The Fragility of Fairness

Proponents and critics alike tend to adjudicate the ethics of sex segregation against the criterion of fairness. In general, fairness supports sex segregation so that women athletes can excel, but there is not yet consensus on who counts as a “woman.” Recent philosophical debates about sex segregation have unfolded as attempts to maximize the fairness of sports policies in light of concerns about biological categorization and social discrimination. We argue that fairness, while an important ideal, is an incomplete framework for organizing competitors and defers vexing questions about gender and justice. This is because, first, fairness can yield contradictory intuitions about the justice of sex-segregated competition; second, it can be overruled by more important values external to sport; third, it threatens to drain sport of its non-competitive virtues; and finally, it effectively masks unjust reasons for grouping athletes in particular ways.