Sex

Definition

Discrimination on the grounds of sex originally referred to different treatment because you or someone associated with you was male or female. To illustrate this, note that the EHRC clarifies that there are three broad types of sexual harassment:

  • when someone makes you feel humiliated, offended or degraded because of your sex.
  • then there is sexual harassment, which is when someone makes you feel humiliated, offended or degraded because they treat you in a sexual way.
  • The third type of harassment is when someone treats you unfairly because you refused to put up with sexual harassment.

There are some exceptions eg ‘offering a women-only support service to victims of domestic violence who are women is likely to be justifiable’.

However since the Equality Act 2010, ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ have become more contested and these brief introductions cannot do justice to the complexities. To attempt to give an overview, the Equality Act provisions mean that when someone has legally transitioned from one gender to another, they have the rights of that gender; eg sexually harassing a trans woman is sexual harassment just as if a cis (non-trans) woman had been treated that way. There is no hiding place in saying ‘they’re biologically a man so they can’t be harassed as a woman’.

However, the ‘gender critical’ grouping (who are essentially the same group who are described by their opponents as ‘transphobes’ or ‘TERFs\trans-exclusionary radical feminists’ assert that biological sex is immutable and that gender transition is therefore ‘not real’. Trans people, protected under the Equality Act, protest in response that gender dysphoria is scientifically proven and that gender-critical solutions (such as challenging ‘unconvincing’ women using women’s toilets are unworkable and prejudicial in themselves.

How this pertains to Higher Education

Most staff-focussed attention in HE is centred on staff having relationships with students but it is important to stress that comments of any kind that allude to sexual stereotypes or conduct are inappropriate (and this absolutely includes ‘compliments’).

  • UCL has a detailed set of policies regarding relationships with students.
  • These policies reflect the fact that though students are adults (and can therefore legally give consent to relationships), there is a power imbalance at work.
  • Students, particularly women, experience high levels of sexual harassment at university. even a ‘mild’ comment will come on top of that; it won’t arrive in a vacuum. Students should not be exposed to advances or comments that could make them feel uncomfortable in any way; there is no such thing as an ‘innocent’ comment about someone’s attractiveness, body, lifestyle. These are irrelevant at best and very likely to be unnerving for the student. They are also very likely to be illegal. This is a ‘just don’t’ situation for teaching staff.