NICOLA Sturgeon has been criticized for refusing to define what a woman is.
The first minister, who described herself as a “feminist at my fingertips” last year, said it would “oversimplify” the debate on transgender rights.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross suggested that her response was a failure of leadership and would be “worrying for many people”.
Ms. Sturgeon’s SNP-Green government is currently introducing legislation through Holyrood to reform gender recognition laws.
The changes will make it faster and easier for trans people to obtain a certificate confirming their gender according to the law.
Under the current system, this takes at least two years and a medical diagnosis.
But Holyrood’s law proposes abolishing the medical diagnosis in favor of self-declaration, reducing the period to six months.
Critics say the changes could help male sexual predators abuse the system.
However, ministers say this is not the case and the law will not eliminate single-sex spaces for women, such as shelters for domestic violence.
The debate on trans rights has led to splits in the SNP and other parties, and has left politicians apparently confused by what appear to be relatively simple issues.
Some transgender advocates argue that men who change their gender to become trans women are just as much women as if they were biologically born women.
Their critics say that a woman is an “adult human woman” and that people born biologically male, although they can change their sex in the eyes of the law, cannot change their biological sex.
Last year, the leader of the Labor Party in the United Kingdom, Sir Keir Starmer, said it was wrong to say that only women have a cervix, adding: “This is something that should not be said, it is not right.”
In March this year, he also declined to say whether a woman could have a penis.
Boris Johnson recently said that “biology” is a key factor in distinguishing between men and women.
In an interview with The Times, Mr Sturgeon declined to define the word “woman”.
She said: “I will not do that, I will simply not enter this debate on a level that is about simplistic and sinister headlines.
The first minister continued: “Trans people are among, perhaps, the most stigmatized and discriminated minorities in our society.
“And every time we oversimplify this debate, trans people actually suffer, and I think it’s important, they’re such a small minority that we actually take seriously the issues of protecting and strengthening the rights of trans people.
Ms. Sturgeon also said she was convinced that Holyrood would vote through gender reforms and that the SNP would remain united on the issue, despite several internal disputes.
Financial Secretary Kate Forbes, a devout Christian, and SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC both have reservations about reforms.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said a woman was an “old woman” and was “surprised” that a politician with Ms. Sturgeon’s experience was unprepared for the issue.
He told the Herald: “This is a question that is actually quite simple when you cook it. Biologically we have men and women, and women are older women.”
“This is a very emotional issue that clearly divides many opinions and unfortunately the debate around it is very toxic.
“But as a politician and as a leader, you have to give a clear answer, and the fact that Nicola Sturgeon can’t do that will be worrying for many people.
Former SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, now a senior member of Alex Salmond’s Alba party, asked why Ms. Sturgeon refused to define what the word women meant.
She tweeted: “How can politicians pass laws for us if they don’t want to say who and what we are biologically?
“Talking about ‘sexism’ and ‘misogyny’ is hot air if you don’t know what a woman is.
Last year, Ms. Sturgeon dismissed criticism of her gender reforms as “invalid.”
She told MSP: “Gender recognition reform is about changing the existing process to make it less humiliating, intrusive and traumatic for one of the most stigmatized minorities in our society.
“We need to focus on the real threats to women, not the threats that, although I believe that some of these views are very sincere, are not valid in my opinion.
Lucy Hunter Blackburn of political analysts Murray Blackburn Mackenzie said: “After the bill is being debated in parliament, it is shocking that the Secretary of declares for this.
The feminist group For Women Scotland said: “Nicola Sturgeon’s refusal to define women is depressing, but not unexpected.
“This is the first minister to say he opposes sexism in politics, but he cannot force himself to meet and talk to women affected by its policies.
“Her experience in dealing with harassment and abuse in her own party leaves much to be desired.
“Self-identification, which we know has had a disproportionately detrimental effect on the most vulnerable, including minority women, seems to be its overarching political goal.
“Her proposals for self-identification are not for ‘trans people’, but for anyone who decides, for some reason, to change gender by law.
“Its ministers will not even say they will ban sex offenders from obtaining gender recognition certificates that provide unprecedented levels of confidentiality.
“All evidence of harm to girls in school forced to use mixed sex facilities, to women in prison, to the hundreds of girls who establish themselves as the opposite sex and embark on the path to lifelong medical treatment, must be rejected and rejected.
“If the determination to continue with this regressive, sexist policy is not misogyny – though wrapped in a blue and pink bow – we don’t know what it is!”
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