from Anglican Futures
Sometimes you have to feel sorry for the bishops of the Church of England.
The decision of the Supreme Court in ‘For Women Scotland Limited vs the Scottish Government’ has revealed the chasms that exists between the meaning of ‘sex’, ‘legal sex’ and ‘gender,’ and has left the Church of England with a number of awkward questions.
The Supreme Court has stated, for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, that the definition of ‘sex’ is a biological one, so ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are also defined biologically, not by the possession of a ‘Gender Recognition Certificate’.
This should not have come as a surprise, nor should it be suggested that the decision does not have wider implications, because as recently as 2022, the UK Government was clear that ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are not the same.
Sex: “Assigned by medical practitioners at birth based on physical characteristics. Sex can be either male or female.”
Gender: “Often expressed in terms of masculinity and femininity, gender refers to socially constructed characteristics, and is often assumed from the sex people are registered as at birth.”
In 2025, the Church of England ‘s National Society for Education agreed that the two terms were not interchangeable:
Sex: “This term is typically used to refer to biological status as male/female but may refer to genetics, anatomy, physiology or legal status,”
Gender: “The cultural constructions associated with being male/female or other gender categories, as distinguished from biological sex”.
But the eagle-eyed may note an addition to the Church’s definition of ‘sex’ to include “legal status”, and this is where many of the problems for the Church of England lie.