Women’s aid getting flack from feminists- a defence

[Karensalright]

I was the CEO of a bigger than average DVA service including refuge provision outreach and support services up until 2013. My agency was and still is a member of Women's Aid England. They have recently after consultation with members issued a policy statement that trans women will not be provided with services.

It was always important to me that my leadership asserted the for women by women principal.

At a trustee meeting, a kind and politically well known woman asked about where we were at with trans women and i replied that if we had an application for support from a trans person, that each and every time we would have to consult the women that would be involved, ie service users in refuge, and women who we employed which pretty much killed any debate.

For those who do not know, we as with many of our fellow WA survived (to provide safety for women) on a variety of funding regimes, including housing benefit.

We ended up as did many housing services under a funding regime called supporting people that was great for a while. Our funding was secure we engaged as a key player in driving our local agendas forward, MARAC, safeguarding, specialist courts, and recognition as experts in family court proceedings. Police training, CPS training , what a time it was.

Then came along the local authority commissioning process, so they tendered our service out to everyone to bid in to. And many men led organisations did.

And guess what it had a requirement that not only should we meet men’s needs we should also meet trans needs.

What a shit storm that was we could not possibly deliver the level of service that we did for our female community without this funding.

So what could we do? As it happened the commissioning person lets call, her Penny actually fiddled the figures on our bid. We issued two legal challenges that caused the council to stop the tendering process. It bought us an extra three years of funding. At the cost of 60k to our finances. I left after that i could no longer cope or lead anymore it was just too much.

After i left my beloved agency lost their funding for three years but i had left a long game plan for them, and they survive and thrive.

I put myself on the line quite often, moved women abroad, had a team of solicitors who would go to court with a moments notice, fought for women as best i could

So that i us my defence

I have no idea what you are on about. Your title doesn't make sense.

Thanks @Karensalright - what you say is in fact a story told by other groups. But I think many women who haven't been part of the funded voluntary sector dont have any idea of how things changed over time.

Whether DV and RC services could have been more public about what was happening, ie mission drift through chasing funding, I dont know.

Because the other side of the problem is that women service providers used to be located within and part of a network of local women's groups who could lobby local councils and MPs.

Many women now involved with feminism have never had that experience and equally many women service providers dont interact with local women's groups (where they still exist) as they see themselves as part of a sector.

It would be nice to think that now that more women are active online re women's sex based rights, this would translate into women being part of a local pressure group for women's rights IRL.

But have to admit, if groups claiming to represent the VAWG sector write something as totally unfeminist as the recent "Manifesto" wittering on about gender, and only referencing the impact of violence (men never being identified as the source of the violence) on women with "other" disadvantages, its hardly a rallying cry that all women can unite around ie ending male violence against women.

Hi OP
i work at womens aid, so i get everything you're saying. Theres reasons i work there which is to protect and support women and children who have experienced some form of DA..DV. If anyone other than women/children ask for support they are signposted or referred to another appropriate service.

Just to add to what I said up thread, I think many women who aren't directly involved or have only seen alarmist tweets, think that because some DV services provide support to men, they then assume this means mixed sex provision, rather than some servies have decided to offer this in addition to their primary service for women as a women only service.