The Women’s Institute (WI) has been urged to stop ‘forcing’ its groups to accept men as members. A separate equality, diversity and inclusion policy claims that admitting men “enriches” WI membership and ensures it is “a place for all women to celebrate who they are”. ‘Immutable’The Christian Institute’s Social Policy Analyst Dr Sharon James said: “The Women’s Institute has gone off the rails by forcing its groups to accept men as members. Baroness Falkner of Margravine stated that “redefining ‘sex’ in EqA to mean biological sex would create rationalisations, simplifications, clarity and/or reductions of risk” in a number of current areas of legal dispute. For example, she said it would enable single-sex groups to restrict membership to biological women, as well as allow employers to limit certain permitted roles, such as a warden in a girls’ hostel, to biological women only.

Source: The Guardian April 20, 2023 21:31 UTC