Women's Institute ends membership for trans women with 'regret and sadness'

The Women's Institute will no longer accept transgender women as members from April 2026, following the UK supreme court ruling on the legal definition of a woman.

- Alexandra Topping

Melissa Green, the chief executive of the National Federation of Women's Institutes, said the organisation had taken the decision with the "utmost regret and sadness", adding it had "no choice" but to exclude trans women from its membership.

"Incredibly sadly, we will have to restrict our membership on the basis of biological sex from April next year," Green said yesterday. "But the message we really want to get across is that it remains our firm belief that transgender women are women, and that doesn't change."

Membership of the 110-year-old organisation will be restricted to those who are registered female at birth, with new members or those renewing their annual subscription fee expected to confirm that they meet the criteria.

On Tuesday, the Girlguiding organisation announced that trans girls would no longer be able to join its ranks, saying it had made the decision after seeking legal advice as a result of the supreme court ruling.

Green said the Women's Institute wanted trans women to remain "part of the WI family", and that it would launch new "sisterhood groups", open to all, "where we will recognise transgender women as women and explore what it is to be a woman in the 21st century".