‘Carnage of concern and upset’: Women’s Institute groups close after transgender ban | Women’s Institute

At least 12 Women’s Institute (WI) groups are closing or considering closure after the organisation barred transgender women from membership.

Members say more groups are likely to close, and that the federation’s decision has opened up a toxic, traditionalist culture that will deter younger women from joining.

Branches said they felt forced to shut after the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) confirmed that, from April, membership will be restricted to those registered female at birth. Several plan to relaunch as independent social groups.

The WI is one of the UK’s largest voluntary organisations, with thousands of local branches and about 180,000 members nationwide.

Emma Hawley, chair of Social Lites WI in Urmston, Greater Manchester – a group with nearly 140 members that has run for 13 years – said her entire committee has decided to step down.

“None of the other members want to take our places – many immediately said they weren’t even going to renew their membership,” she said.

“We’re all heartbroken. I’ve put 13 years into running this amazing group but I can’t, ethically or morally, be a member of something that excludes transgender women,” she said.

Seven Hills WI in Sheffield will also close after the current board decided to step down and no other members came forward.

Clementine Dexter, vice-president of Seven Hills WI, said the group received about 220 abusive online comments after posting that they were closing. “Out of 250 comments, there were just 30 that were supportive,” she said. “The rest were really abusive and awful.

“The NFWI’s decision has emboldened certain members to speak their minds and I think the federation has a serious issue as a result,” she said. “It’s going to struggle even more than it already does to attract younger members, and the more conservative members are going to be more emboldened to stick to what feels like a toxic culture.”

Dexter said she had met Melissa Green, NFWI chief executive. “We asked how this would be policed and were told that gender at birth would be included in the list of questions determining eligibility for membership,” she said. “Members have to reapply every year and that just feels really nasty. I can’t be a member of an organisation that does that.”

Even branches continuing under the new WI rules said they are facing practical fallout. Some have lost venues; others report speakers cancelling bookings.

Sophie Hossack, president of Ladies of the Lock WI in Kentish Town, London, said the venue they have used for nearly a decade has refused future bookings because of the policy.

“They said they did not feel comfortable renting their room to us because they are a trans-inclusive space,” she said.

Nora Salmon’s Hackney Wicked Women group – Hackney Wick’s WI – will also close next month. She said the NFWI’s decision had created “a carnage of concern and upset” and that groups had received little support.

“We were blindsided by their decision,” she said. “The lack of guidance and consultation has left us feeling betrayed. When we contacted them to say we’d lost members and were closing, the only response we got was, ‘We’re sorry to hear that’.”

The NFWI’s decision followed a 2025 UK supreme court judgment which held that the legal definition of a woman under the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex.

After reviewing the ruling, the NFWI announced it could no longer lawfully offer transgender women formal membership if it wished to continue operating as a women’s charity.

In its statement, the organisation said it was acting with “utmost regret and sadness”, adding it would create alternative “sisterhood groups” open to all. Approached for this article, the NFWI declined further comment.

Salmon said the move cut against the WI’s traditions. “The WI has alway been an incredibly grassroots organisation where every member has a say in how it’s run. But all that has been taken entirely out of our hands.”

Hawley agreed the decision ran counter to the WI’s prior ethos: “We pay our fees to be part of a collective but although we’ve asked for a consultation, that doesn’t seem to be planned,” she said.

For some branches, the implications of the ruling have actually worsened concerns rather than easing them.

Jules Mortimore of Wells Angels, a 125-member WI group in Tunbridge Wells that also plans to close, pointed out the ruling means transgender men could join WI groups.

“That is likely to be far more confronting and alarming for women than a trans woman,” she said.

“The fact that we also haven’t been contacted about this and given any guidance about what to tell our members or how to handle it suggests the WI just haven’t thought any of this through properly at all,” she added.

She said a WhatsApp network of about a dozen branches discussing closure is growing, with confusion and uncertainty driving increasing numbers of committees to consider leaving the NFWI.

Despite the upheaval, however, many departing members say they remain attached to the community spirit that defined their groups, and intend to preserve it outside the official structure.

“We’re going to reopen as an independent community group and we’re really positive about that,” said Mortimore.

For Hawley, the aim is continuity rather than rupture. “We’ve been through so much together and given each other so much support,” she said. “We just want to carry on doing that.”