The law is clear on sport
There is no requirement to include men in women’s sport at any level.
Sports organisations distributing public money must protect women’s sport.
The law is clear
The terms “sex”, “woman” and “man” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex. (FWS v Scottish Ministers)
Women tend to be underrepresented in sport, and dedicated training sessions, teams, competitions and development pathways for women and girls are essential for women and girls to be included. Simply saying that women can compete with men is not enough to secure inclusion, fairness or safety for women.
Sports organisations are covered by the Equality Act in their roles as public authorities, service providers, associations, charities, employers and qualifications authorities. This means they must not engage in unlawful sex discrimination and harassment in these roles. But they can lawfully provide single and separate sex services where there is a relevant exception in the Act (including the general exceptions that allow separate sex services where they are a proportionate means to a legitimate aim).
When it comes to provisions designed to regulate who qualifies to take part in a sporting contest as a competitor the Equality Act 2010 allows for a wide range of sex-based rules to be applied in what it calls “gender affected sports” – those where male strength, stamina or physique provides competitive advantages or presents safety risks. Sporting competitions can be lawfully provided in a range of different ways including single sex, open, mixed doubles and mixed teams with a minimum number of women or maximum number of men. They can also be provided as mixed sports with separate scoring (such as times recorded for women and men).
If a sports organisation allows men to participate or compete “as women” it is likely to be undertaking unlawful sex discrimination and harassment against women.
Sports governing bodies and the sports councils must act now!
The national governing bodies of the most popular UK sports – swimming, athletics, tennis, football, golf, netball, cricket and rugby – have all restored a protected female category for competition. But some are still holding out, some have two-tier policies for recreation and competitive sport, and some are not enforcing their own rules. Many also haven’t updated their policies to protect female-only changing rooms.
The sports councils for England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the UK are public bodies. They are required to actively work to eliminate discrimination and advance equality between people who share different protected characteristics. This means they must make sure that national governing bodies provide women’s sport and be clear that “women” means female – this category does not include trans-identifying males.
The sports councils have not yet properly updated their guidance following the Supreme Court judgment to reflect this.
What you can do
- Find out the status of any sports you participate in.
- Use our advice page to contact your sports governing body to tell them to get in line with the law
- Complain about changing rooms
- If male inclusion in women’s sport has affected you, let us know.