The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom recognized Wednesday, April 16, that for legal purposes the term “woman” is determined by biological sex. “The concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man,” the court ruled.

In announcing the decision, the court’s vice-chairman, Patrick Stewart Hodge, said, “the unanimous decision of this court is that the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological woman and biological sex.” You can read the ruling here.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government said it has always supported the protection of “non-mixed spaces based on biological sex” and that the ruling brought “clarity and confidence” around the provision of services in hospitals, domestic violence shelters and sports clubs.

Legally, women will be protected from sharing public or private spaces and services specifically intended for women when men who consider themselves women (“trans women”) seek to use them.

The Court’s ruling directly impacts the interpretation of the Equality Act, passed by the UK Parliament in 2010, which updated numerous anti-discrimination rules and regulations. Within that framework, the Scottish Parliament passed legislation in 2018 with the aim of increasing the proportion of women on the boards of government bodies to 50 percent. As part of that legislation, the government said that so-called “trans women” would be contemplated to achieve such a purpose.

The organization For Women Scotland (pictured above) took the Scottish government to court, arguing that the quotas should be filled only by real women, determined on the basis of biological sex. Progressively, the judicial dispute escalated to the Supreme Court.

On leaving the court, Susan Smith, co-director of the organization, said that the ruling will ensure that “services and spaces for women are for women […] Everyone should be protected by the Equality Act. It’s not about prejudice or bigotry, as some would say, it’s not about hatred towards another community. It’s simply about saying that there are differences, and biology is one of those differences, and we need protections based on that.”

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