Transgender women will be banned from joining the Women’s Institute from April next year, with the organisation saying it “had no other choice” following the Supreme Court ruling.
The decision, which overturns a 40-year-old policy, has been taken “with the utmost regret and sadness”, it said, adding that it retains the “firm belief that transgender women are women”.
The U-turn comes in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that said trans women are not legally women under the Equality Act, the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) said.
It comes just a day after Girlguiding announced that it would also ban trans girls from joining.
NFWI chief executive Melissa Green 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.
“To be able to continue operating as the Women’s Institute, a legally recognised women’s organisation and charity, we must act in accordance with the Supreme Court’s judgment and restrict formal membership to biological women only. However, this change is only in respect to our membership policy and does not change our firm belief that transgender women are women.”
The NFWI said that while it can no longer “legally offer formal membership to transgender women” after the Supreme Court ruling, the organisation will “bring forward programmes to continue to extend fellowship, sisterhood, and support to transgender women”.
Trans rights groups have reacted with dismay to the Supreme Court ruling, warning that it would “exclude trans people wholesale from participating in UK society”.
In April, five judges from the UK Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex, in a decision that experts warned could have wide-ranging ramifications for trans women’s rights to use services and spaces reserved for women.
In response to the court ruling, the Equality and Human Rights Commission produced guidance that has been dubbed a “misogynist’s charter” after reports that transgender people could be banned from single-sex spaces, such as toilets and changing rooms, based on what they look like.
The document was sent to ministers almost four months ago but has yet to be published, with the government facing pressure to explain the delay.
Under the new guidance, places such as hospital wards, gyms and leisure centres will reportedly be able to question transgender women over whether they should be using single-sex services, based on how they look, their behaviour, or concerns raised by others, according to The Times.
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