Sex Difference in Support for Men in Women’s Sports
Data Brief
This week’s graph shows results from nationally representative surveys that have asked men and women about their support for transgender women (i.e., men) competing in women’s sports. I identified 11 nationally representative surveys: six from the United States (USA), four from the United Kingdom (UK), and one from Canada (CAN). The surveys were conducted between 2015 and 2025.
Key Points
In all 11 surveys, a greater proportion of women than men supported the idea of transgender women competing in women’s sports.
Support from both men and women decreased over time. This was revealed by polls conducted by the same research groups over multiple years (i.e., the Gallup poll in the USA, and the YouGov poll in the UK).
Across time and country, men’s support for transgender women competing in women’s sports was more consistent than women’s support for transgender women competing in women’s sports. In 10 of the 11 polls, men’s support ranged from 11-24%, whereas in the same 10 polls, women’s support ranged from 13-43%.
Women in the USA expressed greater support for transgender women competing in women’s sports than women in the UK and Canada,
Roughly similar proportions of men in the USA, UK, and Canada expressed support for transgender women competing in women’s sports.
Sources
Flores et al. 2015, The Economist 2021, YouGov USA 2024, Gallup 2021, Gallup 2023, Gallup 2025, Leger 2024, YouGov UK 2018, YouGov UK 2020, YouGov UK 2022, YouGov UK 2024.
Bonus Commentary
I discovered 11 nationally representative surveys that asked men and women about their support or opposition to transgender women (i.e., men) competing in women’s sports. To my knowledge, this is the first time that results from all nationally representative surveys on this topic have been compiled into one source.
The results reveal that women, not men, have been the strongest supporters for transgender women competing in women’s sports. In no survey was the proportion of men supporting this idea greater than the proportion of women supporting this idea. Other consistent findings were that support for inclusion of transgender women in women’s sports was higher among younger adults than older adults (e.g., YouGov UK 2024) and Democrats than Republicans (e.g., Gallup 2025).
What explains the sex difference in support?
Some possible explanations for why women are greater supporters of men competing in women’s sports are as follows:
1. Fewer women than men play and watch sports, including watching women’s sports. Thus, it might be possible that some women lack the personal experience in playing and watching sports to truly appreciate how different male and female athletic abilities are.
2. Compared to men, women are more likely to value inclusivity. Women are also more likely than men to score higher on tests that reflect either women’s greater levels of empathy or women’s greater willingness to report empathic behavior. In the case of transgender sports, women’s concerns about being or appearing inclusive and empathetic might be so strong that that they override an ability to preserve female well-being (i.e., “suicidal empathy”).
3. Men who are willing to protect women are judged as more desirable partners by women, and men who are unwilling to protect women are judged more harshly by women than men who are willing to protect women. Thus, in being asked about transgender sports participation, men may be expressing their evolved and/or learned preference to protect women from other men. Together with #2, this reflects a situation in which the feminine needs the masculine, i.e., male-established boundaries can help prevent female suicidal empathy.
4. Many women may be following the ideas and aims of feminist philosophy. Recently, Marc Defant of the University of South Florida wrote a paper titled, “The Biological Reality of Sex and Gender: Challenging Social Construction.” In the paper, Defant refutes arguments related to the feminist view of social construction of sex/gender. At one point in the paper, Defant suggested that one reason that many feminists have not spoken out against transgender women competing in women’s sports may be due to a feminist aim of creating a sexless/genderless society. (For a brief explanation of the intersectional quagmire that feminists have worked themselves into regarding the transgender sports issue, see my essay/podcast from 2023.)
Lack of sex-segregated data in some polls
Polls on for transgender women competing in women’s sports have also been conducted by NPR-Ipsos, New York Times-Ipsos, NBC News, and Save Women’s Sports. I did not include those polls in the current analysis because those polls did not present sex-segregated results. The earliest polls showed a clear sex difference in support for transgender women competing in women’s sports. Thus, the decisions of pollsters to not segregate subsequent polls by sex reflects, at minimum, poor statistical practice. However, these decisions might also reflect purposeful data suppression, as pollsters might have wanted to hide the result that shows women’s culpability in the ongoing transgender sports issue. Interestingly, though Gallup reported sex-segregated results in all three of its polls, the way that it did this changed over time. In their 2021 report, Gallup presented the sex-segregated results clearly in the main text of their report. However, Gallup did not publish the sex-segregated results in the main text of their 2023 and 2025 reports. Instead, I had to dig through Gallup’s online supplementary files to find the sex-segregated results for those two polls. Also, the lack of sex-segregated results in some of these polls is unusual, because it is at odds with calls by women’s health advocates for more sex-segregated data in research.
Finally, assuming results from these polls would have also shown the sex difference in support for transgender athletes, suppressing the sex-segregated findings hides evidence of men trying to bring order to society and care for women. Think of it this way, if the opposite result were found – and more men than women supported men participating in women’s sports – that result would almost certainly be used against men as evidence of patriarchy and men’s disrespect for women’s spaces. Yet, here, men are consistently rejecting the idea of men competing in women’s sports but not receiving any credit for their support for women.
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Isn't it fascinating that there is no issue about "trans" men in men's sport. Specially as in fact, in the UK, there are more young "trans" men than "trans" women. I wonder why the absence of hullaballoo about "trans" men?
Hatred expressed by either sex is a poison; one of three poisons identified by Buddhists
To eschew men completely from society makes hypocrisy of the mantra for inclusion, equality
and diversity. Not only does it express hatred but it is deeply flawed logically.
I have no problem with left wing people bringing rebellion into their politics provided they
are aware hypocrisy is a price that sometimes has to be paid for the changes they advocate,
such as changing society so that it is comprised of only one sex.