Defining 'woman': what judges ruled and why it matters

How sex and gender are now understood in UK equality law

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The UK's highest court has unanimously ruled that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act "refer to a biological woman and biological sex".

Here, we take a look at what the ruling means and how campaigners and politicians have reacted.

WHAT WAS THE CASE ABOUT?

The dispute centred on whether someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) recognising their gender as female should be treated as a woman under the UK 2010 Equality Act.

WHAT IS A GENDER RECOGNI-TION CERTIFICATE?

A person can apply for a certificate to have their affirmed or acquired gender legally recognised in the UK.

Obtaining a GRC requires a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, having lived in the acquired gender for at least two years and an intention to live in that gender for the rest of the applicant's life.

WHAT DID THE COURT RULE?

In a ruling on Wednesday, five justices at the UK's highest court unanimously ruled that a GRC does not change a trans person's legal sex under the Equality Act.

Delivering the judgment Lord Hodge said the "central question" is how the words "woman" and "sex" are defined in the 2010 legislation.

He continued: "The terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex."

WHAT DOES THE RULING MEAN?

Transgender women with a GRC can be excluded from single-sex spaces if "proportionate".

The 88-page ruling stated that if the word "sex" did not only mean biological sex in the 2010 legislation, providers of single-sex spaces including changing rooms, homeless hostels and medical services would face "practical difficulties".