Woman In Black Shirt Holding Red Lipstick by cottonbro studio is licensed under CC BY 2.0 in pexels.

There have long been debates around transgender inclusion within feminist movements. Although anti-transgender sentiments within feminism date back to the 1970s, these views were not prominent for much of feminist history. However, since the 2010s, anti-trans sentiment within feminism has received much greater attention in public discourse, often in ways that negatively impact transgender persons.

A small but vocal faction, often described as “TERFs” (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists) or gender-critical feminists, argue that feminism should focus on “sex-based rights”—the idea that legal protections and spaces should be reserved for those assigned female at birth. Many argue that this position excludes transgender women and reinforces a narrow, often white and middle-class definition of womanhood. While most feminists generally support transgender rights, TERFs have received significant attention through media coverage, political alliances, and legal battles, making their views seem more prominent than they likely are within the larger feminist movement.

Built on Biology?

TERFs emphasize the importance of sex in determining identity, often denying or minimizing the  influence of culture, history, and personal experience. However, much research shows that sex and gender are more complex than a rigid binary. That is, what it means to be a man or a woman (even within the fixed binary) changes dramatically over time and across cultures, as the definitions and boundaries of what a “man,” “woman,” or “non-binary person” is shift over time.

Historically, the idea that biological sex is deterministic has been used to uphold rigid gender norms, for example, by limiting women’s access to political and professional spaces and by defining trans women as “biologically male” regardless of their identities. TERF arguments rely on static definitions of sex to draw boundaries around womanhood, maintaining that trans women can never truly be women because they were not assigned female at birth. This approach ultimately reinforces the same gendered structures that earlier 1st and 2nd wave feminist movements have long challenged.

Exaggerated Threats to Safety and Fairness

The question of transgender women in sports and bathrooms has garnered great public attention and debate. Both TERFs and more traditional political conservatives often argue that transgender women in these spaces compromise safety and fairness for cisgender women. However, research has found no evidence that transgender women pose any greater danger than cisgender men and women.

The same arguments used to exclude transgender women from women’s spaces are often used against cisgender women who do not conform to Western ideas of femininity. During the 2024 Paris Olympics, for example, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was falsely accused of being transgender, even though there was no evidence to support the claim. Similarly, South African runner Caster Semenya has faced gender tests and competition bans because of her naturally high testosterone levels, despite being assigned female at birth. These cases reveal a contradiction—if some cisgender women don’t fit traditional gender norms, it raises the question of whether strict definitions of womanhood should decide who belongs in women’s spaces. Critics argue that these accusations are less  about fairness than about reinforcing racial and gender biases, using moral panics and misinformation to exclude marginalized groups.

The Grand Paradox

In contrast to other feminists, TERFs maintain strong political alliances with right-wing groups. Organizations like the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) have collaborated with The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that also opposes issues related to women’s reproduction, family structures, and LGBTQ+ protections. This paradox has led scholars to question whether a movement aligned with groups seeking to dismantle fundamental feminist principles can truly be considered feminist.

Such tensions are not new. Feminism has changed over time, with each generation debating what the movement should focus on. For example, disagreements between older feminists, who focused on issues like workplace equality, reproductive rights, and protections against sexual violence, and newer feminists, who advocate for including transgender rights, racial justice, and broader LGBTQ+ issues, show how divisions emerge. Some older feminists feel that prioritizing gender identity and racial justice shifts attention away from core feminist issues like sexism and women’s rights, making women’s struggles less visible and less prioritized. The current conflict involving TERFs is another generational divide, where some feminists reject new ideas about gender and race that move beyond cisgender and white women, while others push for a more inclusive approach.