Safeguarding single-sex sport

Women and girls who want certainty and safety in sport are facing hostility for daring to request what was once an unequivocal right. By Claire Chandler.

Do you agree that women and girls are entitled to play single-sex sport?

For decades, Australia’s unequivocal answer to that question has been “yes” - of course women and girls should be entitled to play single-sex sport. Given the overwhelming evidence that males have significant performance advantages over women in the vast majority of sports, any answer other than “yes” is an acknowledgement that you’re happy for sportswomen to face unfairness and injury risk in pursuit of other priorities.

So how can it be that in 2022, the mere suggestion that female sporting competition isn’t an appropriate category for males is regarded with such hostility?

Over the last two years, I’ve spoken with dozens of Australian women who’ve approached me over this issue. All they wanted was the certainty that both they and their daughters would be able to participate in single-sex women’s sport. It’s staggering that this simple, common-sense request leads to those same women being ignored, outcast or denigrated by their own sports, state governments, and human rights and peak sporting bodies.

In 2019, absent any decision of government or conversation with the Australian public, peak sporting bodies and major sports in concert with the Australian Human Rights Commission suddenly started saying that actually, no, women and girls are not entitled to single-sex sport. Female single-sex sport, according to the AHRC and Sport Australia, is to be regarded as unlawful discrimination except in limited circumstances. Eligibility for women’s sport, they said, should be based not on sex, but rather on self-declared gender identity (despite the fact the physical differences between the two sexes are the very reason we have both men’s and women’s categories in sport).

Rather than codes like Australian Rules or Rugby being able to maintain an upfront rule that males cannot play full contact collision sports against females, the guidelines repeatedly couch the operation of single-sex sport in the emotive language of “excluding an individual”. Local clubs and volunteers wishing to provide women and girls with an avenue to play single-sex sport are told they should consult with the relevant national sporting organisation and the national players association, develop a written policy and process for assessing applications for males to play in their women’s competition, and provide any males asked not to play in women’s competitions with written reasons for “any decision to exclude them”. The person who has been asked not to play in the women’s competition can take the administrators or volunteers who made the decision to the AHRC or Federal Court where they can face charges of unlawful discrimination.

Given the history of this issue in Australia, it’s strange that one of the main strands of opposition to my Save Women’s Sport Bill is that sports know how to manage these issues and we should leave it in their hands. However, the argument that “sports know best” is completely undermined by the fact our largest codes had to pay the AHRC to tell them what the law was and how to manage the issue. The argument that “it’s nothing to do with politicians” is undermined by the fact that the entire point of the guidelines issued by the AHRC was to interpret Commonwealth law which governs, in a confusing and logically inconsistent fashion, when sport can be operated on the basis of sex, and when it can’t.

The idea that sporting bodies either here in Australia or globally have a good handle on this issue is plainly wrong. Less than three years ago, Australia’s largest sports had to pay the AHRC to tell them  what Commonwealth law allows them to do. The resulting guidance is clear as mud, and tells clubs and organisations that even following the guidelines doesn’t protect them from legal action, and they should seek their own independent legal advice. More recently, in the aftermath of openly transgender Laurel Hubbard taking the place of a young Nauruan weightlifter at the Tokyo Olympics, the IOC acknowledged their guidelines weren’t fit for purpose and needed re-writing. The IOC’s latest attempt at guidelines have been criticised by almost everyone as just kicking the can down the road. The US National Collegiate Athletic Association, one of the most influential pathways in global sport for future champions, is currently allowing the biological male swimmer Lia Thomas to smash women’s records and relegate the best female swimmers to second place. Teammates and competitors who have complained have been told to shut up or risk never getting a job or sponsorships. Elite female athletes all around the world, including here in Australia, will tell you confidentially that anyone speaking out in defence of single-sex sport would be risking everything – their career, their team selections, their mental health in the face of a barrage of abuse.

Let’s also remember that major sporting bodies are hardly known for their long history of having women’s best interests at heart. A number of Australia’s largest sports have been accused of a persistent culture of treating their female participants appallingly and failing to act on allegations of abuse. Elite female players often work full time jobs and take unpaid leave to play in the top competitions. Sportsmen with records of violence against women continue to be feted as ‘stars’. The Australian Open tried to ban fans from asking, “Where is Peng Shui?”

So, back to my original question: Do you agree that women and girls are entitled to play single-sex sport?

We know that the answer for Labor and the Greens is no, and they don’t dare even talk about it. If the Liberal Party has the courage to answer yes (and why on earth wouldn’t we?) then it’s up to us to send an absolutely clear message that we support and encourage single-sex sport for women. If not, we’re forcing women to prove that they need single-sex sport, while ignoring the reality that both the law and their own sports governing bodies are telling them to keep quiet.

Claire Chandler is a Liberal Senator for Tasmania.