https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/equal-treatment-bench-book-february2018-v5-02mar18.pdf

Women remain disadvantaged in many public and private areas of their life; they are under-represented in the judiciary, in parliament and in senior positions across a range of jobs; and there is still a substantial pay gap between men and women.

Stereotypes and assumptions about women’s lives can lead to unlawful discrimination.

...

Of course, men can suffer from gender discrimination too. This chapter reflects the reality that this is rarer.

Would you like to see the only mention of discrimination against men being mentioned?

Using acceptable terminology avoids offending parties and witnesses and gives them confidence they will receive a fair hearing. For example:

• Adult women should not be referred to as ‘girls’.

• Women should be asked whether they wish to be called ‘Ms’ or ‘Mrs’, and it should not be assumed that ‘Ms’ equates with ‘Miss’.

• An unidentified person, eg a doctor, manager or judge, should not be automatically referred to as ‘he’ (nor, in a female dominated profession, referred to as ‘she’).

Don't refer to a generic nurse as "she". That's it. That's the only mention of discrimination against men in the gender section. There is considerably more coverage of discrimination against women from minorities relative to white women, even though it's the gender section.

Otherwise, it's all about supposed discrimination against women. Most of it is the same claims debunked by Phillip Davies years ago, there are a couple of things that might indicate actual discrimination against women, but those are unsourced claims, so I can't check.

The bigger problem is the total lack of concern for discrimination against men. Things like this:

The UK has one of the highest rates of women’s imprisonment in Western Europe. Both gender and ethnicity have an impact on sentencing decisions and outcomes. Black women are about 25% more likely than white women to be sentenced to custody at Crown Court, especially in relation to certain offences.

I mean, it's true. There's something lacking, though, which is thta men are much more likely to be imprisoned than women. This is the section on gender discrimination, and they're comparing women to women in other countries and women of other races. Is there a gender you might be forgetting here?

Women are also more likely than men to be remanded in custody and then not receive a custodial sentence.

This is one of the things Phillip Davies brought up in parliament, the fact is that women are just less likely to receive custodial sentences. That's discrimination in favour of women. It's not that women are more likely to be remanded.

The book covers a lot of factors, but all about women. The racial angle is completely legit, but why are they only talking about women? Gender is not a synonym for women.

And it's not just race, they cover parenthood, deprivation, previous victimisation, everything that can contribute to women becoming criminals, or to different impacts of imprisonment, or to chances of rehabilitation. All good points, all just as applicable to men, but men don't get mentioned.

  1. Baroness Hale DBE said in her 2005 Longford Trust Lecture: ‘It is now well recognised that a misplaced conception of equality has resulted in some very unequal treatment for the women and girls who appear before the criminal justice system. Simply put, a male-ordered world has applied to them its perceptions of the appropriate treatment for male offenders.... The criminal justice system could ... ask itself whether it is indeed unjust to women.’

  2. As is stated in the Introduction to this Bench Book, true equal treatment may not always mean treating everyone in the same way. Treating people fairly requires awareness and understanding of their different circumstances, so that that steps

Gender Equal Treatment Bench Book  February 2018 6-17

Bangkok Rules:

Guidelines and standards for the treatment of women offenders

  1. The following guidelines and standards apply:

• United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and non- Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (The Bangkok Rules).

• The Prison Service ‘Gender Specific Standards’ provide guidance on the various stages of custody and consider the needs of different women – such as young and older women, BAME women, foreign national women, women with disabilities, women serving a life sentence and women with children.

• The public sector gender equality duty applies to prisons, probation services and court staff.

Equality isn't equality.