The United Kingdom’s supreme court ruled Wednesday that males who identify as women do not fall qualify as women under its anti-discrimination law, a monumental decision that will have major consequences for British law.
The high court defined “woman” based on sex rather than gender identity, keeping it within the bounds of scientific reality rather than giving into the demands of left-wing activists. It specifically addressed Britain’s 2010 Equality Act, an anti-discrimination law that covers nine protected characteristics and applies to various sectors of British life.
“The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological women and biological sex,” said Lord Patrick Hodge, deputy president of the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, in announcing the ruling.
“We counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another, it is not.”
Feminist activist group For Women Scotland brought the legal challenge against the Scottish government in response to a 2018 Scottish law that sought to increase women’s representation on public boards. The definition of “woman” under the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 included males who have undergone transgender procedures.
The Inner House, the Scottish high court for appeals, ruled that Scotland’s law went beyond the legislative powers of the Scottish parliament because the definition of “woman” covered biological males claiming to be transgender. Following the ruling, Scottish Ministers said the law’s definition of “woman” is the same as the 2010 Equality Act, teeing up the U.K. Supreme Court decision.
“A victory for all of the women who faced personal abuse or lost their jobs for stating the obvious. Women are women and men are men: you cannot change your biological sex,” said British Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch.
“The era of Keir Starmer telling us that some women have penises has come to an end. Hallelujah!”
The British supreme court cautioned that it is not adjudicating public debates about gender or the definition of “woman” beyond the specific law the court addressed. But, the court’s ruling will reverberate across British law with regards to women’s spaces, wages, maternity, and other aspects of life.
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