The highest court of the UK has unanimously ruled that a woman is defined by “a biological woman and biological sex.”
According to CBC, the UK Supreme Court in a landmark ruling on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, upheld the For Women Scotland campaign group appeal on whether transgender women are legally women under equality legislation.
The campaign group argued that the rights under the Equality Act should be bbased on the sex of the person assigned at the time of birth, challenging the Scottish government guidelines that accompanied a 2018 law aimed at increasing the proportion of women on public sector boards.
Scottish ministers in the issued guidance on the 2018 law stated that trans women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC), a formal document of legal recognition of someone's new gender, were legally women.
Patrick Hodge, deputy president of the Supreme Court, said, “The terms 'women' and 'sex' in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex, but we counsel against reading this judgement as a triumph for one or more groups in our society at the expense of another. It is not.”
He also explained that the interpretation of the Equality Act "does not cause disadvantage to trans people, whether or not they possess a gender recognition certificate. Trans people have the rights which attach to the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.”
Meanwhile, opponents including Amnesty International argued that excluding transgender people conflicts with human rights law and expressed their concern over the ruling.
