I founded and work at Magnify Mentoring.
I am happy to help newcomers to EA :) Just drop me an email at kathryn@magnifymentoring.org.
Hi without speaking for the organizers. My understanding is that the regulation requires that new buildings in the UK have separate, single-sex bathrooms. The Gov.UK website essentially says this is to avoid the "SOLE installation of gender-neutral facilities." My impression is that gender-neutral toilets with multiple cubicles will be banned in new builds but not (for example) a toilet and sink in a private room (like what you typically see provided for people with disabilities). It seems (from an 80/20 look at the regulation) that "new" is a key qualifier here and that existing builds will maintain their existing facilities and organizers remain within their rights to designate bathrooms as unisex (although I would guess such facilities will exist already- I did take a quick look but did not find the answer quickly). As such, I believe the answer to (1) is "No." The new law does not appear to touch upon (2) and under non-discrimination law in the UK the answer is "Yes". I really hope this helps!
Pulling out a quick Magnify Mentoring update from the upcoming EA Newsletter.
Hi Paula, (1) "I encourage the FEM team to engage in more rigorous research and to focus on capacity-building..." FWIW, I think giving the organization (who are engaging with this thread) more time to respond on the point you raise about the PMA survey would be significantly preferable than making a conclusion in either direction at least based on my reading of this thread. (2)"...partnering with other organizations that have a great deal of experience working in this space over a long period of time..." Two separate points: a. to what extent do you know they don't do this? I know them to have extensively engaged with local organizations and had at least information sharing conversations with international organizations (f.e. Development Media International who were founded in 2005) from my very loose following of their work over the years. b. Sadly, and much to my personal heartbreak, from having worked in international women's human rights myself for a number of years, it is certainly not the case that an organization who has been around a long time is more effective or even effective at all than an evidence-based, well run and connected new organization. I have actually been deeply disappointed by the average long-standing organization in this field but perhaps you have had better luck! :) Thanks!
FWIW: I want to offer a strong dissenting voice that I do not like how this has been handled in this comment section. Saying something isn't intended to be harsh and mean doesn't make it not harsh and mean. You can point out things that concern you without singling out individual people and I think the average person would have found this incredibly hurtful and off-putting.
Thank you so much. Magnify Mentoring would put to excellent use further donation support from the community. We have 200 mentee applications this time which I am currently reviewing and matching. On specific support, I am aware of Magnify Mentoring's work, Epoch and FRI's Mentorship program, and GPI's recent programming. I am also working out whether we (Magnify) should do some Bay-specific event programming (think activities to further create a warm, welcoming space, focused on cheap information dissemination and career building activities) and I expect I'd try and raise a small side budget to this but I am still working out what already exists and what has been tried. Thank you so much, Ulrik and my turn to apologize for missing this ;)
Let's test that. I'd love it if the people who down-voted OP "agree" vote Jason's (Edited to add next sentence) or Chris' interpretations. Thanks!