Nicholas Dobson examines the reasoning behind the Supreme Court’s recent decision on sex & gender
- Looks at the Supreme Court’s judgment in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers.
- The terms ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex.
On 16 April 2025, the Supreme Court conducted a major exercise in statutory interpretation. For its judgment in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16 focused on establishing the correct meaning of ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010). And the court’s unanimous decision was that these terms refer to biological sex. Lord Hodge, Lady Rose and Lady Simler gave a joint judgment, with which the other justices agreed.
As the court explained in opening its long judgment, EqA 2010 ‘seeks to give statutory protection to people who are at risk of suffering from unlawful discrimination’. For while woman have historically suffered discrimination and, since the Sex Discrimination Act
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