Sex and gender in sport categorization: aiming for terminological clarity

Abstract

It is difficult to develop good arguments when the central terms of the discussion are unclear–as with the current confused state of sex and gender terminology. Sports organisations and sports researchers often talk in gender terms when they mean sex; or use the sex and gender vocabularies interchangeably. We propose the use of terminology that distinguishes sex from gender. Historically, sport has been based on sex, as seen in various sex verification procedures specifying female eligibility, based on the determination of sex by biological criteria. We think that this should be reflected in the vocabulary used for the two sport categories (‘male’ and ‘female’, not ‘women’ and ‘men’); and for referring to the binary as the sex binary (not the gender binary); and for calling the procedures sex verification (not gender verification).