Should there be separate Oscar awards for men and women actors? Kim Elsesser thinks not. Acting is something both men and women can do, irrespective of the gender difference:
While it is certainly acceptable for sports competitions like the Olympics to have separate events for male and female athletes, the biological differences do not affect acting performances. The divided Oscar categories merely insult women, because they suggest that women would not be victorious if the categories were combined. In addition, this segregation helps perpetuate the stereotype that the differences between men and women are so great that the two sexes cannot be evaluated as equals in their professions.
Denis Dutton disagrees. If you needed and called for a doctor, it would be immaterial whether they were male or female, provided they were competent. But needing an actor is, he argues, something else; it matters what the role is, and some roles are male and others female.
The world, just by itself, doesn't answer this question. There are some real distinctions, made (so to speak) by the world before we make them verbally - as, for example, between volcanoes and giraffes. And there are other distinctions that only exist because we make them - like the distinction between a Tuesday and a Wednesday, or between the captain and other members of the team. But even when the distinction registered in two different awards is of the first kind, as the gender distinction is, despite postmodernist wafflings, it doesn't follow that there should be two separate awards. It depends on the reason for having them; it depends on how the distinction is justified. Should there be separate awards for versatile male character actors, male comedians, and heavies? Should there be separate awards for versatile female character actors, female comedians, those playing grandmothers, and those playing femmes fatales? And so on. You can't really answer without knowing what the rationale is for having the distinct awards.
In the case to hand, there's an argument - one that I have set out in relation to literary prizes - that because of the long historical disadvantage women have suffered, there remains a risk of their not receiving equal consideration with men when judged in common for an activity in which both excel. If that argument carries any weight for fiction, it's hard to see why it shouldn't also for dramatic performance. Separate awards ensure that age-old forms of discrimination won't creep in.