This election is critical for keeping women safe.
On 25 March, New South Wales will elect a Government that will decide the fate of women for years to come.
Despite the hard won gains of the past, more than ever, women and girls are facing affronts to their rights, safety and dignity.
Let's not waste this opportunity.
Your help is crucial in ensuring NSW elects politicians who will put women first!
We are calling on all candidates in this NSW election to commit to women - and sign The Women's Pledge!
The Women’s Pledge
All over the world women and girls are being stripped of their sex-based rights and protections, as biological males are allowed to self-identify as female, and access their spaces, services, activities and opportunities.
This has far reaching implications for:
- Women’s safety. There are now countless stories of women being raped and sexually assaulted by men who identify as women in (what should be) female-only spaces like prisons, bathrooms and refuges. What’s more, such crimes are falsely being recorded as female crimes.
- Women’s sport. Allowing men who identify as women to compete in female sporting events jeopardises the physical safety of women and girls, fairness in competition, and the full range of opportunities afforded by sport (e.g. places on sports teams, awards, scholarships, career opportunities and more).
- Freedom of speech. Women who question the notion that men can identify as women and be treated as women for legal and policy purposes, are increasingly being subjected to vilification, legal action, loss of employment and other retribution and abuse.
- Accurate data collection. Sex aggregated data which is essential for informing public policy, funding allocation and the provision of services in the areas of health, crime, employment and so on is being recorded inaccurately.
NSW allows males to self-identify as women under various laws, policies and guidelines. It also allows the gender ideology which encourages this flawed approach to flourish.
We have seen this play out in Corrections NSW’s decision to house men who identify as women in women’s prisons. We have seen it in trans-identifying males being able to enter the ‘NSW Woman of the Year’ awards. We have seen it in a women’s legal service being evicted by the Sydney City Council and in women being vilified for challenging gender ideology. We have seen it in government gender training programs that attempt to erase the reality of biological sex.
Being able to accurately define what a ‘woman’ is and have this translated into laws and policies is fundamental to the rights, wellbeing and dignity of women and girls.
Women’s Forum Australia invites you to sign the pledge to stand with women, acknowledging that women and girls are biological females, and recognising that this must be upheld in laws, policies and practices in NSW.
As a candidate for election in the New South Wales parliament, and if elected I promise to:
- Definition of a woman: Commit to the definition of woman as a biological female.
- Women's spaces: Commit to keeping women's spaces exclusively for women. Bathrooms, refuges, prisons and all women's spaces are to be exclusive to biological females and protected from men identifying as women.
- Women's sport: Commit to keeping women's sports exclusively for women. All women's sporting grades are to be exclusive to biological females and protected from men identifying as women.
- Freedom of speech: Commit to protecting anyone who challenges gender ideology. Australians that question or speak against gender ideology will be protected from vilification, legal action and other forms of retribution.
- Data collection: Commit to ensuring reporting and data collection across NSW preserves the distinction between biological females and males.
New South Wales women are at risk this election.
Some politicians have already signalled their desire to undermine the safety of women and girls in favour of men who identify as women.
We risk losing women-only spaces, which are critical for the privacy, safety and dignity of women and girls, not to mention female-only sports and other activities.
The candidates you elect on 25 March will vote on these issues for the next four years!
That's why we are calling on all candidates to commit to the safety of women and girls by signing the Women's Pledge.