We show how UK law provides for separate sport for women and girls in several different ways, for fairness, safety and opportunity, from grassroots participation to elite competition, and why not having a female category may result in legal challenges for indirect discrimination and harassment.

The post Getting back on track: a new report appeared first on Sex Matters.

Examples of such discrimination include being refused service in a pub, barred from a gym or forced to leave an event because you are known or suspected to hold gender-critical beliefs (or to be associated with someone who does).

Sex Matters has published a guide on this process – see ‘Related content’ below.

The post Small claims explained appeared first on Sex Matters.

Read the code of practice.

Read our first analysis of the code.

To see our video output, find our podcasts on Substack, follow our YouTube channel or find us on TikTok.

To get our weekly podcast, subscribe to our Substack or sign up for our weekly memo.

The post EHRC guidance finally here! appeared first on Sex Matters.

As Maya wrote last week in Times Higher Education, at the heart of the High Court judgment in the judicial review brought by the University of Sussex is an Equality Act-shaped hole. The Office for Students’ investigation into its failure to protect academic freedom and free speech on campus had been sparked by the hounding of Professor Kathleen Stock, who had been accused of hate by activists for speaking up about misrepresentations of the Equality Act. The High Court overturned the regulator’s £585,000 fine punishing Sussex for infringing on academic freedom and freedom of speech by adopting a policy in 2018 banning so-called transphobic propaganda from its campus and pledging to discipline those committing “transphobic abuse”.

To see more of our podcasts, find all our videos on our YouTube channel or subscribe to our Substack.

The post The state of free speech on campus appeared first on Sex Matters.

Not one of 15 financial institutions contacted replied clearly stating that it provided single-sex toilets, as required by workplace regulations, and restricted access to people of that (biological) sex.

Maya and Helen discuss how we got here, the experiences of those working in the sector and what can be done to bring employers into compliance.

To see more of our podcasts, find all our videos on our YouTube channel or subscribe to our Substack.

The post Are City employers breaking the law on single-sex toilets? appeared first on Sex Matters.

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Maya and Helen explore why failing to include sex as a voluntary field on the BritCard is a cop-out that will leave individuals and service providers floundering and mired in conflict, instead of being able to simply and clearly verify a fact about people which is often needed.

Take action: A government consultation is open until Tuesday 5th May. Read our briefing and respond to the consultation:

The post Putting sex on digital ID appeared first on Sex Matters.

During the year since the Supreme Court judgment confirmed that “sex” in the Equality Act means biology, not self-ID or paperwork, there has been some progress but also significant institutional resistance. Shortly after the ruling a series of sporting bodies restored female-only categories; more recently, statutory safeguarding guidance for schools has been updated to require all English schools to record sex accurately and bar children from using single-sex sanitary facilities for the opposite sex.

However, many organisations in both the public and private sector have ignored the ruling, often using the excuse that they are “waiting for guidance” from the equalities regulator. The civil service and local authorities continue to operate unlawful policies, both in their workplaces and in services they run.

In this episode, we look at the progress that has been made and the obstacles that have prevented it from being greater – as well as making some predictions about what will happen in the coming year.

Read our One Year Later booklet.

Read our easy-read version of the EHRC interim update.

Read Murray Blackburn Mackenzie’s new report on women’s charities and the Supreme Court ruling.

Videography: Belinda Jiao.

The post One year later – part 2 appeared first on Sex Matters.

The post FWS one year later appeared first on Sex Matters.

Emma is Sex Matters’ interim chair and the co-author of the most-cited paper on sex differences and the impact of testosterone suppression in sport. She is also a published critic of the now-defunct 2021 IOC policy, and a leading academic voice in calls to reinstitute sex screening. She’s been consulted by several international and national sports federations, and has been an expert witness in court cases, including a US Supreme Court amicus brief on sex screening.

Background reading

Watch Emma Hilton’s 2019 talk for Fair Play For Women.

Listen to Fiona talking to Spiked about how the Olympics battered women’s sports.

Read Fiona’s 2023 article for Spiked on the trans colonisation of women’s sports.

Read Fiona’s 2025 article for The Critic on how women managed to get men out of Olympic female sport.

The post IOC protects female category appeared first on Sex Matters.