Our response.

Melissa Green, the CEO of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, gave a statement to the Guardian newspaper which was published on 19th April 2023.

Prior to this letter we have had no direct contact with Melissa Green, we contacted the WI on 17th April 2023 when we were aware that the Daily Mail was publishing an article on our campaign.

This letter, signed by multiple WI members (redacted) asks specific questions and points that we feel are raised by the Guardian article. The NFWI/Melissa Green responded on 09 June 2023, read the full response here.

The NFWI has asked us to highlight two paragraphs by placing them on our website, we are happy to do so as we believe in showing all views. At no point have the NFWI addressed the tension between the Constitution and the 2023 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy, which we strongly believe de facto changes the constitution to make the Women’s Institute mixed-sex without the required vote. The reply mainly goes into procedural detail.

We would add that if your Federation is displaying “pride progress” flags, has a trans-identifying male in a leadership position who do you complain to? The EDI policy readily labels members’ concerns as ‘transphobic’. Many women are under the impression, due to the policy’s wording, that the WI is not legally allowed to discriminate against trans-identifying men which they are, no amount of anonymous forums, that less than 1% of members can access, will rectify this.

Below are some example from National and Federation social media and the WI Life Magazine, the paragraphs are below these:

Exert from the WI letter – read the full response here (please note the quality isn’t great due to redacting names).

We would be grateful if you could clarify the wording on your website at https://wdwi.co.uk
by including the above two paragraphs.


The National Council meets formally at least twice a year and informally on a regular
basis. Its last meeting was on 7 June 2023. The entire session was dedicated to
discussing our E,D&I policy and specifically in light of the concerns you have raised. We
remain committed to ensuring that we hear the voices of members and respond
appropriately to the issues. The session was one of open discussion and included an
anonymous online forum where Council members could share experiences, thoughts and
perspectives if they felt unable to share these publicly. Federations were encouraged to
share the feedback they had received from members and the discussions they had been
involved in directly with individual members and WIs. We have always been, and we
remain committed to, providing a space where all views can be shared respectfully, and
we are grateful to our National Council for its unswerving ability to explore and address
sensitive and complex issues.


During the meeting the policy, local practice and member views from discussions that have
taken place in federations and WIs were discussed. Although many concerns had been
raised about the information shared by the media and the impact this was having on
members and the way the WI was being viewed, very few members had expressed
concern about the policy itself and it became clear that many federations have received no
communications at all from their members on this issue, with volume of correspondence
reflecting what we have received nationally and representing far less member
communication than a great number of other WI matters.