Fairness for women in sport is only for the lucky few
Sports governing bodies are continuing to ignore established facts and guidance about sex differences in sports. Even some sports which have finally accepted that it is both unfair and unsafe for women to have to face male athletes in competition at the highest level are continuing to fail to protect ordinary women and girls. It is time for the government to step in to insist sporting authorities end this irresponsible, hypocritical approach, which causes women and girls to self-exclude and undermines participation.
The select committee for Culture, Media and Sport at Westminster has launched a new inquiry into community and school sport. Sex Matters has submitted written evidence to the inquiry showing how the failure to provide fair, safe, male-free sport is alienating some women and girls.
Most sport is sex-affected. Any sport that runs a separate women’s category is using the exception for sport in the Equality Act which permits the exclusion of the other sex where necessary for fairness or safety. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has stated explicitly that possession of a gender-recognition certificate does not change that. Sport is played by bodies not identities.
The UK’s sports councils, which are publicly funded, all recognise that the participation of women and girls in sport and exercise lags behind that of men and boys. Along with many national governing bodies of sport, the sports councils have a stated intention to increase female participation. Yet many sports are still allowing male players who assert that they are women into the women’s category. The transgender guidance from the Sports Councils Equality Group concluded that this cannot be reconciled with fair sport for women, and in some sports there is a safety problem too. The guidance was not prescriptive; it was merely “guidance”, and many sports continue to ignore it.
Much has been written about the problems caused for female players by trans-identifying male players in football. The appalling two-tier policy announced by the England and Wales Cricket Board last year protects around 300 female cricketers from facing male players in women’s game but leaves the other 33,000 regular female players unprotected.
But this is going on across many other sports too. World Netball banned men from the women’s category at international level, recognising both fairness and safety risks. But in the UK, England Netball allows trans-identifying males to compete against women in this quintessentially women’s sport, as long as they suppress their testosterone. The Sports Councils Equality Group guidance says this measure does not remove male advantage. For under-18s, England Netball places no restrictions on trans-identifying males in the female game. This means teenage boys can play “as girls”. England Netball also claims there are no problems with this. Members who have reported a problem have been told theirs is the only one.
Other mass-participation sports, such as golf and tennis, have compromised too, refusing to restore a protected category for female players at club level. Yet that is where most people play most, often all, of their sport. Tennis players say that winning the club championship and getting your name on the winners’ board means a lot to them. But the Lawn Tennis Association policy dismisses this, saying that “within venues, the purpose is primarily to provide fun, social competition to enable people to feel part of their local tennis community”. In other words, affirming transgender identities is more important than fairness for female players.
The current Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport – the government department responsible for sport, which funds the sports councils – has said that biology cannot be ignored when fairness is being considered. Her predecessor had explicitly called for the female category to be protected. But so far there has been no action to make this a reality. Who is tracking the impact of policies that allow males in women’s sport and women’s changing rooms? Not the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; not the sports councils; not individual sports governing bodies. It has been left to courageous individuals and campaign groups to report problems and collect evidence.
England Hockey finally announced a protected female category at all levels in January 2025, though Scottish and Welsh Hockey have yet to do so. New policies are on the way in several other sports. Watch this space.