Kathleen Stock

Kathleen Mary Linn Stock is a British philosopher and writer. She was a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex until 2021. She has published academic work on aesthetics, fiction, imagination, sexual objectification, and sexual orientation. have become a contentious issue. In December 2020, she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of services to higher education, a decision criticised by a group of over 600 academic philosophers who argued that Stock's "harmful rhetoric" contributed to the marginalisation of transgender people. In October 2021, she resigned from the University of Sussex. This came after a student campaign called for her dismissal and the university trade union accused the university of "institutional transphobia". and was raised in Montrose, Scotland, the daughter of a philosophy lecturer at Aberdeen University, On 28 October 2021, the university announced Stock's resignation from the position following controversy around her views on gender identity; the announcement, written by the school's vice-chancellor, expressed regret that Stock did not "feel able to return to work" and that she had been subject to "bullying and harassment".

Stock has written one monograph as well as articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, and has contributed several chapters to edited volumes. She edited Philosophers on Music: Experience, Meaning, and Work (first edition 2007), and together with Katherine Thomson-Jones, she edited New Waves in Aesthetics (2008).

Views on gender self-identification Stock is acknowledged as a prominent gender-critical feminist. She has opposed transgender self-identification in regard to proposed reforms to the 2004 UK Gender Recognition Act, and has argued that allowing self-identification would "threaten a secure understanding of the concept 'lesbian. She has said that many trans women are "still males with male genitalia, many are sexually attracted to females, and they should not be in places where females undress or sleep in a completely unrestricted way."

In her 2021 article "What is a woman?", Stock outlines her view that there are two immutable sexes (male and female), that the categories of "man" and "woman" are decided by biological sex and not gender identity, and that views on language to establish more inclusive definitions are "hopeless".

Students and academics began to criticise Stock's views in 2018, when she spoke against proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act; the changes would have allowed people of all ages to legally self-identify as a particular gender without the requirement of a psychological or medical diagnosis. She received death threats as a result of her position.

In 2019, Stock signed the "Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights" from the Women's Human Rights Campaign (WHRC). In June 2019, Stock was invited to speak at the Aristotelian Society about her views on gender identity. The organization Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) UK and their international counterpart released a joint statement against Stock speaking at the event, saying "Not every item of personal and ideological obsession is worthy of philosophical debate. In particular, scepticism about the rights of marginalised groups and individuals, where issues of life and death are at stake, are not up for debate."

In 2020, Stock testified before the Women and Equalities Committee of the House of Commons, and gave oral evidence in response to the reform of the Gender Recognition Act.

Journalist Janice Turner wrote in The Times that Stock "teaches trans students, respecting their pronouns, and has written repeatedly in support of their human rights".

In 2021, Stock made a submission to the proposed Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill, highlighting what she described as harassment and a culture of fear and self-censorship in British universities in relation to her gender-critical views concerning "transactivist demands to recognise and prioritise gender identity".

Her 2021 book, Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, offers a critical discussion of gender identity theory. Her thesis, according to reviewer Christina Patterson, is that there is "a new orthodoxy, one in which sex gives way to feeling, and feeling trumps facts". but opposes, according to The Guardian, "the institutionalisation of the idea that gender identity is all that matters – that how you identify automatically confers all the entitlements of that sex". She describes the law that gives trans people the right to change gender as a legal fiction, a kind of "useful untruth".

In January 2023, Stock criticized the UK government's proposed ban on conversion therapy, a practice condemned by international medical organizations, saying that "Banning conversion therapy for minors will rob trans children of the chance to think again, putting them on a pathway to medical treatment".

On 9 March 2023, Stock, alongside tennis player Martina Navratilova and writer Julie Bindel, launched The Lesbian Project. The purpose of the Lesbian Project, according to Stock, is "to put lesbian needs and interests back into focus, to stop lesbians disappearing into the rainbow soup and to give them a non-partisan political voice." Students criticised Stock for being a trustee for LGB Alliance and for signing the declaration of the Women's Human Rights Campaign. The group, Anti Terf Sussex, said Stock was a danger to transgender people and that "We're not up for debate. We cannot be reasoned out of existence". A statement on Instagram said it was from "an anonymous, unaffiliated group of queer, trans and non-binary students who will not allow our community to be slandered and harmed by someone who's [sic] salary comes from our pockets".

Stock herself said: "Universities aren't places where students should just expect to hear their own thoughts reflected back at them. Arguments should be met by arguments and evidence by evidence, not intimidation or aggression". Another open letter in support of Stock's academic freedom was signed by legal academics.

The Times reported that the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Baroness Falkner of Margravine, "called the attacks on Professor Kathleen Stock disgraceful and said that tougher regulation was needed to protect people from abuse." Oxford historian Selina Todd described Tickell's statement as paying "lip service to academic freedom while assuring students of the university's 'inclusivity and criticised the University and College Union for their silence.

A statement of solidarity signed by hundreds of "academics, retired academics, students, alumni and university/college employees" circulated by the GC Academia Network, a group that describes itself as gender-critical, expressed concerns "about the ongoing erosion of women's sex-based rights in law, policy and practice" and condemns the recent escalation of intimidation by a small group.

Opponents of Stock's position The Sussex branch of the University and College Union (UCU) strongly criticized the vice-chancellor over his statement, saying that Tickell had not upheld the dignity and respect of trans students and staff. The union said that it stands in solidarity with the students and their right to protest, and that "we urge our management to take a clear and strong stance against transphobia at Sussex."

The Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, Taiwo Owatemi, called UCU's statement "strong and principled" and said she was "greatly concerned by [Stock's] work as a trustee for the LGB Alliance group" which she said should be "rejected by all those who believe in equality."

Shortly after releasing the statement, members of the UCU Sussex branch executive said they had received personal threats, and had their contact details released. A spokesperson on behalf of the UCU's national organisation condemned this and said "these matters are being raised immediately with leadership at the university." Stock gave a radio interview on Woman's Hour on 3 November. She denied that she is transphobic and explained that her resignation followed attacks on her by colleagues who are opposed to her views and who foster an "extreme" response from their students: "instead of getting involved in arguing with me using reason, evidence – the traditional university methods – they tell their students in lectures that I pose a harm to trans students."

Investigation by the Office for Students In March 2025, Sussex was fined £585,000 by the Office for Students (OfS), which said it had failed to uphold freedom of speech in its trans and non-binary equality policy statement passed in 2018, which said that course materials should "positively represent trans people" and that "transphobic propaganda" would not be tolerated. The OfS gave the case of Kathleen Stock as an example of the "chilling effect" this had on expression of lawful views. Professor Sasha Roseneil, the university's vice chancellor, said "The way the OfS has conducted this investigation has been completely unacceptable, its findings are egregious and concocted, and the fine that is being imposed on Sussex is wholly disproportionate." The university challenged the decision and it was overturned by judicial review at the High Court on 29 April 2026 with the court upholding accusations that the OfS was biased whilst conducting the investigation.

Controversy over appearance at Oxford Union In April 2023, ahead of a planned appearance by Stock at the Oxford Union on 30 May, the Oxford University LGBTQ+ society expressed dismay that the union had "decided to platform the transphobic and trans exclusionary speaker Kathleen Stock".

Subsequently, in May, The Telegraph published a letter from academics endorsing the talk by Stock. The letter was signed by more than 100 academics and staff and said: "We believe that trans students should not be made to debate their existence. We also refute that this is a free speech issue - disinviting someone is not preventing them from speaking."

Gender Wars

On the same day as the Oxford Union speech, Channel 4 broadcast Gender Wars, a documentary featuring Stock as the main representative of the gender-critical side of "the trans issue". The documentary centred around an earlier speech Stock made during a debate at the Cambridge Union on the "right to offend," which attracted protests and garnered extensive media coverage at the time. The film was criticised for its focus on Stock, but also praised as giving "voice to both sides of the transgender debate". In response, over 600 academics signed a letter criticising the government's decision and expressing concern about a "tendency to mistake transphobic fear mongering for valuable scholarship, and attacks on already marginalised people for courageous exercises of free speech". A counter letter defending her was signed by more than 400. Janice Turner in The Times described her, amongst other terms, as a "left-wing lesbian". She lives in Sussex with her wife Laura, and two sons from a previous marriage. New Waves in Aesthetics, edited with Katherine Thomson-Jones (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008). Fantasy, imagination, and film. British Journal of Aesthetics, 2009. 49 (4): 357–369. Fictive Utterance and Imagining. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume. 2011, 85 (1): 145–161. Some Reflections on Seeing-as, Metaphor-Grasping and Imagining. Aisthesis: Pratiche, Linguaggi E Saperi Dell'Estetico. 2013, 6 (1): 201–213. Imagining and Fiction: Some Issues. Philosophy Compass. 2013, 8 (10): 887–896. Sexual Objectification. Analysis, 2015, 75 (2): 191–195. Learning from fiction and theories of fictional content. Teorema: International Journal of Philosophy, 2016, (3): 69–83. Only Imagine: Fiction, Interpretation and Imagination (Oxford University Press, 2017).