Women’s Institute vows to ‘find ways to keep welcoming trans women’ after ban 

The National Federation of Women’s Institutes has vowed to “find ways to keep welcoming trans women” after a nationwide trans ban, including introducing “new sisterhood groups”.

On 16 April 2025, the Supreme Court judgement in the case of For Women Scotland vs Scottish Ministers decided the protected characteristic of “sex” for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act means “biological sex” only and does not include trans people.

In the wake of the ruling, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) – the UK’s human rights watchdog – drafted interim updates to its Code of Practice on single-sex spaces. 

The updates recommended the exclusion of trans people from facilities including toilets, changing rooms, and gender-specific organisations.

The guidance stated that “in some circumstances” trans people could be stopped from using spaces based on their ‘biological sex”. It was later clarified that these “circumstances” referred to situations where “reasonable objection” could be taken to a trans person’s presence, such as in female spaces when “the gender reassignment process has given [a trans man] a masculine appearance or attributes”.

In line with the guidance, numerous organisations, including women’s-only group the WI, have implemented policies banning trans people. The WI – one of the UK’s largest voluntary organisations – has thousands of local branches and 175,000 members nationwide. 

The NFWI announced in December that, from April 2026, it will ban trans women from joining its chapters by only accepting members on the basis of “biological sex”. 

According to reports, the decision forced at least 12 WI groups to close or consider closure, including the WI in Manchester, which closed after a majority of its membership quit. 

Manchester Women’s Institute said it fundamentally opposed the decision and was “incredibly disappointed” by the move. It confirmed on 23 February that the group would suspend all future activities once the policy takes effect, in part due to officer resignations.

Facebook comments under the branch’s closure announcement reflected widespread disappointment at the NFWI’s decision to ban trans women. The majority of comments stood in solidarity with “our trans sisters”, while women from other branches shared that they too were considering to leave their branch. 

One comment from a trans woman read: “As a trans woman all I want to say is 1) I’m sorry it has come to this and 2) thank you for your allyship.”

“When I lived in Manchester this WI was a lifeline for me and I’m so proud to have been part of it. We are nothing without our trans sisters,” read another comment. 

A spokesperson for the NFWI told PinkNews: “In December, we announced with the utmost regret and sadness that from April 2026, we could no longer offer formal membership to transgender women. As an organisation that has proudly welcomed transgender women into our membership for more than 40 years, this was not something we would do unless we felt that we had no other choice.” 

New groups will be “open to all”

The statement continued: “We know how hard this decision is for so many of our members, and we are offering support to all members who have concerns or queries about the change.” 

In solidarity with the community the movement has vowed to find ways to “keep welcoming trans women” through “a new network of Sisterhood groups”.

The statement concluded: “As the largest voluntary women’s organisation in the UK with 175,000 members in 5,000 WIs, we are determined to continue to find ways to keep welcoming trans women to our movement. That’s why we are supporting our WIs and federations who are setting up a new network of Sisterhood groups in their communities, open to all, that will continue to offer friendship and support to transgender women as the WI has done for so many years.”

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