It always comes as a shock to people when they find out the Women’s Institute is more the People’s Institute. This has been done by a slight of hand, where the NFWI has dreamt up legislation. Claiming to rely on a “woman only exemption” contained in the Equality Act 2010, which does not exist, language matters and there is a single sex exemption and the NFWI does not use it anyway:

This is a screenshot of a letter from the NFWI dated 15 March 23.

The EDI Policy

Whilst this is not right, what is worse is that the NFWI comprehensively hides this fact from its members.

This is from the EDI policy available here and our archive.

This is on the MyWI website (07 Feb 25) for members only, and is the old 2021 policy cut and paste in.

The EDI policy states that “being a transgender woman is a protected characteristic (gender reassignment)” but fails to mention Self-ID is not the law. Also “transgender woman” is specifically not a protected characteristic and the definition adopted by the WI could (does) impinge on the protected characteristic of sex.

Frequently Asked Questions on the WI Website

The FAQs on the WI website:

The WI Handbook

This is in the WI Handbook, which is really egregious, as it hides the lack of sex as a protected characteristic and replaces it with “Non-Binary” which is not a legally recognised term. The full handbook is here:

However, this is better than the first 2024 edition which omitted sex as protected characteristic completely. Full handbook here.

WI Advisor Training

WI Advisor Training, full transcript here, and the protected characteristic of gender critical is mentioned, with no explanation, it is the wrong section, as it falls under Religion and Philosophical Beliefs not Gender Reassignment.

Whilst the protected characteristic of Sex is mentioned by the NFWI, it does not explain it, there is no definition of what a woman is, no reference regarding single sex exemptions in the Equality Act 2010. In short this is a master piece in deception.