Should legal sex and gender status be abolished? What might such a future law look like; and what are its risks? Currently in Britain, we each have a legal gender, starting with the sex we are registered as at birth. This legal structure has been criticised on several grounds, including that it:

a) contributes to a system which gives women and men unequal status and different roles.

b) begins the process of childhood socialisation into gender roles.

c) makes life harder for people who do not fit the sex and gender categories to which they are assigned.

This podcast episode was recorded at an online webinar, Abolishing legal sex status: A help or hindrance to equality law?, held in March 2022. 

The episode presents “decertification” as a “slow” law reform – where “slow law” indicates reforms worth attending to even though they may not be presently practicable. It also explains what the law could look like if people’s sex and gender, in Britain, was no longer registered and accorded legal status.

Speakers include Prof Davina Cooper (KCL), Dr Flora Renz (University of Kent), Prof Elizabeth Peel (Loughborough University) & Dr Jessica Smith (KCL)