What is a woman? And what does it matter? It is becoming increasingly difficult to talk about women’s rights, or even basic biological reality, in a common language.
While most Americans understand that a “woman” is an adult human female, radical gender ideologues want to redefine womanhood as a subjective state unrelated to biological sex. This redefinition of once-assumed basic facts has serious consequences for equal opportunity, privacy, safety and freedom of expression.
Right now, females are losing athletic, employment and educational opportunities to biological males. Biological males are gaining access to sororities, domestic violence shelters, locker rooms, women’s prisons, and rape crisis centers. And the women and girls who object to these practices are being threatened, coerced and shamed into silence and submission.
Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines tied for fifth in the 200 freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18, 2022, in Atlanta. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
People who speak the truth about male and female sex differences are being punished and canceled. And accurate data collection regarding public health, crime, education and the economic status of women is being compromised by the misuse of basic sex-based terminology.
The Women’s Bill of Rights has already become state law in Kansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma. Every state should adopt a women’s bill of rights or similar protections, and Congress should pass the Women’s Bill of Rights to clarify these definitions in federal law and ensure that no woman or girl loses out on equal opportunity, privacy or safety in any of the 50 states.
Opponents of the Women’s Bill of Rights have misleadingly labeled the bill “anti-transgender.” While this label may make it easier for some people to dismiss the legislation out of hand, it’s not accurate or honest.
The WBOR does nothing to curb the rights of people who identify as transgender, nor does it bar states or the federal government from addressing the question of identification in other ways. It simply makes the law recognize the biological and very real differences between the sexes, and protects the rights women have been enjoying in America for decades.
Some social programs, such as Women, Infants and Children (WIC), recognize the unique challenges and vulnerabilities women face as mothers. And women are explicitly exempt from one legal requirement – selective service registration – precisely because our government has recognized that biological sex differences matter. All of these areas in law, where men and women are categorized separately, are jeopardized without the Women’s Bill of Rights.
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The WBOR will help us navigate into a future where all people have the highest degree of freedom. We cannot sacrifice women’s rights or sideline their interests amid social changes that promote greater inclusivity or gender equality, however well-intentioned. We cannot – and need not – push some Americans back to move others forward.
Riley Gaines is a spokeswoman at Independent Women’s Voice and a former 12-time All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky.