Cathy Devine

Cathy Devine is an independent researcher; she was Senior Lecturer in Sport and Physical Activity at the University of Cumbria for 23 years. Her academic specialism is in sport policy and she was the Secretary of the British Philosophy of Sport Association. She worked for the UK’s National Coaching Foundation (now UK Coaching) for five years, with responsibility for developing women coaches, and for the UK’s National Federation of Women’s Institutes as Head of Sport for three years. She was a member of the organising committee for the first International Women and Sport Conference in the UK in Brighton in 1994, organised by the British Sports Council and supported by the British Olympic Association and the International Olympic Committee.

Her research is on the human rights of girls and women in sport and focuses on domestic and international sport policy. Her publications include: ‘Female Olympians’ Voices: Female Sport Categories and IOC Transgender Guidelines‘ in International Review for the Sociology of Sport (2021); ‘Female Sports Participation, Gender Identity and the British 2010 Equality Act’. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy (2021); and ‘Sex, sport and money: voice, choice and distributive justice in England, Scotland and Wales.’ Sport, Education and Society (2018).

“Sex matters in sport because the human rights and equal opportunities of females in sport depend on fair eligibility criteria that acknowledge human sexual dimorphism.”