Why is there such a generational divide in views on sex and gender in Britain? | Susanna Rustin

A majority of my age group agreed with a recent supreme court ruling – among 18- to 24-year-olds, the reverse was true. I believe the key lies in our respective life stagesDiffering attitudes to women’s and transgender rights activism are often said to be generational. One poll, published a month on from the supreme court ruling that the legal definition of “woman” in the Equality Act is based on biological sex, found 63% supportive of the ruling and 18% opposed. But younger people were far more likely to be in the latter camp, with 53% of 18- to 24-year-olds disagreeing with the judgment. In my age group, 50-64, the figure was just 13%. Such results echo earlier polls.As with any attempt to link a demographic with a point of view, there are plenty of exceptions. Last month Lady Hale, the octogenarian former president of the supreme court, became one of them when she argued that the ruling had been misinterpreted, telling a literary festival she had met doctors “who said there is no such thing as biological sex”.Susanna Rustin is a social affairs journalist and the author of Sexed: A History of British FeminismDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...