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To think it is not at all sad that the Women's Institute is now only for actual women?

1000 replies

SingleSexSpacesInSchools · 03/12/2025 11:36

“Incredibly sadly, we will have to restrict our membership on the basis of biological sex from April next year,” Green said. “But the message we really want to get across is that it remains our firm belief that transgender women are women, and that doesn’t change.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/03/womens-institute-no-longer-accept-trans-women-members-april

Tellingly - they still think women can have a penis.

Women’s Institute will no longer accept trans women as members from April

Exclusive: CEO says decision taken with ‘utmost regret and sadness’ after supreme court ruling on definition of a woman

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/03/womens-institute-no-longer-accept-trans-women-members-april

OP posts:
Thread gallery
12
SabrinaThwaite · 03/12/2025 11:59

LighthouseLED · 03/12/2025 11:54

I feel sorry for the 80 year old mentioned in the article who has been a member for years.

I think it’s fair enough to restrict membership in the future, but there ought to be an exemption for those transwomen who have been going for years without any issues. These are not activists - they are people just trying to live their own lives.

Yeaaaah ... no.

Either an organisation is open to all men or it's open to no men.

LighthouseLED · 03/12/2025 12:00

SingleSexSpacesInSchools · 03/12/2025 11:58

but they are sill male. And this, is a female only organisation. You cannot allow some. it's either none, or all.

They’ve allowed it for decades. Why kick long-standing members out? That doesn’t seem fair.

Yes, don’t allow transwomen in future. But let those who joined more than a certain number of years ago (so aren’t part of any takeover / point-making group) stay.

Sidebeforeself · 03/12/2025 12:01

I’m not impressed by the “sorry ,not sorry” statement by the CEO though.

SabrinaThwaite · 03/12/2025 12:02

LighthouseLED · 03/12/2025 12:00

They’ve allowed it for decades. Why kick long-standing members out? That doesn’t seem fair.

Yes, don’t allow transwomen in future. But let those who joined more than a certain number of years ago (so aren’t part of any takeover / point-making group) stay.

These male individuals have inveigled their way into women's organisations where they had no right to be.

Why you so keen to centre men in a women's organisation?

SingleSexSpacesInSchools · 03/12/2025 12:02

LighthouseLED · 03/12/2025 12:00

They’ve allowed it for decades. Why kick long-standing members out? That doesn’t seem fair.

Yes, don’t allow transwomen in future. But let those who joined more than a certain number of years ago (so aren’t part of any takeover / point-making group) stay.

They were breaking the law for decades. Now they have realised and have to stop.

Thousands of females will have self selected themselves out of going to groups because men were there

Tens of thousands of women will have shared things with a group they thought were female, intimate private things, and actually there were males there.

Thats an invasion of privacy and unforgivable.

OP posts:
SingleSexSpacesInSchools · 03/12/2025 12:03

Sidebeforeself · 03/12/2025 12:01

I’m not impressed by the “sorry ,not sorry” statement by the CEO though.

Captured boards as always, a powerful figure will have a trans child, or their best friend decided to pop on a dress at the age of fifty and they need to be a gushing public ally and damn the women who need the org to be strong.

OP posts:
INeedAPensieve · 03/12/2025 12:04

LittleJustice · 03/12/2025 11:49

The best bit is that Mumsnet feminist forum had a lot of influence over why this is now happening in the real world and we should celebrate that I think

The three amazing women who are part of For Women Scotland met on Mumsnet. They are the ones who pushed this and fought to get it clarified by the Supreme Court.

HappyNewTaxYear · 03/12/2025 12:06

LighthouseLED · 03/12/2025 11:54

I feel sorry for the 80 year old mentioned in the article who has been a member for years.

I think it’s fair enough to restrict membership in the future, but there ought to be an exemption for those transwomen who have been going for years without any issues. These are not activists - they are people just trying to live their own lives.

I don’t. Their delusion has been enabled for long enough.

Stop elevating men’s feelings above women’s. It doesn’t matter if they’re old. The guy was 50 once. Still a guy now he’s 80.

climbintheback · 03/12/2025 12:06

I’m one of those who wouldn’t join because of this so I say ‘Halle bloody lujah ‘ I have 3 within a 5 mile area so I’m going to give them a try out.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 03/12/2025 12:07

LighthouseLED · 03/12/2025 12:00

They’ve allowed it for decades. Why kick long-standing members out? That doesn’t seem fair.

Yes, don’t allow transwomen in future. But let those who joined more than a certain number of years ago (so aren’t part of any takeover / point-making group) stay.

You're missing the point. Single-sex organisations are allowed by the Equality Act in specific circumstances. If they are set up for women only, they can't admit men. They are breaking the law by allowing any to join, even if they say 'I identify as a woman'. They never should have allowed the trans-identified males to join and now they have to sort that out.

Some years ago Edinburgh Rape Crisis advertised for a new Chief Executive and (rightly) said this would be open only to female applicants, as allowed under the Equality Act. Unfortunately, they then appointed a male to the post. He identifies as female but has no Gender Recognition Certificate. He left under a cloud eventually, after they lost an Employment Tribunal case over how they had treated a member of staff who felt clients should know what sex their therapist was, rather than what gender the member of staff self-identified with.

I am not a lawyer but I felt they had dodged a bullet by not being taken to Tribunal by suitably qualified male applicants who did not apply for this post because they could see they were not eligible, only to see another of their number getting the job anyway. These males had been discriminated against, if I understand the law correctly, and this is what I think is happening in the WI case mentioned above, where a man has tried to join, been told no, and is suing, because he knows that trans-identified males have been admitted. Good for him.

SingleSexSpacesInSchools · 03/12/2025 12:07

INeedAPensieve · 03/12/2025 12:04

The three amazing women who are part of For Women Scotland met on Mumsnet. They are the ones who pushed this and fought to get it clarified by the Supreme Court.

100%

OP posts:
ColinOfficeTrolley · 03/12/2025 12:07

Holy victim complex, Batman

Was that supposed to be witty? 😳

MagpiePi · 03/12/2025 12:08

LighthouseLED · 03/12/2025 11:54

I feel sorry for the 80 year old mentioned in the article who has been a member for years.

I think it’s fair enough to restrict membership in the future, but there ought to be an exemption for those transwomen who have been going for years without any issues. These are not activists - they are people just trying to live their own lives.

...they are people just trying to live their own lives.

As are women who want to be in an organisation that is just for women.

ResusciAnnie · 03/12/2025 12:10

Surely they (and Girlguidng HQ) are just saying ‘sadly’ ‘devastatingly’ to appease the TRAs and protect themselves from more vitriol.

Kleeneze · 03/12/2025 12:12

VickyEadieofThigh · 03/12/2025 11:56

"Without issues" - apart from, perhaps, women who were too uncomfortable with a trans-identifying man attending and so did not attend themselves?

I agree with this. If it was a normal transwoman and not a rabid trans activist activist I personally wouldn’t have an issue with it but I can see what many would, and their right trumps the trans woman’s.

Gribouille · 03/12/2025 12:13

Sidebeforeself · 03/12/2025 12:01

I’m not impressed by the “sorry ,not sorry” statement by the CEO though.

The WI and the GG responses are reminding me of Young Frankenstein's '...quiet dignity and grace...' 🙄

S1ngS1ng · 03/12/2025 12:13

LittleJustice · 03/12/2025 11:49

The best bit is that Mumsnet feminist forum had a lot of influence over why this is now happening in the real world and we should celebrate that I think

That’s ridiculous. A few anti trans bullies don’t speak for the whole of MN. There is nothing to celebrate and many think it’s a sad day. Feel so sorry for those elderly trans members battling a double whammy of loneliness and exclusion now barred from attending. They’re doing no harm by attending and many will miss friends now barred from attending .The WI being forced to do this is so petty and nasty and the glee from a few on here is revolting. Just shows the mindset of a few. Feel sorry for WI they’re between a rock and a hard place.

bigboykitty · 03/12/2025 12:14

When the Equality Act said sex was a protected characteristic, there was no doubt about what that meant. It didn't mean anyone who wants to wear a skirt today or Tony who feels like a lady. All the bleating about the Supreme Court is totally disingenuous because it was already clear what was meant. The TRA movement tried to subvert the law and the position has finally been clarified. The whole point was to deny women their right to single sex spaces and legal protections as women. But sure, it was an attack on trans identifying men and they have been stripped of their human rights 🙄. It's utterly clearcut and the WI can fuck off with their fawning apology to men. If people who identify as trans need any new or separate legal protections, then that is something they and their cheerleaders can address, but never again at the expense of women and their legal rights

Kleeneze · 03/12/2025 12:14

ResusciAnnie · 03/12/2025 12:10

Surely they (and Girlguidng HQ) are just saying ‘sadly’ ‘devastatingly’ to appease the TRAs and protect themselves from more vitriol.

This irritates me. The high ground is there for them to take. They just prefer dragging their institutions through the mud for a bit longer.

SingleSexSpacesInSchools · 03/12/2025 12:15

S1ngS1ng · 03/12/2025 12:13

That’s ridiculous. A few anti trans bullies don’t speak for the whole of MN. There is nothing to celebrate and many think it’s a sad day. Feel so sorry for those elderly trans members battling a double whammy of loneliness and exclusion now barred from attending. They’re doing no harm by attending and many will miss friends now barred from attending .The WI being forced to do this is so petty and nasty and the glee from a few on here is revolting. Just shows the mindset of a few. Feel sorry for WI they’re between a rock and a hard place.

FWS judgement happened because of mumsnet.
The WI folding happened because of mumsnet
GG - not sure - I bet it helped.

I don't feel sorry for WI. Maybe they should have followed the law and not mislead some males.

OP posts:
Kleeneze · 03/12/2025 12:17

S1ngS1ng · 03/12/2025 12:13

That’s ridiculous. A few anti trans bullies don’t speak for the whole of MN. There is nothing to celebrate and many think it’s a sad day. Feel so sorry for those elderly trans members battling a double whammy of loneliness and exclusion now barred from attending. They’re doing no harm by attending and many will miss friends now barred from attending .The WI being forced to do this is so petty and nasty and the glee from a few on here is revolting. Just shows the mindset of a few. Feel sorry for WI they’re between a rock and a hard place.

It’s not the fault of the trans women who have been attending for years. It’s 100% the fault of the rabid AGP trans rights activists who want to inmate women’s spaces for their sexual kicks. But you can’t kick one out without the other, so here we are.

PacificState · 03/12/2025 12:17

Hmm OK I'll bite. For what it's worth I'm generally gender critical: I think bio sex is a real thing, that it forms the basis of women's oppression, and that the pretence over the last ten years that it doesn't matter/doesn't exist has been injurious for women.

But I think the insistence that an entirely voluntary association should exclude transwomen against the wishes of its board (and possibly its membership) is disproportionate and risks looking unnecessarily cruel. Nobody HAS to join the WI, and nobody will be denied crucial services if they don't join, so it feels like taking a sledgehammer to a nut. For what it's worth I feel the same about Park Run: it's a fun project whose whole purpose is inclusion. (If you want to compare competitive run times, there are dedicated sports clubs you can join for that.)

I think this is a flaw in the SC judgement (consequential on the drafting of the Equality Act) that over time might undermine the whole sex-realist project. It makes sex-realist action look cruel, disproportionate and obsessive.

What matters is that women must be able to access single sex spaces and services where they really matter, eg for healthcare and critical aspects of wellbeing (refuges, rape crisis centres, mental health services). Competitive sports are off in a category of their own and most people don't dispute the need for single sex provision there. Organisations for children are also in a separate category IMO.

Conflating those things with voluntary associations for adults, whose purpose is to provide general socialising and support is a category error, in my opinion. And risks being politically disastrous in the long run.

EasternStandard · 03/12/2025 12:18

INeedAPensieve · 03/12/2025 12:04

The three amazing women who are part of For Women Scotland met on Mumsnet. They are the ones who pushed this and fought to get it clarified by the Supreme Court.

Amazing. They have done so well.

Tutorpuzzle · 03/12/2025 12:19

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

So boring that you clicked on it and have chosen to engage in debate on it?
Do you only take part in boring threads? How strange.

I’m with you OP. Very pleased by this.

Hoppinggreen · 03/12/2025 12:20

LighthouseLED · 03/12/2025 12:00

They’ve allowed it for decades. Why kick long-standing members out? That doesn’t seem fair.

Yes, don’t allow transwomen in future. But let those who joined more than a certain number of years ago (so aren’t part of any takeover / point-making group) stay.

That would be discrimination, either they allow men to join or they don't, they can't pick and choose which men.

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