Sarah Pedersen is professor of communications and media at Robert Gordon University. Pedersen has researched the rise of the “gender critical” movement and has espoused “gender critical” views.
Background
Sarah Pedersen was born in October 1965. Pedersen attended University of York, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1987 and a master’s degree in 1989. Pedersen has been affiliated with Robert Gordon University since 2008.
Gender critical activism
Pedersen has researched toxic online community Mumsnet, a key forum for anti-trans extremism.
The June 2019 event “Women’s Sex-Based Rights: What Does (& Should) the Future Hold?” featured a panel of “gender critical” speakers including Pedersen, Julie Bindel, Rosa Freedman, Louise Moody, Lucy Hunter Blackburn, and Claire Heuchan. There, Pedersen acknowledged a recent move into gender critical activism:
“I am often asked at these talks whether I would have been a militant suffragette or a constitutional suffragist. I have always answered that I saw myself very much as a suffragist, quietly writing letters and signing petitions, only dipping a toe in the public sphere of the day, and probably rather disapproving of the militant actions of the suffragettes. However, by coming here today and speaking so publicly, I think I am beginning to embrace my inner suffragette.”
Pedersen drew comparisons between suffragette protests against Scotland’s 1911 census and efforts by “gender critical” groups like For Women Scotland to confound sex data in the 2022 Scottish census.
Pedersen gave a blurb for the 2023 anti-trans book Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader:
‘Debates on sex and gender go back a long way, but recently theyâve become more contentiousâand for many people, more confusingâthan ever. This collection, covering a range of subjects from biology and neuroscience to law and public policy, is a welcome attempt to clarify whatâs at stake in current disputes about the significance of sex and gender both in theory and in everyday life. I hope the book will be read by the confused and the undecided as well as by those who are already inclined to agree with it.’
References
Baker, Katie J. M. (January 2021). The Road to Terfdom. Lux https://lux-magazine.com/article/the-road-to-terfdom/
Davidson, Gina (May 8, 2019). University debate on women’s rights branded ‘transphobic.’ The Scotsman https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/university-debate-on-womens-rights-branded-transphobic-1418085
Reisz, Matthew (September 28, 2020). Books interview: Sarah Pedersen. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/books-interview-sarah-pedersen
Livingston, Eve (December 6, 2018). How an Online Forum for Moms Became a Toxic Hotbed of Transphobia. VICE https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3mn9k/mumsnet-uk-mom-forum-terf-transphobia-feminism
Selected writing by Pedersen
Pedersen S (2022). âItâs what the suffragettes would have wantedâ: the construction of the suffragists and suffragettes on Mumsnet. Feminist Media Studies https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2022.2032788
Pedersen, Sarah (February 18, 2022). The SNP wonât silence women. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2022/02/scotlands-women-wont-be-erased/
Pedersen, Sarah (2020). The Politicization of Mumsnet. Emerald Publishing, ISBN â9781839094712
Pedersen, Sarah (June 5, 2019). [speech at Women’s Sex-Based Rights panel] https://forwomen.scot/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Sarah-Pedersen-Edinburgh-Uni-speech.pdf
Media
Moray House School of Education and Sport (July 25, 2019). Women’s Sex-Based Rights: What Does (& Should) the Future Hold? panel event, 5 June 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjHn1Bj5It8
Resources
X/Twitter (x.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)