Women’s Institute No Longer Includes Trans Women

By Alexander Grey via Unsplash

By Emma Crossan

Following the UK Supreme Court ruling that the term “women” can only apply to biological women, the Women’s Institution announced yesterday that from April 2026, they will no longer be offering their services to trans women.

The Women’s Institute is an organisation which offers support to women, allowing them the opportunity to come together and learn new skills. They pride themselves on being an organisation which empowers women and brings them together.

The organisation has always been inclusive to all women, including trans and femme presenting non-binary people. However, a statement was shared on the Women’s Institute’s official website, informing that due to the Supreme Court ruling, they would no longer be welcoming trans women.

Melissa Green, CEO of the Women’s Institute, said: “It is with the utmost regret and sadness that we must announce that, from April 2026, we can 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 is not something we would do unless we felt that we had no other choice.”

The decision to no longer allow trans women to join the Women’s Institute has garnered a mixed reaction from various groups and members of the public.

Groups such as Sex Matters have defended the decision, stating that women’s spaces should only be for biological women, and that there are plenty of other mixed gender spaces they could go to.

Meanwhile, trans rights group, Trans Action, spoke out to condemn the decision – pointing out that this could cause some trans women to be outed and targeted because of the exclusion.

It’s easy to assume that the Women’s Institution were forced to make this choice to follow the law. However, multiple women’s charities have chosen to go against the Supreme Court.

In April 2025, domestic violence charity Refuge released a statement confirming that their services would continue to be offered to transgender women.

Gemma Sherrington, CEO of Refuge, said: “Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court will not change the way Refuge operates.

We remain firmly committed to supporting all survivors of domestic abuse, including trans women.”

Refuge choosing to include trans women despite the Supreme Court ruling is a clear example that the Women’s Institute were not forced to make this decision.

The Supreme Court ruling has fuelled further hatred towards trans women; therefore, how women’s charities choose to handle this is vital in helping trans women and allies to understand which organisations are a safe space for the trans community.

Stop Hate UK reported that in 2020/2021, there were 2,630 victims of transgender hate crime, adding that this isn’t actually an accurate number because 88% of transgender people don’t report hate crimes to the police.

Considering the bigotry and violence the transgender community is facing, women’s charities have an opportunity to fight back against the discrimination brought by the Supreme Court ruling.

It’s disappointing to see that the Women’s Institute has strayed from its values of inclusivity and empowerment for all women and has chosen to comply with the segregation of trans people.

The decision to ban transgender people from joining the organisation runs the risk of further fuelling prejudice towards the trans community – therefore, putting trans people at a higher risk of hate crimes.

The Supreme Court ruling has caused a rise in trans people feeling excluded and feeling unsafe when entering single-sex spaces. Many trans people have spoken out about their fears of using public bathrooms since the ruling due to not knowing which places are compliant with the rule and which aren’t.

With the new ruling causing a divide in the UK, now is the time for organisations to step up and show the country where they stand on trans rights.