In November 2016, Britain’s High Court ruled that sex segregation in religious schools is not discriminatory per se, and is allowed as long as girls and boys receive education of equal quality. This decision was reversed by the Court of Appeals (CoA) in October 2017. We assert that the Court was not bound to accept Ofsted’s position only if it found that ‘separate cannot be equal’, critique both courts’ position on a number of fronts, and argue that they asked the wrong questions. The High Court was too quick to reject, and the CoA too quick to deem as irrelevant, the similarities between race segregation (deemed inherently unequal) and sex segregation (which is not). The CoA’s reluctance to consider the group implications, and to focus solely on the individual boy or girl. The High Court and the majority in the CoA were wrong to dismiss the claim that segregation on the basis of sex constitutes expressive harm to women in general. In the context of religious schools, we suggest that gender segregation conveys a message of inferiority, suggesting that girls’ (and women’s) presence in the male-dominated public sphere is unwelcome, and that it preserves traditional gender roles thereby curtailing girls’ opportunities. We acknowledge that religious communities may genuinely feel obligated to instil gender segregation in education and elsewhere. We examine whether religious or pedagogical considerations may override the argument against gender segregation, and whether institutional questions (e.g. if the school is private or public or if it is publicly funded) make a difference in this respect, issues not addressed by the courts.

中文翻译：

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重新考虑分离但平等：宗教教育和性别分离

2016 年 11 月，英国高等法院裁定宗教学校的性别隔离本身不具有歧视性，只要女孩和男孩接受同等质量的教育，性别隔离就被允许。上诉法院 (CoA) 于 2017 年 10 月推翻了这一决定。我们断言，只有在认定“分离不能平等”的情况下，法院才必须接受 Ofsted 的立场，并在多个方面批评两个法院的立场，并争辩说他们问错了问题。高等法院很快就驳回了种族隔离（被视为天生不平等）和性别隔离（事实并非如此）之间的相似之处，而 CoA 也很快将其视为无关紧要。CoA 不愿考虑群体影响，而只关注个别男孩或女孩。高等法院和 CoA 中的大多数人错误地驳回了基于性别的隔离对一般妇女构成明显伤害的主张。在宗教学校的背景下，我们认为性别隔离传达了一种自卑的信息，表明女孩（和妇女）出现在男性主导的公共领域是不受欢迎的，它保留了传统的性别角色，从而减少了女孩的机会。我们承认宗教社区可能真的觉得有义务在教育和其他地方灌输性别隔离。我们研究宗教或教学方面的考虑是否可以推翻反对性别隔离的论点，以及制度问题（例如，学校是私立的还是公立的还是公共资助的）在这方面是否有所不同，