Tessa Szsyszkowitz in conversation with Kathleen Stock: WHEN IS A WOMAN A WOMAN?

For several years Kathleen Stock has been in the centre of a storm that is raging in Britain: Should gender be defined by self-identification or birth? Is sex a biological fact or can it be changed? For her point of view on the necessity for public female spaces and for stating that transgender women can never be women she drew heated criticism from the transgender community. 

In the talk with Tessa Szyszkowitz Kathleen Stock will explain the theory of her book Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism. One of the central questions: Should discrimination law prioritise protecting gender identity – crucial to trans people – or biological sex, on which women’s rights have historically depended? For Stock the answer is clear: Transgender women are a legal fiction. But she also argues that both sides in this debate – transgender activists and gender-critical feminists like her should become more non-binary.  

Kathleen Stock is an author and writer. Her book Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism offers a offers a broad discussion of gender identity theory. She quit her position as professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex last October. She felt bullied by a campaign of transgender activists.  

Tessa Szyszkowitz is a journalist, writer and historian currently working for Falter, profil & Cicero. Her last book was Echte Engländer, Britain & Brexit (2018). She is also Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.    

Material Girls, Warum die Wirklichkeit für den Feminismus unerlässlich ist, erschien im April 2022 im Verlag edition TIAMAT auf Deutsch.  

Recorded at Kreisky Forum, May 16, 2022