For decades, sport governing bodies have regulated women's participation in sport through "sex testing:" practices that violate fundamental rights to privacy and dignity. Through their policies, sport governing bodies have created environments that coerce some women into invasive and unnecessary medical interventions as a condition to compete in certain events, and sports officials have engaged in vitriolic public criticism that has ruined careers and lives. Women from the Global South have been disproportionately affected. There have never been analogous regulations for men.

The body that enforces these practices for athletics-the group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking-is not a government or multilateral body, but a private one, World Athletics. This entity (known prior to 2019 as the International Association of Athletics Federations, or IAAF) is the body that governs international athletics, and the regulations it has promulgated have resulted in the profiling and targeting of women according to gender stereotypes. Women perceived to be "too masculine" may become targets of suspicion and gossip, and may have their careers ended prematurely. The standards of femininity applied are often deeply racially biased.