WI (Womens Institute)

[janesmithsdog]

They say on their website they are for women only, but does anyone know if the WI allow male bodied people who “identify as women” to join? I’d like to join our local one but this would be an issue for me. Thanks in advance.

It's not up to women to decide for men whether they should accept female transitioners into their male spaces.

Men are going to have to discuss this for themselves and draw their own boundaries. However, it's worth pointing out that when the GRA was passed, the Houses of Parliament carefully stipulated that in families where the firstborn male heir inherits a title and a seat in the House of Lords, that his older female sibling would not be able to claim the title and seat by transitioning to live as a man.

Only biological males count when they're deciding who inherits estates and political influence. Being legally male while biologically female is insufficient. This was specified in the legislation!

So men are pretty good at drawing boundaries when they think things they value are at risk!

It’s special pleading to say that the groups that you favour should be allowed to be single-sex and others shouldn’t.

Even if men were using the local golf club in Widnes to network, so what? Why should they not have the right to do that? I work in finance and there are any number of female-only clubs and organisations explicitly for the purpose of helping each other get a leg-up in the business.

Freedom of association is one of the key tenets of basic human rights.

I’d have fewer concerns if the WI were honest and said they were now a mixed sex organisation. But they aren’t being honest. They purport to remain for women only; it’s just the definition of “woman” now includes “some men”. That’s why women are particularly annoyed by this current encroachment on their spaces. It’s adding insult to injury to make female spaces mixed sex AND to force women to pretend that nothing has changed.

TBH I can't see the harm in the WI allowing trans people to join.

I do get your point, but what I don’t get is why people who feel excluded don’t set up their own spaces? Why do they need to insert themselves into spaces that are already meeting a particular need?

E.g. recently I saw a cafe who had advertised free drinks and space for prams on Monday mornings with the hashtag #breastfeeding. The video they posted with it showed a couple of breastfeeding mums sitting in their cafe with prams.

A person (presumably male/dad?) commented, “why isn’t this open to dads too? #toxicfeminism”

the cafe replied, apologised and updated the ad to say men and women were welcome.

but why did that man have to be petulant about it? If he felt like he wasn’t welcome in breastfeeding women’s space, why didn’t he set up something to meet his own needs? Why did he have to step into a space that was meeting a need for breastfeeding humans - which can be a really stressful thing to do in public.

I’m genuinely interested - I just can’t make out the motive behind it other than to be petulant and to refuse to recognise that bodies are different and have different needs?