A gender-critical book at Scotland’s National Library is the latest in a long line of cancellations | Susanna Rustin

The UK supreme court’s ruling earlier this year has not stopped a wave of unfair boycotts and exclusions in the arts

Susanna Rustin is the author of Sexed: A History of British Feminism

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t was predictable that August in Edinburgh would see a flare-up of the gender wars. Scottish politics has been pivotal in the UK-wide battle over gender self-identification, and the issue has come up at the Edinburgh festival before. Probably no one would have expected the National Library of Scotland to be the battlefield. But when a bestselling gender-critical anthology, The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, was excluded from a centenary exhibition, that is what happened.

The book, whose title means “the women who wouldn’t be quiet”, is a collection of essays about the Scottish campaign against Nicola Sturgeon’s gender reforms. Its 34 authors include JK Rowling, six politicians and the group For Women Scotland, which won April’s landmark supreme court case about the meaning of the words “sex”, “woman” and “man” in the Equality Act.