A Melbourne academic believes women are not standing up for their rights to have female-only spaces—like single-gender changing rooms—because they will be targeted as transphobic. Alongside this, she believes that the increasing encroachment of so-called gender-neutral language, such as “chest-feeding” and “gestational carrier,” is impacting the rights of women; who are allowing it for the sake of being “progressive,” without pausing to consider whether it is in the interests of women. “I think women’s feminine socialisation makes them very considerate about other people’s feelings, and about protecting anyone perceived to be vulnerable, and there’s a lot of rhetoric around about how vulnerable people with gender identities are,” Holly Lawford-Smith told The Epoch Times. For this reason, Lawford-Smith thinks women feel a tension between speaking up about keeping women’s spaces gendered and being inclusive and kind toward those who identify as non-cis-gender—or transgender men and women. “I also think many women are …