JENI O’DOWD: Pretending the experiences of trans women are the same as cis-gender women cheapens both

When the first NSW Women of the Year Awards were held in 2012, under then-minister for women Pru Goward, the idea was to finally give women proper recognition for extraordinary achievements.

I know because I was there, one of the first judges. And believe me, it was serious business.

I still remember the first shortlist: Fran Rowe, a rural stalwart whose financial counselling saved farming families; the powerhouse Dr Edith Weisberg, who’d spent decades steering NSW’s reproductive health, a woman who spent her life looking after unwanted children and so many more.

The following year, the Premier’s Woman of the Year went to Dr Cathy Foley, a scientist whose groundbreaking work in physics and exploration literally reshaped resource discovery.

The community hero that year, winner of the People’s Choice award, was Jessica Brown, who changed hundreds of young girls’ lives through mentoring. Those early years set a tone: real recognition and real impact.

Fast forward to 2025, and what’s Parliament arguing about? Whether a man can be crowned Woman of the Year.

Meanwhile, domestic violence against women is at crisis levels, there is still a yawning pay gap and boardrooms are male-heavy. Priorities anyone?

Last week, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Robert Borsak pressed the Minister for Women, Jodie Harrison, on whether a trans woman could be eligible for the 2026 NSW Woman of the Year Awards.

“Is it the position that a man who identifies as a woman, a trans woman, is eligible to enter and participate in the 2026 NSW Women of the Year Awards?” he asked.

Harrison’s response was vague, saying all women were eligible. Significantly, she refused to rule out the possibility that a trans woman could be named Woman of the Year.

Politicians are so terrified of offending the social media brigade that they’d rather make a mockery of the very women these awards were created to celebrate.

The NSW Women of the Year Awards, running since 2012, aim to celebrate women and girls whose “determination, bravery, skill and passion has inspired their communities and others to achieve great things”.

The awards explicitly recognise women who have challenged inequality, like pay gaps or exclusion from leadership.

It’s about recognising barriers women have overcome because they were born female, things trans women haven’t lived through.

Their struggles are real, but they are different. Pretending those two experiences are the same only cheapens both.

This isn’t just theoretical. Earlier this year, trans woman Brianna Skinner was named the Sydney Local Woman of the Year by MP Alex Greenwich.

He praised her as a “fierce advocate for equality,” but commentators dismissed it as virtue signalling.

Women make up more than half the country, but policy-makers bend over backwards for less than 1 per cent of the population. That’s the official figure — 0.9 per cent of Australians identify as trans or gender diverse. Yet somehow their rights trump ours. Equality was meant to lift women, not erase us from our own spaces.

I am not saying that trans people who do extraordinary things don’t deserve recognition. But that should be recognised in open categories that aren’t gendered, such as “Community Champion”, “Equality Advocate” or “Trailblazer of the Year”.

Don’t erase women’s rights to recognise a minority. Don’t allow biological men to compete against women in sport because they identify as women. Don’t allow unisex toilets in our schools because you are afraid of offending someone.

Remember the Flying Bats? In March, I wrote about the most controversial team in NSW women’s football finally losing a game — a rare 4–2 pre-season defeat.

After a season where they demolished opponents, it was newsworthy precisely because it almost never happens. And it didn’t prove fairness; it proved that even a team with five male-born players can trip up occasionally.

The Bats are still at it. Still playing. Still dominating. Fifteen matches into this season, they’ve won 11, drawn 3 and lost just once.

They’re sitting pretty on top of the ladder with 36 points. One loss in 15 games doesn’t level the field. It just underlines what we already knew: the advantage doesn’t go away because you stick rainbow laces on your boots and talk about inclusion.

This is the insanity of 2025.

The NSW Women of the Year Awards were supposed to celebrate women smashing barriers, not start a debate over gender.

Football was meant to empower girls, not send them off the field nursing injuries after colliding with opponents carrying 25 per cent more mass. These are hard-won spaces and they’re worth protecting.

Trans people deserve recognition, but not when we pretend that fairness and safety don’t matter.

Because if Woman of the Year can be born a male, and male-born players dominate women’s football, then what’s left that actually belongs to women at all?