I wonder what the WI are going to announce on Woman's Hour in the next few minutes?

[nauticant]

Apparently it will be a matter of the greatest seriousness and sorrow.

well I've just put my head above the parapet and sent this off to the WI Inclusion officer.

I've just seen your announcement that you will still use resources that should be reserved for women to enable men pretending to be women to continue associating with the WI groups .
Could you confirm that men pretending to be women will have to fully fund their own activities and be a separate unit to the female membership.
I am so pleased that I can now attend WI activities without the possibility of running into a man acting out some misogynistic impression of woman hood.

I didn't join a women only outdoor network on the basis of their display at an event I went to and the domination of a male.

We'd just had a presentation about barriers women face to outdoor adventure. It was all about biology, physical size, child care and sexism. Then some dude with a beard rocked up and asked 'can I join too?".

There were no more questions after. DH was with me and was appalled at what happened. Thank fuck.

I don't listen to Women's Hour but I notice that the WI doesn't seem to realise that transwomen are not any kind of women.

The fawning article on "Petra" can be found in the article on Page 6 of the July & August 2021 edition of "WI Life". Trigger warning it is simperingly uncritical.

From the WI statement;

• For example, in April 2026, we will be launching a national network of local WI Sisterhood groups, which will offer monthly opportunities for all people, including transgender women, to come together to socialise, learn from each other, and share their experiences of living as women.

So it seems it will be open to everyone. Can't see how it corresponds with their articles though.

Why are you replying to your own post? Did you try to change name? You can’t do that.

@Stopbringingmicehome please update the reply when you get it!

It was an additional thought/ comment I wished to add on to the previous post, so I linked them .
Why are people so suspicious about that ? it's really very odd.

W.I should never have allowed T-I-Ms in in the first place - the clue is in the title - Women's Institute. I hope the membership goes up.

They've also misquoted the nine protected characteristics in their EDI policy:

"What are Protected characteristics?
Under the Equality Act 2010, there are nine protected characteristics, usually referred to as
“the protected characteristics”:
• age
• disability
• gender
• gender reassignment
• marital or civil partnership status
• pregnancy and maternity
• race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins)
• religion or belief
• sex or sexual orientation"

https://menssheds.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/UKMSA-EDI-Policy-2024-25092025.pdf

It should read:

• age
• disability
• gender
• gender reassignment
• marital or civil partnership status
• pregnancy and maternity
• race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins)
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation"

the WI doesn't seem to realise that transwomen are not any kind of women

Correct. They disagree with you. As many people do. This surely can't be news to you?

A neo vagina is not an actual functional female organ. It is a blind fistula which needs to be artifiically manipulated in order to stop it from healing over.

It's all a bit baffling.

"The Supreme Court the highest court in the UK has said X, so we consulted our local lawyers, who have sadly said that yes X does mean X and so we do have to do what it says. We're only going to do it from April 2026 though so everything lines up neatly with our finances and we don't have to refund any premiums."

People believe all kinds of things, but what matters here is the law.

“And then we’re going to introduce some new extra groups for the special women and we somehow believe that isn’t against the law”

Any more than a transman will have a penis, no matter what has been constructed by a surgeon.

Vanishingly few women seek to have an artifiicial penis contructed - using the skin of their forearm. It is not really a functional male organ.

A minority of people may genuinely believe that transwomen are women. But surveys show the majority disagree with them. And the law is clear that they’re not women.
Surely that can’t be news to you?

The WI admit that their DEI policy was written by Gendered Intelligence.

Yes, they believe dangerously sexist principles and I don't.

We've acknowledged that. You seem to find it very difficult to state whether or not there is anything whatsoever that differentiates men and women.

As I said, we all know why. You either think both words are meaningless - as in you can't actually come up with a consistent meaning - or you don't want to say because we'd all see what you actually think.

And provable, observable fact.

They are disagreeing on a matter of fact (as well as law). Transwomen are men. You can't change your sex and gender is just personality. Wearing a frock and liking macreme doesn't make you a women (I am doing neither of those currently and I am most definitely a woman).
They might as well disagree that the earth goes round the sun. They are provably wrong.

If they don't know they are men every engagement with medical care must be life threatening.

That's exactly what I was thinking, both for the WI and the GGs.

The U3A is a very similar set up to the WI and is mixed sex, so there already is an alternative grouo for men to join