Sign our petition.

The Women’s Institute (WI) was created over 100 years ago to give women a voice in society, educational opportunities and campaign on issues that matter to them.

In 2021 the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) enacted an inclusion, diversity and equality policy that allows anyone who identifies as a woman to join. This was done without consultation of the membership. We at WIWD have queried this, and the response was policies do not need to be ratified by the members, only changes to the constitution. The constitution says that only women who have reached majority are eligible to join.

We believe that the inclusion, diversity and equality policy not only conflicts with individual WI constitutions, but it undermines the campaigns that the WI has previously undertaken and threatens current and future campaigns.

We have written a letter to the Board of Trustees of the NFWI to ask for:

  1. An immediate moratorium on trans women joining.

2. A discussion involving all members and women’s rights groups as well as the current advisors who are Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence and Gender Identity Research & Education Society.

3. A vote on the matter.

Read the letter and its annexes here, the request has been rejected.

Sign our petition.