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Where sex matters | Sport

Sport

Policies that allow males to play in women’s sport are not supported by evidence. They are unfair and unsafe.

Sex Matters has a team of experts on the protection of women’s sport – meet them in our media briefing on why sex matters in sport.

Sport is divided into male and female categories for very good reason. Men are taller, faster and stronger than women. They have bigger bones, longer limbs, wider hand spans, wider shoulders and a narrower pelvis. They have larger and denser muscles, with a higher proportion of fast twitch fibres, and larger hearts and lungs. These are the result of being born with a male body and going through male puberty.

Even from a very young age, boys perform better in tests of speed, power and strength. Each year, thousands of boys and men outperform elite women. Every women’s world record in athletics has been broken by a teenage boy.

Female excellence, participation and safety in sport depends on sex-segregation. Female athletes at every level will lose if they have to compete with and against males.

What is the problem?

In recent years 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. How we got here is explained in this article by Fiona McAnena. 

In 2003 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that men who had undergone “sex reassignment surgery” – removal of testes so they no longer produced testosterone – should be allowed to compete in women’s sport at all levels. They said that there would be so few trans-identifying males wanting to enter women’s sport that the impact would be minimal. This policy was adopted by national governing bodies of sports in the UK and elsewhere. The surgery requirement was dropped in 2015, replaced by a testosterone limit far above that of women. In practice, since testing of testosterone levels requires a blood test, and challenging a trans-identifying person has been made socially unacceptable, in most sports any man declaring a female identity has been able to  compete against women.

Female athletes are losing medals and opportunities to males. 

It’s not just about competitive sport. Female-only activities such as swimming, recreational cycling, gym and yoga classes increase women’s participation, which lags behind men’s. Losing those, or fearing that there will be a male in the women’s changing room, is a deterrent for some women and girls, as this report by Fair Play For Women shows.

Where are we now?

The science is increasingly understood. Scientific studies of physical changes in males suppressing testosterone (either because of transgender identity or as part of therapeutic treatment for testosterone-related illness) show that muscle mass, strength and skeletal differences between males and females remain large even after transition. 

The conflict between “inclusion” based on gender identity and fairness and safety for women is increasingly recognised. In 2021 the UK’s Sports Councils Equality Group published revised transgender inclusion guidance, prompting sport governing bodies to rethink their rules on who is eligible for female categories of competition. The guidance concluded that:

“The inclusion of transgender people into female sport cannot be balanced regarding transgender inclusion, fairness and safety in gender-affected sport where there is meaningful competition. This is due to retained differences in strength, stamina and physique between the average woman compared with the average transgender woman or non-binary person assigned male at birth, with or without testosterone suppression.” 

The three biggest sports by participation – swimming, cycling and athletics – now restrict female competition to those who have not been through male puberty. Their world federations have also done so, meaning no males in women’s events for those sports at Olympic or World Championships. They were pushed into action by a crisis, meaning they could no longer ignore the problem.

But many UK and most world sports governing bodies have not restored fairness for females in sport. In some sports, like cricket, football, hockey, ice-hockey and combat sports, there’s a serious safety issue too. We are keeping track of the changing policies and you can see the developments in a timeline.

Read our three-page briefing on the problem of male inclusion in women’s sport

Read our one-page briefing on sport and DSDs (disorders of sexual development)

Tell us about your experiences

Has male inclusion in girls’ or women’s sport affected you? Tell us your story, in complete confidence, so that we can let sports governing bodies know that they have a problem.

Share your experience

Our expert team

Sex Matters has a team of experts on the protection of women’s sport, including:

  • Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns
  • Dr Emma Hilton, trustee
  • Dr Jon Pike, advisory group member
  • Mara Yamauchi, advisory group member.

For interview and quotes, our contact for members of the media is [email protected] – for more information, see our Press page.

Updates

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    4th November 2024

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    21st October 2024

  • "Over 600 female athletes have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports." Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls

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    17th October 2024

  • An organisation meant to protect children in sport is putting them at risk

    When child safeguarding meets gender ideology in sport, children are the losers

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    19th September 2024

  • Sporting crises foretold

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    23rd August 2024

  • Sex Matters in sport – media briefing

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    8th August 2024

  • The IOC doubles down on unfairness for women in boxing

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    2nd August 2024

  • Is Labour positioning itself to fix the mess in women’s sports?

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    25th July 2024

  • Why is support for “trans rights” plummeting?

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    It’s not just about self-ID Support for the law that allows people to change the sex recorded on their birth certificate has fallen a long way over the past few years, most sharply when self-ID was being proposed, in 2018–19 in the UK and then again in 2021–22 in...

    14th June 2024

  • Stonewall chair speaks (and then recants)

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    22nd July 2023

  • Fairness in sports governance: a Sex Matters webinar

    Fairness in sports governance: a Sex Matters webinar

    Our director of advocacy, Helen Joyce, talked to Olympian Sharron Davies and campaigner Fiona McAnena on 28th June 2023 about the work they and others have been doing to reverse unfair policies that allow male athletes into female sporting events on the basis of self-declared “gender identity”. This webinar...

    21st June 2023

  • Westminster Hall debate on the definition of sex in the Equality Act

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    13th June 2023

  • Poll finds less than a third agree with Stonewall

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    5th June 2023

  • The ‘Female’ category will remain in place for those whose sex was assigned female at birth and transgender men who are yet to begin hormone therapy.

    British Cycling excludes trans-identified males from competitive female cycling

    In April 2022, British Cycling made global news when it revoked eligibility for Emily Bridges, a Welsh trans-identified male cyclist, who was poised to make his debut in the female category. This would have been in a major-track cycling event, against one of Britain’s most decorated cyclists, Dame Laura...

    26th May 2023

  • Keep calm and carry on?

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    12th May 2023

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    28th April 2023

  • The non-binary category accepts both men and women, conflating sex with gender identity and ignoring the fact that males run on average 10% faster than females.

    The non-binary category in marathons

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    26th April 2023

  • We have come to the view that if ‘sex’ is defined as biological sex for the purposes of EqA, this would bring greater legal clarity in eight areas.

    EHRC publishes letter on clarifying sex in the Equality Act

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    4th April 2023

  • Everyone should be welcomed into sport, of course, and everyone must have a fair category in which to compete.

    Fairness matters in sport

    Philosopher Dr Jon Pike has written a guest blog post for Sex Matters, based on his recent article published in the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport: ‘Why “Meaningful Competition” is not fair competition’. In that article, he sets out case for a two-category model for sport, female and...

    24th March 2023

  • Legal advice that fell at the first hurdle

    How UK Athletics was misled

    UK Athletics has put out a statement saying – with regret – that it cannot lawfully exclude trans-identifying men who have GRCs from participation in women’s events.  The material part of the statement says:  “10.  There is a duty in s.9(1) of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to treat...

    3rd February 2023

  • No legal changes are needed to allow women-only sports

    Why are lawyers giving faulty advice about women-only sports?

    The governing body for the sport of athletics in the United Kingdom, UK Athletics, has called for the government to amend the Equality Act in order to guarantee the legality of female-only sports. While Sex Matters agrees with UKA that female-only sports are essential to provide safe and fair...

    3rd February 2023

  • Risks in the final rush to legislate self-ID in Scotland

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    20th December 2022

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    16th December 2022

  • Compromises that destroy the human rights of one group are unfair. Solutions are needed that respect everyone’s rights.

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    5th November 2022

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    19th July 2022

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    16th June 2022

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    UPDATE : Saturday 16th April

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    13th April 2022

  • British Cycling and Emily Bridges

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    30th March 2022

  • Italy vs Spain during 2013 Women's European Qualification Tournament, by Carlos Delgado, Creative Commons licence

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    11th November 2021

  • EHRC to issue guidance on single-sex and separate-sex services

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    18th October 2021

  • Inclusion or fairness: new guidance for sport in the UK

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    29th May 2021

  • Sex Matters in cycling

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    14th May 2021

  • Two new scientific reviews agree that transwomen athletes retain male advantage

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    7th March 2021

  • Martina Navratilova seeks fair rules over women’s sport

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    3rd February 2021

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