The Women's Institute faces revolt ...

If they allow tw to join they should let any man join.

Does anyone know if they let tm or nb join?

I’ve signed the petition

I’ve joined the WI I’m disappointed to find that they allow men to join

I think trans women should be allowed to join the WI if they want to. It's not the same as sports and changing rooms. That's my opinion. Frankly I can't see the harm. But on the other hand if some members feel uncomfortable then their voices should be heard.

The WI has been officially trans-inclusive since 2015. In order to exclude trans women, which they are under no obligation to do, they would need to demonstrate it was legitimate and proportion to exclude trans women. This does not depend on a GRC.

It makes no differences to campaigns supporting issues which affect most women - these campaigns have continued.

I guess I should add - my point here is that while dickhead men and foolish women are behind this most immediatly, I think there is also a question of how we have in the past dealt with the question of sex exclusive organizations, and the soaicl change towards seeing them as illegitimate. This was used to attack men's organizations - and that has includedsocial orgs, not just ones where "power" was a factor, but there was less thought that it might come to affect organizations for women.

And the legal questions don't give us much direction for thinking about when it's best to have a single sex vs open group.

There's a bit of a gap that's been left and maybe we need something to fill it. It reminds me a bit of the questions that arise around things like workplace relationships, or how men and women interact in workplace/social events. What are the rules? There isn't an agreed upon set of practices yet in society.

Personally I agree, but I think this is something where you will see real division. There are a lot of women who don't see the need for groups like this for things like hobbies, and think they are weird, and also dangerous in setting a precedent for segregation rather than inclusion.

And it can be more fraught. Over the years I've been a member of different single sex social associations, though all but one just happened to be single sex, rather than having it mandated. Similar to the WI in that they were centered around hobbies associated more with women. If a man had happened to want to join and do some knitting, it would have changed the dynamic, but then it would have if a woman from a different culture or background had too, given these were all small country places. I don't know that I could have justified excluding someone from the only needlework group in the village because he was a man and preferred that hobby to talking about wood splitters with the men's hobby groups. I similarly remember when I was a kid and many girls were fighting to gain access to boys hockey teams, because their weren't any for girls, their argument was that a) there was no inherent reason for kid's hockey to be sex specific, and b) lack of access. They won that argument too.

Seems a pisspoor way of carrying out a survey. Unless they're trying to skew the results by prioritising the tech savvy.

Ditto Dragonflylady. Neither are the vast majority of my WI.

I would be interested but am not on Twitter.

The Women's Institute Declaration are carrying out an anonymous survey for WI members, link here if anyone is interested:

https://twitter.com/WomensIns_Dec/status/1747504786675474864

(There was an initial problem with DMing them but they seem to have sorted this out now. If not, just tell them in reply and they will contact you direct (this worked for me).

Most silencing is happening at academic and arts institution levels...the recent OU cases and Kath Stock, Jo Cherry and Glinner.

I am not sure how anyone who is a regular reader of FWR can say that. And whilst I am not saying those in academia aren't being targetted, bh and large they have a way of letting others know.

But there are so many threads on here from isolated mothers with no support, or office workers (remember Ginny?), workers in the NHS, who are being totally crushed and silenced by the continuing advance of TRAs, who the entrenched MRAs are only too happy to use to silence and expel women.

I'm very sorry to hear that.

This call to be outed, to have your cozy world crash around you is you've demonstrated so called transphobic traits online etc, yes, it is happening, but seemingly only in the most female centric and female driven instances... JKR speaking up and being threatened across the board, Sall Grover and the Central London lesbian speed dating organiser.

Most silencing is happening at academic and arts institution levels...the recent OU cases and Kath Stock, Jo Cherry and Glinner.

This silencing has been happening in the tech world for quite a while now, so effectively as women themselves are so marginalised in this world and in many cases outnumbered by the transwomen that we have all been silenced and in some cases left the industry.

It's true, it's absolutely hair raising in its intensity.

But that's all it is. A bundle of misogynistic rage from a bundle of misogynist.

Sure there is some cross fertilisation of anger from the pure TRAs to TrantiFa to anarchists to revolutionary Leninists to the dark side of Green catastrophists. And a whole mix of other wannabe troublemakers.

But I don't believe there is any unanimity here, other than guys liking to put masks on, swear like troopers in public, and give someone, anyone, a kicking.

This call to be outed, to have your cozy world crash around you is you've demonstrated so called transphobic traits online etc, yes, it is happening, but seemingly only in the most female centric and female driven instances... JKR speaking up and being threatened across the board, Sall Grover and the Central London lesbian speed dating organiser.

Most silencing is happening at academic and arts institution levels...the recent OU cases and Kath Stock, Jo Cherry and Glinner.

Maybe there's some energy from the nihilism that this call to action is contributing, but very little.

No...we have a number of angry males, who cannot get women to acquiesce (they couldn't when they were sweaty incels years ago, and they're trying now as sweaty TRAs), who have disproportionately gained traction in this marketplace of unprincipledness.

I would see this call to action as just ramping up volume and visibility, and nothing else.

And look at 2023...they're losing, and critically, they know they're losing. Expect the language to churn and froth in the next couple of years as they realise the gig is up, and their best days, the decade before 2023, was the high point they can never again reach.

I'm only half-joking ...

See this is what I now think we should let happen. Let all these ridiculous men join the WI, join the women's sports teams, until they are entirely made up of transwomen. Meanwhile women can start their own new organisations and teams, with reference to their single sex legal protections, which have recently been tested, are much wider known now and we now know stand - the real WI etc. And leave these silly men to it.

Thanks @RealityFan , that does sound like the best way to handle it!

I still think it's scary in it's level of bile and venom 😞 I've never read of such hatred from Nelson Mandela, Mrs Pankhurst or Malcolm X.

I've read that unhinged piece before. And when I was most down regarding this cultural shift, even up to 12 months ago, it really instilled a feeling of defeat in me.

But now I read it for what it really is, a puff piece, pure vanity, untethered from reality.

It's purely an expression of toxicity masquerading as guerilla action statement. In reality, it's just bloviating chest thumping invective.

Now I ignore it, so positive do I feel that 2023 is the pivot point to a brighter future.

I'd really ask others either not to read it, or if you do, with a glass of something cold, or tucking into some nice cake.

We really need a TW to mansplain it to us.

Good article. The writer tells us that the Inner Wheel have invoked the single sex exception available under the EQA 2010. I've not heard of this being challenged and I'm wondering if that's because they have the (male) Rotary club behind them.

I seem to remember the head of the WI federation recently saying, as does the article tbh, that 'woman is a mix of biology and lived experience' or some such. But there was no attempt to explain how a male individual of around 60 years of age could fit that bill. A male who'd been a husband and father until he'd decided a few months ago that he'd really been a woman all along.

I belong to a similar organisation but if a man joins us, I'm leaving

My God, I started reading that link a d I couldn't finish. I have never voted for anything other than Labour or Lib Dem in my life. I have worked in public service to help my local communities. I am feminist, anti-racist and anti-disablist.

But because I think people can change gender but not sex and that society needs to think about how to accommodate this, I am not human. I am a Nazi. I don't deserve to be able to earn a living or even live in peace and everything I value for women should be destroyed until it centres men who identify as women.

I am hurt and shocked. The level of hatred is off the scale. Despite reading this board for over a year.

It also impacts any woman whose WI group is 100% female but is concerned that the situation could change at any time. And any woman who no longer wants to join the WI because it's no longer a female-only organisation. And any woman who is unable to join because of that, through her own feelings/ preferences or through the demands of other people around her.

Well said, Ursula.

Women, time for a revolution. As men, we'll take our cue from you. I already say my GC piece in public whenever the opportunity arises, but I'm also happy to just make the tea.

In the final analysis, don't get mad, get even. But certainly get mad first.

I'm not sure if this is the most recent thread but anyway....bump!

An excellent article in the Critic about this. And, right at the end, mention of an organisation that, using the EA exemption, has stayed women (ofck) only.

https://thecritic.co.uk/the-clue-is-in-the-name/