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

[SingleSexSpacesInSchools]

“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.

I can’t see why they can’t include all men - you know be inclusive

I actually don't care if WI or Guides or any other organisation allows men to join but they must allow ALL men to join and not claim to be for women/girls only. That way women who want to join a women only group can choose if that group or organisation is right for them.
As for the WI being a social group for lonely old TW? Maybe they could start one?

If you are to tackle violence against women and girls you at the very least need to be able to define what one is, and it doesn’t include males.

Yes the NHS is still shit and there’s a housing crisis but it’s a good thing people (well maybe not all) have the ability to care about more than one issue, at the same time. Wild I know.

What a staggering amount of guff.

women’s rights is not a wedge issue. It affects 51% of the population rich or poor.

There are not many social groups for the elderly

'The elderly' can join any social group they please, providing its membership is not limited to people under 60. The WI isn't for 'the elderly', is it?

But none of the core issues have been sold.

VAWAG hasn’t fallen. We still have far right nuts trying to take away our access to healthcare and abortions. Nothing, and I mean nothing, has changed for women.

Common sense surely?

I agree with this

And what about the women who felt like they couldn’t join/attend because there were males there.
Of course they don’t matter, only men matter, women exist to be ‘kind’ and capitulate. There are groups for men, if men have an issue with one who dresses like a woman then they need to be ‘kind’ and reframe their ideas of manhood clearly.

I briefly went to one near me but dropped out, no time and the average age of the group was very elderly. There are numerous alternative WI groups popping up with younger women, they are all women. I’d join one of them. I don’t want to join a club with men, I especially don’t want to join one with a man who has ‘lady feelings’. If the WI was bothered they would become mixed sex, they won’t, they know that women want single sex groups so won’t publicly change, just sneaked it in through the back door. Cowards.

The main victory after the FWS is that women can complain about our boundaries being breeched. I had a (young, male, woke) acquaintance castigate me for saying I wouldn’t want to strip in front of a transwoman. ‘Penises are just body parts, why be so prudish?’ said the man who had never been sexually assaulted to a woman who had been 4 times.

FWS means that I can now call security if a bloke tries to strip off in the ladies changing room. It’s a beautiful piece of legislation.

Its their own fault in the first place for adopting such a ludicrous policy and continually ignoring attempts to bring the legal and moral reality to their attention.

Its not an insistence that a voluntary agency excludes transwomen.
Its a law that says if an organisation wants to exclude members of one biological sex using the provision for exemption from discrimination under the EA, then it had to exclude ALL members of the opposite sex, including those who identify as a different gender.
So the only way the WI can exclude male people is to exclude ALL male people, including those who are transwomen.
The WI had options here. It could have changed its membership to mixed sex and then transwomen could have continued to attend. What is couldn't continue to do is to include people of the female sex and only some of the male sex, as that would discriminate against other people of the male sex.

Women being able to name reality is fundamental in addressing the issues that remain unsolved. Its the flip side from being ignored or vilified when trying to do so - that is what the 'ruling classes' imposed and women were never, ever wrong to object and resist. Sadness is irrelevant.

Please tell me how this will solve the cost of living crisis? The housing crisis? The issues in the NHS?

The WI is still perfectly free to admit trans identified males within the bounds of the law. Nothing is actually stopping them - they're either for women only or they're not. If they want to include trans women they can. They just can't pretend to be for women only in the course of that.

Is there a reason you suddenly and magically left out violence against women? Something that leads to women in crisis accessing the services mentioned?

They kicked out any women who were not happy with him.

I resigned from the WI when they had two WI members (a woman and her husband wearing a dress) on the front cover of their WI Life magazine.

The feature inside was all about how wonderful it was that the woman and her husband (or whatever they all had to call him) were able to participate in the WI together.

My own branch only had actual women, but the idea that someone might turn up with her husband in a wig and dress and the rest of us would have to clap and cheer and declare he was "stunning and brave" put me off going again.

I am now a member of another similar organisation that doesn't allow men to join, even if they are wearing woman costume.

You might want to take your Mumsnet police badge over to any Christmas and Royal posts and flash it there if you’re going to take that attitude.

It is possible to be concerned about more than one issue at the same time.

And also, the issues you list affect all people, not just one sex.

But in this instance we are discussing women's rights, issues that affect the female sex.

well we are not staying on the naughty step. This is an interesting article about women's rights.

People wanting to talk about women's rights shouldn't have to hunt through all the topics to find them.

Also: there is an AIBU in the title/op so you can get back to Thread Police Headquarters and eat a Thread Police Donut.

Was that the man who basically took on his wife's entire persona and identity? That was awful.

Please tell me how your life has got actually better (not through imagined scenarios and concepts but actual reality) since this ruling?

The WI was started by women for women.

Elderly men can start their own group. They can even call it the TWI if they want. But they don’t want, do they.

Cry me a river.

So women shouldn’t have sex based rights until the NHS, cost of living crisis and housing crisis are magically solved? Right.