Who Is a Woman? The Supreme Court Decides
By Femi Olugbile
No, this is not a joke. It is for real.
On the 16th of April, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom gave a ruling on the vexatious question of ‘Who Is a Woman?’
In London, outside the premises of the highest court in the land, there was celebration, and the popping of champagne corks by the group known as ‘For Women Scotland’, who had brought the case against the government of Scotland.
The outcome was not just ‘common sense’ or a foregone conclusion, as many bemused people in ‘less civilized’ Africa might have reasoned.
‘The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms ‘Women’ and ‘Sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex…’ read the Supreme Court judgement.
The ‘Equality Act 2010’ forbade discrimination against anyone in the workplace or elsewhere on any basis, including Gender. The Court, in its judgement clarified that ‘Woman’ in the Equality Act should refer to a ‘Biological Woman’ – meaning one born with the anatomical and physiological properties of a woman, just as the reference to ‘Sex’ in the Act meant the Sex of the individual at birth, leaving unsaid the implication that it excluded any sexual identity ‘affirmed’ later in life.
What looks like hair-splitting controversy over a matter ‘even a child could decide’ may leave many Nigerians scratching their heads in bemusement. To the best of their knowledge, here in Nigeria, women have always been women. Well, not always, but mostly. Those who were ‘different’ took care to keep their inclinations under wraps, fearful of cultural sensibility which have crystallised into draconian laws; this was until lately, when social media ‘celebrities’ like ‘Auntie’ Bobrisky raised their heads above the parapet.
There have been large-scale protests in London and Edinburgh since last week. Some members of ‘For Women Scotland’ have received death threats.
It has been alleged that the considerable population of ‘Trans’ people in the United Kingdom, estimated at 262,000 or 0.5% of the UK population at the last census, have been thrown under the bus by the judgement.
‘Gender Dysphoria’, which describes the experience of people who feel a mismatch between their personal sense of their own gender and the sex assigned to them at birth, has grown complex in the western world in the past few decades, acquiring its own specialised vocabulary. It is an unacknowledged central issue in the culture war underpinning the political right-wing revival in the USA and Europe.
A Transgender (‘Trans’) person is one whose gender identity is different from their ‘biological sex’. In parts of the UK, a male child who ‘identifies’ as a female may be allowed to dress as a female to school and may be entitled to hormonal treatment and ‘gender reassignment surgery’ under the National Health Service (NHS). A Trans woman may obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), which would entitle her to all the rights and privileges of the ‘affirmed’ gender. These include ability to ‘update’ her birth certificate and get married or form a civil partnership. She is entitled to engage in work and sports as a woman and must not be discriminated against. A ‘biologically male’ person ‘affirmed’ as a female may use female-only toilets and compete in female sports.
Many Labour Party politicians and left-wing activists support ‘Trans Rights’ and see them as part of ‘Inclusion’,(the ‘I’ in DEI), while Right-wing Conservatives see the issue as freedom taken to absurdity.
One of the first pronouncements of Donald Trump on becoming President was ‘There are only two recognised sexes in USA’, referring obviously to biological sex. It is speculated that the present aura in the USA might have emboldened the Supreme Court Justices in London to reach back for ‘common sense’ in place of ‘political correctness’.
Kemi Badenoch, leader of UK Conservatives, celebrated the judgement by taunting her Labour opposite number, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who had refused, only a few weeks before, to confirm that a ‘Woman’ could be defined as ‘a person with a cervix’. Waxing even more graphic, Kemi and the gleeful Conservatives rejoiced that ‘a man with a willie’ could no longer use ‘female-only’ toilets or compete unfairly in sports with ‘real women’.
Lord Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, celebrated the judgement.
One other celebrant who popped champagne on her luxury yacht was Edinburgh native and bestselling author JK Rowling, creator of Harry Porter. Long a champion of drawing a distinction between a ‘real’ woman and an ‘affirmed’ female, she has been attacked relentlessly by activists. The Harry Porter brand proved too strong to be destroyed by the attacks, while University Professors and corporate Chief Executives have lost their jobs for expressing similar views. Even Nigeria’s Chimamanda Adichie once dipped her toe in the troubled waters.
The Prime Minister has promised that the government will respect the Supreme Court judgement and implement necessary changes, which may cut across Education to Workplace and Sports, despite ideological grumblings from some members of his party. It is possible that, in the NHS, ‘biological female’ nurses will reclaim the exclusive use of ‘female-only’ toilets from their ‘affirmed female’ colleagues. Female wards may now accommodate only biological female patients, and not include ‘affirmed’ females, as they do now. Female prisons may be reserved exclusively for ‘biological women’, especially in the light of the fact that some ‘affirmed’ female prisoners have been known to make other female prisoners pregnant. The content of compulsory ‘Sex Education’ taught to children in schools may be modified. Professional guidelines pertaining to ‘gender reassignment’ surgeries and other medical interventions may be reviewed. The value and future relevance of the Gender Recognition Certificate may be called into question.
It is not the end of the story, as the demonstrations and death threats in London and Edinburgh in the past few days have shown. The Culture War of the Western world is well and truly joined.
