What a Week!

Mid afternoon, Monday, 22 January. I received the text from my solicitor. She wrote “Jo, the judgement is in. We won.” I was in my kitchen and in a terrible state with Covid. I grabbed the counter and cried. And whooped. I called my partner and said “we won”. I rang family members, my closest friend and then Prof Sarah Earle. They all reacted as I did - disbelief, shock, relief then utter elation.

Then a call with Annie Powell (my solicitor). We talked about a press release. I said that I was keen to do what I did in the summer of 2021 – tweet about it. It seemed fitting given that we launched the OUGCRN with a tweet. And so, a quickly scribbled four tweets thread was written. I posted it – realising two hours later that – in what was probably the most important tweets of my life – I had, yet again, failed to proofread it!

My feet have hardly touched the ground this week. There has been enormous media interest. This week has been a week of constant messages of support and congratulations. Our front room is a riot of bouquets of flowers mostly in green, purple and white sent from friends and family and supporters

Sunday, today, is the first time I have had a chance is sit and write a proper update. So here are a few thoughts and my heartfelt thank yous.

The Open University

The Open University is not like any other university in the world. It was the brain child of Labour PM, Harold Wilson in 1963 and was “designed to provide an opportunity for those who for one or reason or another have not been able to take advantage of higher education”. Labour MP, Jennie Lee was appointed to bring the vision to life. In an interview in 1975 Jennie Lee talked about the OU’s establishment and said “Because what mattered at the end of the day were the students that you attracted and … the quality of the staff.”

Quality staff. Innovative teaching materials to bring education to those unable to attend full time university courses. And who were those people? Mostly the men and women who had to leave school at aged 16 and work. For those that remember the 1980s, the value of the OU and its transformative power especially in women’s lives was captured in the film Educating Rita.

How ridiculously proud I was to go there in 2016 as a Chair in Criminology in the Department of Social Policy and Criminology.

Yet, the day the judgement was handed down, the University response was, in my opinion, tone deaf – not to mention very upsetting to me. They were disappointed and were considering an appeal. They were concerned for the welfare of me… and the staff who the judgement made very clear had unlawfully harassed me.

In a second statement issued four fret filled days later, Prof Tim Blackman (the Vice Chancellor) made it clear they would not be appealing, issued me an apology (less said soonest mended on such apologies) stated that he recognised that the University had fallen very short in several areas and that the OU is “not The Open University we want to be”.

Well quite.

I can only image what Harold Wilson and Jennie Lee would say about the judgement where the employment tribunal found that several Open University academics did not meet the standard the tribunal expected in terms of being “professionals who had been trained in the methodology of research and presentation of fact and analysis producing argument” (the now oft quoted para 22). Or what they would have made of the finding that four of the academics the OU called to defend its position were “evasive and resistant to providing the truth to the Tribunal” about their WhatsApp conversations – conversations that appear at least on the surface – to be the medium through which they planned their harassment of me. For me though, I suspect that Harold Wilson and Jennie Lee would be turning in their graves at a far less ‘punchy’ finding: that “the Respondent was fearful of outwardly being seen in any way to support the members” of the research network I and Jon Pike founded.

Yes.

The OU did fall very short of its original mission and vision and utterly, miserably and heart-breakingly failed me as one of their firm fans and employees. I am very glad of the judgement. I hope it sends a clear message to all leaders in our Universities. You must protect gender critical staff from harassment. Failure to do so can end with a judgement like this one.

Irony upon irony

For those that watched or read the tribunal tweets, or listened to me on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, you will know that The Open University’s barrister spent 2.5 days cross-examining me. The tactic was one that is familiar to so many harassment cases – as well as many other types of criminal cases – character assassination.

I get it. Tribunals form part of an adversarial justice system. As Maya Forstater said, the process of the employment tribunal is a forensic examination of all the evidence. And, from The Open University’s perspective, my evidence had to be put under a microscope.

I don’t know how barristers work. I don’t know what drives their choices about how to approach cross examination. But, even at the time, and with several of my harassers watching from the public gallery, I thought how ironic it all was. Social Policy and Criminology at The Open University is well known for research that examines the harms caused to individuals by powerful institutions that are not often dealt with via criminal justice (some times called ‘zemiology’). Colleagues there have a decent track record for research on sexual violence, failed health and safety governance, crime of the powerful and white collar crime. Yet, here The Open University’s barrister had adopted a style of character assassination of a woman (whose history as a victim of sexual violence was at the very beginning of her witness statement) that was almost too much to bear because it was such a full frontal attack. I was portrayed as litigious and as a Machiavellian schemer who believed only in academic freedom and freedom of speech for myself and therefore deserved what I got and wanted it anyway.

But that’s not the only irony. In year ending 31 July 2022 The Open University had a total income of £554M and total reserves of £198M, albeit a £233M operating deficit. They could afford to put 18 witnesses on the stand. I cannot imagine how much it cost The Open University to pay for the processing of those witnesses viz-a-viz witness statements and so. I know how much it cost me  - £231K. They (like me) had a top drawer KC and that must have cost the OU money too. Maybe the irony is obvious? The Open University is, apart from anything else, a powerful institution with deeper pockets than mine and what their money paid for (and I experienced in court) was, an awful ordeal that reduced me – a single individual seeking justice - to a sobbing blob in front of three of my former departmental colleagues and harassers.  

And Still We Won.

I have had a wave of people congratulating me and also noting that my journey and story has some very sad moments. But, ultimately, it has a happy ending. I managed to last the distance and we won. This is not just my win. Thousands of perfectly ordinary people contributed to my crowdjustice fund. There were one or two large donations but mostly the donations were around £25 from people who were fed up of bullies, who were concerned about the intolerance creeping into our universities, who were exasperated at #NoDebate influence of Stonewall in our public institutions, who (like me) know that biological sex cannot be changed and that gender identity should not replace biology in very specific areas of public policy. So this win is a win for *everyone* who donated. Without these donations I could not have had the winning legal team I had.

It is also a significant win for my legal team. Annie Powell is an amazing litigator with a way of thinking through strategy that I wish I had. Liz George (who covered for Annie when she was on maternity leave) was far more than a care-taker lawyer. She and her paralegal had to sift through thousands and thousands of pages of disclosures and start the process of making sense of them whilst supporting a stressed client they had to shepherd through a bewildering process until Annie could return. And Ben Cooper KC. What can I say? I remain in awe of his capacity to digest more than 5000 pages of evidence, juggle the legal arguments, write a closing statement in 24 hours and politely and kindly – even if firmly – cross examine 18 witnesses, some of whom were either speaking word salad or patently not telling the truth. Mostly I am in awe of the skill of his cross-examination.

There are too many people to thank individually. The major lobbying groups in this area (WPUK, Sex Matters, WRN, Keep Prisons Single Sex, Fair Play for Women, LGB Alliance) all helped me over the years. The academics who have all survived their own experiences of gender identity bullies were role models for me. The feminist activists, the feminist lawyers, the lesbians and gay men, the politicians and the journalists who are all at the chalk face of defending women’s rights – there are too many to mention by name - provided the wrap around environment that supported me through the last three years.

There are some stand out individuals to whom I owe a debt of gratitude and rather than list them all (which will sound like an Oscars speech) I want to list just a handful. My partner Pj who kept picking me up and dusting me down and getting me get back into the ring when I was struggling. Julie Bindel my old friend. We might not always agree but every time I reached out for help over these last few years, she was there within minutes. Maya Forstater was also always there, ready to catch me and help me when I needed advice (especially about making videos with canva). Professor Sarah Earle – a friend, a colleague and one of the finest (and funniest) Professors I know.

Penultimate thanks go to Employment Judge Young and the two panel members, Dr B von-Maydell Koch and Mr C Surrey. It was my first time in a court like this and – I hope the Open University witnesses felt this two – that tribunal was run with compassion and humanity. I thank them most of all for their diligence, professionalism and hard work.  

But the final thanks go to: Jon Pike, Hannah Marston, Becky Devlin, Jess Evans and Laura McGrath. We made up The Open University Gender Critical Research Network. #TheGangOf6. We did it.