Financial watchdog ditches gender self-ID plans

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has abandoned plans to force radical gender ideology on UK companies following a backlash.

Last year, it told hundreds of businesses listed on the London Stock Exchange they should include men who say they are females as women in their annual workforce returns.

But after hundreds of respondents complained about the controversial rule change, the FCA backtracked and removed the ‘self-identification’ guidance.

Backlash

The original FCA proposals recommended that at least 40 per cent of relevant company and executive board committee members, and at least one board position, should be occupied by women – “including those self-identifying as women”.

Of the 540 responses to its consultation on the rule changes, 439 focused solely on the representation of women among senior staff in big businesses, with 438 expressing opposition to the inclusion of men who self-identify as women in company returns.

According to the FCA, respondents argued targets “based on self-identified gender could lead to more men by sex on boards”, undermining “the stated purpose of the proposals to improve diversity” and pointed out that the policy would be contrary to equalities legislation.

Definition

Maya Forstater, Executive Director of women’s group Sex Matters, said: “The FCA was wise to allow companies to report straightforwardly on the proportion of male and female members of its board, in line with the Equality Act and the Companies Act”.

She added: “It is not for the financial regulator to redefine what ‘man’ and ‘woman’ mean.”

The FCA is currently ranked among the top 100 employers in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index – an annual listing of the top 100 LGBT ‘inclusive’ workplaces.

Stonewall has been widely criticised for wrongly claiming that equality law requires employers to embrace radical gender ideology.