magazine who last year named 7 men “Women of the Year”, is now telling women that what matters when giving birth is what they’re wearing. Meanwhile, women are facing a real crisis in maternity care across the NHS. These people are Exhausting.

[REDUXX @reduxx]

UK: A trans activist has been jailed after issuing threats to slaughter female staff and students at three schools as revenge for the "oppression" of "trans women."

Most British news outlets did not include Darren Rigby's motives in their coverage.

READ: https://t.co/3xZV9ys4LM

[Róisín Michaux @RoisinMichaux]

Single-sex services for women are disappearing in Europe. Here's how it's being done:

There are two main ways via which single-sex spaces and services are slowly going extinct in Europe. The first one is, obviously, by allowing anyone to identify as the opposite sex. Once a male person is in a female-only space, let’s say a youth hostel dorm room for example, it is no longer a women-only dorm room. It is a mixed-sex dorm room. He may have had his nads removed, or he may even be wearing a dress covered in flowers. It is a mixed-sex dorm room once both males and females are allowed to sleep in it.

If you tried to get such a man out of the room, and return it to its status as a women-only space, you would be accused of discrimination against him on the basis of his gender identity (though depending on your legal jurisdiction, which in turn depends on the speed at which your country’s equality legislation is being transed, this may still be called discrimination on the basis of “gender” or even sex-via-gender reassignment, even if the “reassignment” involves nothing more than the flowery dress).

If a company, or service of any kind, tries to maintain a single-sex policy, they will likely have to battle it out in court as soon as a disgruntled transvestite sniffs out their heresy. And so in order to avoid being dragged to court by such men (and such women), companies and services are pre-empting legal action by just making everything mixed-sex, like the Germans are planning to do in new building regulations. Problem solved.

And while the end of women-only yoga classes might not bother you that much, there are some services that really (really really) need to remain sex-based, and they are underpinned by the same equality laws that are currently under threat.

First a little background: equal treatment laws are mandatory in EU countries. I can’t refuse to sell a man an ice cream from my ice cream van, just because he’s a man. You can’t refuse to polish a woman’s Fabergé egg because you only polish men’s Fabergé eggs.

Except, and this is crucial, sometimes you can discriminate on the basis of someone’s sex. And I bet you can guess what those circumstances are. It must be, as the TERF Islanders put it: “a proportionate means to achieve a legitimate aim”. This teeny tiny caveat, variously worded, carries the weight of women’s safety and dignity in public spaces and services in European countries. You can deny a man access to a women’s prison or rape crisis centre, and you can refuse to hire a man for a job in (for example) a residential care home if that job involves washing the intimate parts of delirious old ladies or intellectually disabled children (whose families can request female-only intimate care).

Do you know why a family of an old checked-out woman might wish for their mother’s genitals be tended to by someone female? You bet you do. Not All Men yadda yadda yadda. Save it for yer wife. Enough men are . that even gender-equal Scandinavian utopias can legally advertise for those jobs for women only. And men also have the right, for privacy reasons, to wish only to have men tend to their bits. And that’s utterly reasonable.

But by expanding equality protections to include men masquerading as women and vice-versa, the burden is on the management of such facilities to justify why they are excluding variously-identified people. The only country that has gone to court to establish in law that sex refers to biology, not identity, is the UK, but service providers eager to please noisy activists are ignoring it, leading to a bit of a crisis. Oh you’ve not read about this major policy issue in the newspaper, or seen a debate about it on the news? That’s not an accident.

Men stayed out of women’s spaces because both society and the law punished them if they did not. That norm is disappearing, and the law is disappearing — or being tortuously reinterpreted into nothingness — along with it.

[Naomi Cunningham @LoudBonnet]

A classic. "What the blazes..." 🧑‍🍳😘

[SurrogacyConcern @SurrogConcern]

Today a debate will take place in the House of Lords on fertility law.

We have been clear: the Law Commission's surrogacy plans would be disastrous for women and babies. We will fight this for as long as it takes.

Watch live here from around midday:
https://t.co/2fjghvhwY2

[Women's Rights Network - WRN @WomensRightsNet]

🥁 ANNOUNCEMENT 🥁

The speakers for the first ever Women’s Rights Network conference are confirmed … watch our short film to reveal the brilliant line-up…

Feminism: What’s The Point?
Date: Sunday 5 July
Central London
Tickets: click on the link in the next post…

[For Women Scotland @ForWomenScot]

Fantastic read from @PaulKnaggs
"the political damage...is measured in every working-class woman who watches Labour MPs sign a motion against the legal clarity she has waited years for, and draws the obvious conclusion. It is measured in every constituency where the word ‘Labour’ no longer carries the meaning it was intended to carry. The party that was built to represent the interests of those with the least power in society has, on this question, positioned itself against the sex-based protections of half the population."
https://t.co/iE0WyJcxBU via @Labourheartland

[Ruth Lewis @brupe]

Spot on from @lexington1920 of @WombsNotForRent in @spikedonline
Pregnancy and birth carries risks to women; they are considerably more for women who are surrogate mothers.
https://t.co/Tld7Hj2Q6Z

[Ruth Lewis @brupe]

@SurrogConcern @WRNDerbyshire @MoMaBfing Thank you!

[Ruth Lewis @brupe]

👇 When the language used to talk about these things isn't clear and words are not used with their clear universally understood meaning, it harms mothers & babies.
We know this but we need research to show it because it's coming from academia.
https://t.co/ft4qNfU0LD
Please sign

[WRN Derbyshire & Staffordshire @WRNDerbyshire]

'Skin to skin is NOT for the "parent" & child, but for the "MOTHER" & child'

Ruth Lewis @MoMaBfing Live at the Derby Women's Festival in May 2026 - Full discussion on our free substack

https://t.co/lOrGB4CuYE

[For Women Scotland @ForWomenScot]

I really think that MPs should not lie about the difference between statutory guidance and law.

Or alternatively, they should not be so stupid that they fail to understand how legislation works.

[Ruby Mouse @RubyMouse3]

As a disabled woman, you don't speak for me. If I need to undress, I do not want to share that space with a male. If I request same sex intimate care support, I do not want a man to provide it. Disabled women deserve dignity and privacy.

[Ruth Lewis @brupe]

😂 Brilliant 👏👏👏

[Zoë Nope (TERF BUNNY ONE 🐰) @ZoeNope]

Good morning,

I hope you’re all well.

Someone gave me an idea last night & a dramatic re-enactment of recent events revolving around the Fire Brigades Union appeared!

It’s authentic & has the (now spiced up) musical interlude!

I hope it brings some much needed laughs.

Enjoy!

[EHRC @EHRC]

Our draft Code of Practice helps providers of services, public functions and associations apply the Equality Act 2010. It doesn't apply to workplaces; employers should consult the Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regs 1992, the Equality Act, and seek independent legal advice.

[Audrey Ludwig MBE @AudreySuffolk]

I would like to set the supporters of this Early Day Motion an exam to check they understand legally what they are advocating for and against? https://t.co/KSqd4ERXFK

[SEEN in Health @SEENinHealth]

This statement is a disgrace.
The “hard won rights” being referenced were women’s rights — fought for, secured, and protected in law. And over the last decade, those rights have been stripped away, repackaged, and redistributed as if women’s boundaries were negotiable.
This is not inclusivity @fbunational, it’s exclusivity.
We stand with every woman who has been told to stay quiet while her rights were dismantled. We will not accept the rewriting of history or the reframing of women’s protections as a threat to others.

[Lisa Mackenzie @lnmackenzie1]

This is the perfect illustration of why collecting accurate data on sex matters. It’s the difference between 63% of new BME MSPs being female and 37% of new BME MSPs being female.