April 16, 2025, will go down as a major win for women’s rights in the United Kingdom. A grassroots movement, started by an organization called For Women Scotland, has been battling the U.K. courts, fighting to get clarity on whether possessing a gender certificate actually changes your sex. The supreme court ruled, unanimously, that the terms “woman” and “sex” refer to biological woman and biological sex.

What was at stake were female spaces: sports teams, rape crisis centers, prisons, bathrooms, etc. These spaces have been given back to women.

The ruling has come in loud and clear; men, no matter how they identify, are unable to gain access into women-only spaces. It’s a seismic shift in the narrative that the world has been hearing for at least the past 10 years, and the ripples will begin to cast out immediately.

For women in the UK, the story has unfolded slowly, with subtle changes in language and law, that seemed rather innocuous in the beginning.

The first change was in 2004 with the Gender Recognition Act. It allowed trans people to legally change their sex and obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate, granting them legal recognition in their acquired gender. This meant they could change most legal documents: birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc. to correspond with their affirmed gender. The process involved proving gender dysphoria, working with a doctor, and living in the acquired gender for a specified period.

The next law was the Equality Act in 2010, which protects individuals from discrimination, harassment and victimization based on nine protected characteristics.

It appears that most women in the UK thought these anti-discrimination laws were a worthy cause to support, and with the numbers of trans women being so small in the UK, the general public didn’t worry much about it, largely because at this time, men were also medicalizing their appearance. They were being subtle.

The tipping point for the women in the UK was when “Self Id” was advanced approximately five years ago. In essence, it proposed that men could change their sex legally to female without any basis, other than a desire to do so. They were trying to circumvent the established process established in the Gender Recognition Act.

At this new revelation, women realized that what was once a “be kind” moment, had quickly turned into a threat that was no longer tolerable. The movement to destroy female-only spaces had gone too far, the ask was too large, and the danger was too real.

The whole point of these laws was to protect all people from discrimination, regardless of sex, race or disability. What it was turning into was a free for all, and the U.K. Supreme Court understood this fact.

The negation of biological differences, the denial of women’s rights for privacy, and the refusal to allow fair play in competitive sports for female athletes has forced this decision. It was inevitable. You can not protect women’s rights if you cannot define what a woman is. You cannot protect the safety of girls and women if you eliminate all safeguarding measures. An “open door” policy into female spaces was already having negative effects, many with disastrous outcomes. That was what was at stake.

What is happening in the U.K. will come to the U.S. In many ways, it is already here. Women make up 51% of the population. We wish to live a life free from discrimination and to have spaces of our own. Ten years ago, few people would ever have believed that women would be battling to have our Supreme Court establish that a piece of paper that says a man is a woman, does not make it true. Yet here we are.

The pendulum is swinging back to the center. I rejoice for my sisters in the U.K., and I look forward to the necessary changes that need to occur in the U.S., so that girls and women can have our rights restored as well.

Lisa Smith is a Soquel resident.