WI – the clue is in the name.
The Women’s Institute has announced with “sincere regret” it will no longer offer membership to transgender women. The change to the organisation – which has thousands of local branches offering events, campaigns and social gatherings across the UK – will come into effect from April 2026. It follows a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that a woman is defined by biological sex under equality law. Until now the Women’s Institute has allowed trans women – biological males who identify as women – to join. It describes itself as “a legally recognised women’s organisation and charity”, and to comply with the Supreme Court judgement says it must “restrict formal membership to biological women only”. The organisation said it would create a new national network of “sisterhood groups” alongside Women’s Institutes that want to offer a “trans-inclusive space” to “develop that friendship and support for transgender women”. It follows an announcement by Gir;guidingthat it would ban transgender girls from joining.Under UK law, the 2010 Equality Act sets out the rules for single-sex organisations and spaces being able to exclude members of the opposite sex.
