Protect sport for women and girls

The female category in sport is an inclusion measure. It gives girls and women the opportunity to participate, compete, excel and win. Female athletes at every level lose out when they have to compete with and against males.

But the female category has been opened up to male athletes who identify as women, on the basis of weak evidence and guidance to prioritise “inclusion” ahead of fairness, as explained here.

This affects both competitive sport and recreational activity organised by sex, such as women-only swimming sessions or bike rides. Permitting men to self-identify as women to access toilets and changing rooms is also a deterrent for women and girls, as this report shows.

The UK Sports Councils have provided guidance that, in any sex-affected sport, male inclusion in the women’s category cannot be fair for women and girls. In most sports, the simple solution is to restrict the women’s category to those born female and broaden the men’s category to be open so there is a place for everyone.

It is lawful under the Equality Act section 195 to do this based on sex at birth for “a sport, game or other activity of a competitive nature” which is: “a gender-affected activity… a sport, game or other activity of a competitive nature in circumstances in which the physical strength, stamina or physique of average persons of one sex would put them at a disadvantage compared to average persons of the other sex as competitors in events involving the activity.”

The Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers reinforced this position. It also stated that a single-sex service must exclude everyone of the other sex. This means that services or spaces provided for “women including transwomen” have no basis in law.