ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we explore the legal history of women’s sex-based rights at the national and international levels in order to understand and analyse the gender-critical approach in law. For many centuries, and across all societies, women have been subjugated and oppressed by not being afforded legal rights or even legal personhood. The fight for women to access and implement their rights has been key to women’s liberation. Having those rights enshrined in law is only the beginning of the fight for such rights to be implemented in practice, and both fights continue at all levels. We provide the legal history needed to understand how and why the women’s rights movement has shaped law and practice before turning to what the difference is between sex and gender identity and why it is so important not to conflate the two in order to keep moving forward to advance women’s rights and their equitable place in society.
