Saving Women’s Sport: The Case for Feminist Dialogue With the Unregulated Majority

Studies of eligibility regulation often focus on how, given inconclusive science, policymakers engage in ideological work to stabilize the women’s category. This paper considers the policy role of women athletes and particularly the “unregulated majority”: the notion that certain women are protected from eligibility regulation and benefit from a cisnormative, binary, and Global North-dominated system of sports competition. I examine a case from the 1990s, when a group of women athletes sought to reinstate gynecological exams and chromosome screening in track and field. Analyzing correspondence of the “Gender Verification Fax Club,” an influential group of experts, I consider whether meaningful dialogue was achieved. I reflect on how a feminist approach to dialogue could address the role of hegemonic femininity in eligibility regulation.