WI (Womens Institute)

Because like the Girl Guides, it was set up exclusively for women? There are any number of mixed sex social groups available if that's your preference.

I'm astounded that the WI is the only source of companionship available to TW.

No book clubs, church clubs, walking groups, craft clubs, bell ringing, volunteering for charities, litter picking, language courses, art lessons, poetry readings, music lessons, no choirs, no knit & natter... Just WI.

Surely you’re missing the point, Bad Janet. It’s not women, but the males who are being portrayed as lonely victims in need of emotional support from women’s organisations here.

Why do we insist on painting all women as victims?
Agree, hate that too

Does it really matter if WI is no longer single sex. Personally I'd prefer it to go openly mixed sex. I'm very much a tw are not w but wi is a completely different situation to sports, prisons, refuges etc

When I was younger I probably wouldn’t have seen a problem with the WI allowing transwomen to join. Now I’ve spent a career working with men and have finally retired I am all too aware why women need some spaces just for them. I attended some WI meetings a few years ago with a friend and enjoyed them but just couldn’t fit in the time with work & family so I was looking forward to joining the WI on retirement. However if I’m joining a mixed sex organisation I’d rather join a proper mixed sex organisation rather than one that is dancing around prioritising a few ‘special’ males

So, everyone then...
They'd better change the name to the Everyone's Institute, the current title is somewhat misleading.

Yeah, strange how women's groups suddenly being inclusive to men puts women off 🤔

It is not women’s allotted destiny in life to be the emotional support vehicle for lonely or psychologically distressed penis people.

Anyone who identifies as a woman is welcome.

Minty the only boundaries being broken are womens when people like you insist that males are women simply because they say so.

Your'e really not getting the hang of this, are you? Some women, at least, want some spaces, for some of the time entirely populated by women. When they say women they don't mean ex men. This does not make them unkind or bigoted, any more than exclusively mens clubs (rugby, fishing whatever) means all the men in it de facto hate women.

I can't be arsed with you either @MintyMoocow Sotheby's feeling's mutual

What a load of rubbish! I’ve been teaching feminism as a gay woman for 25 years. If any woman claiming to be a feminist (since everyone else was in nappies, very sneery and probably not true), thinks that women objecting to be told their role is to “give a little kindness” to men are being “too delicate”, then honestly you are robust enough yourself to be told that’s a load of patronising, regressive, sexist old bollocks.

I was under the impression the men's pond was still single sex? It's only the women's pond which has become mixed sex.

I think there are still some single sex organisations for women but I don't list them because we know there are a significant number of people who deliberately target single sex women's group. And unfortunately stonewall law has confused so many organisations which don't have the funds to defend a legal challenge that they roll over.

Who could have seen that turnaround coming? It was always the case in recent decades that female-only clubs were fine but anything male-only would be castigated until they became mixed.

I can’t be arsed with you lot, I was a feminist when a of you lot were still in nappies and I broke some genuine boundaries, which I’m not discussing here because they are outing. If you can’t be in the same room as a man of course you have a bloody problem, whether it’s for religious or psychological reasons, your lives are restricted to an extent where they are unworkable. But I don’t happen to consider that men and transwomen are the same thing anyway.

I have met a few people who feel they are born into the wrong bodies, they don’t want to play competitive sport or hang out in ladies’ changing rooms, but they do tend to be quite isolated and lonely. If the WI wants to welcome them then why is that a problem? Are we all so bloody delicate ?
Sometimes prejudice is just prejudice and needs to be called out as such.

Preach?!! 🙄

Well, quite. Another institution where women are there to be kind, helpful companions to the all important men.

It’s at times like these the old Marxist phrase “complicit in their own oppression” arises somehow to the tip of my tongue…

My mother refused to join the Mothers Union because at the time they did not accept divorced women ( although she was married , she did so on principle) so interesting to know if they still have that rule. But for the WI to accept men is a nonsense. Did they ever vote on it?

Do individual men who call themselves women recognise the role they play in colonising women's spaces? I think most of them would see it as a difficult and brave choice they are making, that subverts male dominance. Why can't they see they are tools of the patriarchy, colonising women's spaces as the men they are rather than as the women they want to be mistaken for?

Hang on

The wi and the mothers Union allow male members, being interested in them isn't exclusively for women after all men bake cakes too.

So the Women's Institute and Mothers' Union are for people who bake cakes? Bugger. There I am, unwelcome despite being a woman and a mother because I don't bake.

I'm pleased the Mother's Union chose to allow a single Dad to come- I welcome their flexibility, assuming they checked with the members of that branch and they were happy about it. I'd be fine with this, as an occasional exception.

How refreshingly unusual! Or — not, rather, since throughout history it’s been women’s job to provide “companionship and a little extra kindness” to male humans.

Glad to see you are so very traditional on the subject of the place of women, @MintyMoocow. Helpmeets and companions, amirite? And surely of course, a woman who doesn’t want to “be with men” needs “help”.

Straight from the 1950s. I guess you aren’t too keen on the idea of lesbians? What about “Career women”? Or any other women who don’t see it as their essential role to be a support service to male people? Do they need “help”, too?

Also, if a woman is signing up to a woman only group, they should expect it to be woman only (female sex). Many of us here have no issues mixing with men but if I want to join a woman's group, it bloody well should be a woman's group. If it contains males, it isn't a woman only group and shouldn't be advertised as such.

The wi and the mothers Union allow male members, being interested in them isn't exclusively for women after all men bake cakes too.

The WI only allow male members if they say they are women. Their policy is not to ask a member's sex.