Impacts on Gender Inequality in Sports from a Biological Perspective

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_61How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Gender; Sports; Female Athletes; Hormones

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of biological factors—primarily testosterone levels and disorders of sex development (DSD)—on gender inequality in competitive sports. Through analysis of physiological mechanisms and case studies of Caster Semenya and Imane Khelif, we demonstrate that current policies mandating testosterone suppression for female and DSD athletes lack scientific validity and perpetuate discrimination. Since forced hormone reduction imposes physical harm while failing to address multifaceted sources of competitive advantage (e.g., training resources, genetics). Meanwhile, no direct causal link exists between endogenous testosterone levels and athletic performance, evidenced by significant hormonal overlap between elite male and female athletes. The current gender testing policies exclusively targeting female athletes reinforce binary gender norms. The study argues that equating high testosterone with “unfair advantage” ignores biological diversity and contravenes principles of bodily autonomy. The research recommends replacing singular hormonal thresholds with athlete-centred evaluations, alongside developing inclusive categories. Ultimately, sports governance must prioritise ethical priority over enforcing physiological conformity to achieve substantive fairness.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Xuyi Zhang
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/15
TI  - Impacts on Gender Inequality in Sports from a Biological Perspective
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Mental Growth and Human Resilience (MGHR 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 564
EP  - 570
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_61
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_61
ID  - Zhang2025
ER  -