A campaign group has won the right to appeal in a legal row over the definition of "woman" in Scotland.

For Women Scotland (FWS) took the Scottish Government to court in 2021 to challenge its definition of "women" in the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act.

The legislation aims to ensure that non-executive members on public boards are at least 50% women, which was defined as those living as women or those who intended to or had already gone through the process of legal gender recognition.

Under the Equality Act there are separate definitions for women and transgender women, with FWS challenging the Scottish Government on those grounds.


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They lost an initial judicial review but were successful on appeal, with the definition changed as a result to state that "woman" means both the definition contained in the Equality Act and in the Gender Recognition Act.

As a result someone with a full Gender Recognition Certificate can be defined as a woman under the legislation.

FWS called for a second judicial review, which they lost in 2022, and an appeal was thrown out in November last year.

On Friday though, as reported by our sister title The National, the group announced that the UK Supreme Court has given them leave to appeal, with a crowdfunder to be set up to pay their legal costs.