Apr 16, 2025 09:30 PM
(This post was last modified: Apr 16, 2025 09:36 PM by C C.)
What does UK Supreme Court ruling on definition of woman mean?
https://news.stv.tv/politics/what-does-u...woman-mean
INTRO: The terms “woman” and “sex” legally refer to biological woman and biological sex, according to a UK Supreme Court decision handed down on Wednesday. The landmark ruling determined that somebody with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) cannot be legally recognised as a woman for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act – going against Scottish Government guidance.
The highest court in the land published an 88-page decision(PDF) laying out the judges’ reasoning. Here STV News breaks down what it means.
The judgment follows a lengthy legal challenge by women’s rights campaigners who challenged the Scottish Government’s interpretation of anti-discrimination legislation which applies to England, Scotland and Wales.
On one side, women’s campaign groups believe “woman” means being born a biological female. On the other side, Scottish Government guidance said that “woman” should include both biological women and trans women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC).
The Supreme Court unanimously found that a trans person with a GRC “does not come within the definition of ‘woman’ for the purposes of sex discrimination” in the 2010 Equality Act. “That in turn means that the definition of “woman” is limited to biological women and does not include trans women with a GRC,” the ruling stated.
However, judges were clear that the ruling should not bar or discourage trans women or trans people from being appointed to public boards. “The issue here is only whether the appointment of a trans woman who has a GRC counts as the appointment of a woman and so counts towards achieving the goal set in the gender representation objective, namely that the board has 50% of non-executive members who are women,” the ruling explained. “In our judgment, it does not.”
Nine ‘principal elements of reasoning’
Lord Hodge set out the nine “principal elements” of the court’s reasoning when he read out the judgment on Wednesday. In full, they are:
https://news.stv.tv/politics/what-does-u...woman-mean
INTRO: The terms “woman” and “sex” legally refer to biological woman and biological sex, according to a UK Supreme Court decision handed down on Wednesday. The landmark ruling determined that somebody with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) cannot be legally recognised as a woman for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act – going against Scottish Government guidance.
The highest court in the land published an 88-page decision(PDF) laying out the judges’ reasoning. Here STV News breaks down what it means.
The judgment follows a lengthy legal challenge by women’s rights campaigners who challenged the Scottish Government’s interpretation of anti-discrimination legislation which applies to England, Scotland and Wales.
On one side, women’s campaign groups believe “woman” means being born a biological female. On the other side, Scottish Government guidance said that “woman” should include both biological women and trans women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC).
The Supreme Court unanimously found that a trans person with a GRC “does not come within the definition of ‘woman’ for the purposes of sex discrimination” in the 2010 Equality Act. “That in turn means that the definition of “woman” is limited to biological women and does not include trans women with a GRC,” the ruling stated.
However, judges were clear that the ruling should not bar or discourage trans women or trans people from being appointed to public boards. “The issue here is only whether the appointment of a trans woman who has a GRC counts as the appointment of a woman and so counts towards achieving the goal set in the gender representation objective, namely that the board has 50% of non-executive members who are women,” the ruling explained. “In our judgment, it does not.”
Nine ‘principal elements of reasoning’
Lord Hodge set out the nine “principal elements” of the court’s reasoning when he read out the judgment on Wednesday. In full, they are:
- The 2010 Equality Act provides group-based protections against discrimination based on sex and gender reassignment
- It must be interpreted in a “clear and consistent way” so employers and public bodies can identify these groups
- Accepting the Scottish Government’s definition of sex would “cut across the definitions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’” and the protected characteristics of it. Lord Hodge said it would essentially undermine single-sex groupings
- Protections against sex discrimination, pregnancy and maternity can “only be interpreted as referring to biological sex”
- The court rejected the suggestion that sex could refer to only biological women for pregnancy and maternity while including trans women with a GRC elsewhere – “This undermines the coherence of the statute”
- Scottish Government guidance would create “two sub-groups” and give “trans persons who possess a GRC greater rights than those who do not”
- Holyrood’s guidance would also “seriously weaken” the protections given to lesbians to have lesbian-only spaces and associations
- The Equality Act will function properly “only if sex is interpreted as biological sex” for separate spaces and single-sex, including changing rooms, hostels and medical services, communal accommodation and others
- “Similar incoherence and impracticability” also arises from Holyrood’s interpretation for “single-sex characteristic associations and charities, women’s fair participation in sport, the operation of the public sector equality duty, and the armed forces”
