English Court Finally Figures Out What A Woman Is
On April 15, 2025, the UK Supreme Court delivered a landmark ruling, determining that the legal definition of a “woman” under the Equality Act 2010 is based on biological sex, not gender identity. The case arose from a challenge by the campaign group For Women Scotland against the Scottish government, which had argued that transgender women with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) should be legally recognized as women under the Act. The five justices, in a unanimous decision, rejected this position, with Lord Patrick Hodge emphasizing that the terms “woman” and “sex” refer strictly to biological females. This ruling clarified that transgender women, even those with a GRC, do not fall under the legal definition of a woman for the purposes of sex-based protections, potentially impacting access to women-only spaces like refuges, hospital wards, and sports facilities across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The decision followed years of legal battles, beginning with a 2018 Scottish law aimed at increasing female representation on public boards, which initially included transgender women in its definition of “woman.” For Women Scotland argued that this undermined sex-based rights, asserting that biological sex is an immutable characteristic critical for maintaining protections for women. The Supreme Court agreed, noting in its 88-page judgment that interpreting “sex” as anything other than biological would create practical difficulties for service providers, such as hospitals and sports clubs, who could not easily verify someone’s GRC status. While the court stressed that transgender individuals retain protections against discrimination under the Equality Act through the characteristic of gender reassignment, the ruling was celebrated by gender-critical campaigners as a victory for clarity, with figures like JK Rowling, who supported For Women Scotland, praising the outcome.
However, the ruling sparked significant backlash from transgender rights advocates, who called it a devastating blow to trans women’s legal recognition. Critics like Vic Valentine from Scottish Trans argued that the decision undercuts the purpose of the Gender Recognition Act, potentially excluding trans women from both men’s and women’s spaces, leaving them in a legal and social limbo. The UK government welcomed the ruling, stating it brought “clarity and confidence” for protecting single-sex spaces, but organizations like Stonewall and Amnesty UK warned of its “worrying” implications, urging lawmakers to update equality legislation. The debate now shifts back to the political arena, with calls to amend the Equality Act growing louder, as England grapples with balancing biological definitions of sex with the evolving understanding of gender identity in law and society.
