Where sex matters | Universities
Universities
Universities are creating an intimidating and hostile environment for staff and students who recognise that sex matters. They are not only being denied freedom of expression, but also suffering harassment and discrimination.
The Reindorf Review and the Forstater case confirmed that it is unlawful to persecute university staff or students because of their beliefs about sex and gender. University leaders should be seeking to rebuild cultures of academic freedom and legal compliance. But it has become clear that many lack the courage or capacity to address the issue.
What’s the problem?
Almost all universities in the UK are members of the Stonewall Champions Scheme, and have shown that they will continue to discriminate against academics and students who uphold a distinction between sex and gender.
Academics are being targetted with bullying, harassment and no-platforming at universities across the UK (Sex Matters keeps a database of reports in the media). Many other cases have been reported in the public domain.
October 2018: The Guardian published a letter from a network of more than 100 academics, most in UK universities, concerned about proposed government reforms to the Gender Recognition Act, and their interaction with the Equality Act.
May 2019: Imperial College London’s vice-provost apologised for liking tweets by the organisation Transgender Trend.
April 2021: The LSE took no public action when it emerged that a department had promoted a student essay which fantasised about stabbing “TERFs”.
May 2021: Barrister Akua Reindorf’s review of no-platforming at the University of Essex highlighted a culture of fear, policies that violated the Equality Act, and institutionalised discrimination and intimidation by ‘trans rights activists’ within the LGBT group of the university. This should have been a wake-up call for university leadership…
July 2021: Instead, the Vice-Chancellor of Essex issued an extraordinary apology for releasing the review during Pride Month and to “anyone having been made to feel unsafe as a result of the review.”
October 2021: Protests against Professor Kathleen Stock by a group of students at Sussex University attracted attention to a long-term campaign against her. Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), described the anonymous attacks on Professor Stock and the campaign to have her fired as “disgraceful”. Later that month, she resigned.
There have been several open letters in support of Professor Stock, one by philosophers, one by legal academics.
In October 2021, Sex Matters co-ordinated a letter calling on the EHRC to undertake a review of policies and practices in UK universities that impose a radical gender orthodoxy, and fail to protect those who recognise that sex is a real and important from bullying and harassment. The responses to that letter concerned us.
February 2022: PhD student Raquel Rosario-Sánchez launched a civil action against Bristol University, saying bosses did not tackle transactivists who subjected her to a two-year “hate campaign”.
Updates
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Video
Sex, gender and free speech on campus
Trans ideology in British universities.
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Video
The state of free speech on campus
OfS judgment’s Equality Act-shaped hole.
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Video
Cambridge University Society of Women
Young women pushing back against gender ideology
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Update
It’s time for a product recall
When businesses become aware that a product they have distributed poses a risk to users, they issue urgent and...
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Update
What does the For Women Scotland judgment mean in practice?
The judgment handed down yesterday by the Supreme Court returns the Equality Act to clarity. Many organisations have fallen...
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Update
Sex Matters at the Battle of Ideas
The three Sex Matters directors, Fiona McAnena, Maya Forstater and Helen Joyce, all spoke at the Battle of Ideas...
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Update
The Jo Phoenix case should be a wake-up call for universities
In 2019 Professor Jo Phoenix became the target of a campaign of harassment from her colleagues at the Open...
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Update
Legal opinion says promotion policy discriminates on basis of gender-critical beliefs
Earlier this year Sex Matters was approached by Dr John Armstrong, a reader in mathematics at King’s College London...
Other resources
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Freedom of Speech – first fine indicates strong stance
Legal analysis of the £585,000 fine imposed on the University of Sussex by the higher education regulator, the Office for Students, for failing to uphold freedom of speech, in March 2025.
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Don’t Get Caught Out – a summary of gender critical belief discrimination employment tribunal judgments
by Ruth Birchall and Jo Phoenix
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Best free speech practice
Linked with Alumni for Free Speech, this group of senior lawyers and academics has resources on best free speech practice for higher-education providers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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What went wrong at the Open University?
Alice Sullivan for The Spectator.
Sullivan looks at the cases of Phoenix, Tucker and Gadow. -
EDI contra science – the misuse of “ethics” in academic research
John Armstrong writes for The Crtitic about how he was asked to survey elite athletes on their views on trans participation in athletics, but the ethics committee at King’s College, London rejected his research proposal on the grounds that the terms “male” and “female” were unacceptable.
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GC Academia Network
A group of academics working in higher education, concerned about the erosion of women’s sex-based rights in law, policy and practice, and the treatment of those who speak out; collecting stories from gender-critical university staff (academic and professional services) and students.
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Alumni for free speech
Non-partisan, non-party political campaign for UK graduates, set up in 2022 to be co-ordinators and spokespeople for alumni; organise alumni to act to secure free speech and tackle specific incidents; and encourage, support and coordinate campaigns established by alumni of particular institutions.
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Who represents the interests of female staff in Scottish universities?
The Edinburgh-based policy analysis collective Murray Blackburn Mackenzie investigated organised representation and networking for female staff based on the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act.
Publications
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Publication
Template HR email on policy changes
If you work in HR, or know someone who does, copy and paste to share this model email, which explains why an organisation with unlawful policies regarding single-sex spaces is updating those policies to reflect the Supreme Court judgment of 16th April 2025.
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Publication
What happened at Sussex University?
What led the University of Sussex to adopt an unlawful policy that led the Office for Students to fine them more than half a million pounds?
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Publication
Letter to Stonewall about its revised definition of “transphobia”.
Sex Matters has written to Stonewall’s CEO to applaud him for taking the brave step of discarding the previous extreme and divisive definition, and calling on him to make sure that the thousands of employers, universities and schools that were influenced by the previous definition hear about Stonewall’s long-overdue...
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Learning from the Jo Phoenix case
What happened at the Open University was not an isolated problem, and it was not just about Phoenix. This briefing tells the story of the case based on the findings of the employment tribunal, and sets out lessons for the university sector and for its regulators.
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Publication
Academic mobbing – what university management needs to know
Ian Pace, Professor of Music, Culture and Society at City St George’s, University of London, writes for Sex Matters on the phenomenon of workplace mobbing, drawing on studies of dissent under totalitarian regimes and the phenomenon of groupthink. He explores why mobbing seems to be on the rise in...
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Publication
Counsel’s opinion in the matter of King’s College London academic promotions criteria
KCL’s promotion policy discriminates on the basis of gender-critical beliefs, and will also be likely to contravene the new law on academic freedom due to come into force in August 2024.
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Publication
Toilets matter – a short guide to law and good practice
For any organisation that provides toilets for customers, visitors, staff or students – this guide will help you think through your choices, identify risks of discrimination and harassment, and provide clarity to users. Links to the documents referenced in the guide.
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Publication
Why single-sex services matter: privacy, dignity, safety and choice (full report)
Over the past few years many single-sex services and spaces have been changed to mixed sex, but few of the people who use them have been asked how they feel about this. Our report amplifies those voices.