FiLiA

Co-founder Lisa Marie Taylor is Chief Executive Officer.[3] The three other trustees are Kruti Walsh, Sally Jackson, and Claire Heuchan.[3][10]

Writer Raquel Rosario Sánchez is the spokeswoman for FiLiA since 25 November 2019.[17] Previously, its spokeswoman was Heather Brunskell-Evans, founder of Resist Porn Culture, a precursor of FiLiA,[18][19] and Women's Declaration International (WDI).[14][20][21]

The organization has held an annual conference, originally known as Feminism in London, since 2013.[3][17][22]

After the first three years in 2015, Lisa Marie Taylor said that Feminism in London was the "largest women's right conference in the UK".[23] More than 1000 women attended the two day weekend event in October 2015.[24] Speakers included Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality party, and Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty.[24] A position statement by the conference said that: "We are critical of the sex industry. By this we do not mean that we disapprove of the women involved in it. We are critical of the hypercapitalist and patriarchal industry itself."[24] There was anger that sex workers and pro-prostitution voices were not included.[24] Following complaints about her stance on prostitution, journalist Jane Fae withdrew from speaking, and, in consequence, so did journalists Julie Bindel and Caroline Criado-Perez.[24]

In 2016, following the granting of charitable status in 2015, the organisation joined with Resist Porn Culture and adopted the name FiLiA, a word meaning daughter, "evocative of our intention to steadfastly continue the work of our foremothers to create a better world for our daughters".[19] The word was Alisa Lockwood's name for the art exhibition at Feminism in London in 2013.[19]

In October 2017, FiLiA's conference was held in Bloomsbury, with an art show including 70 women artists.[25]

In October 2021, FiLiA held its conference in Portsmouth. Gender-critical speaker Jo Phoenix announced legal proceedings against the Open University for "the public campaign of harassment that has made my working life unbearable".[26] The winner of the Emma Humphrey prize for contributing towards ending male violence was announced: a 45-year-old woman, referred to as Daisy, who had been conceived by rape and had led a campaign for nine years resulting in the conviction of her father.[27]

In October 2022, when FiLiA's annual conference took place in Cardiff, police investigated online threats against the venue.[6] Many businesses in Cardiff responded by flying the trans flag to condemn the FiLiA event.[28] One of the speakers was Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.[6] In 2021, FiLiA had organised a global fast, by groups of women in the UK, India, Morocco and Iran, in support of her release from imprisonment in Iran.[2]

In October 2023, the FiLiA women's conference took place at Platform in Glasgow city centre.[1] FiLiA said that 1400 delegates attended, with the event selling out in June and 800 women on the waiting list.[29] Among 150 speakers were SNP MP Joanna Cherry, writers Julie Bindel and J. K. Rowling, and United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem.[29][1][30] Following claims by anonymous activists that FiLiA is a transphobic group, Platform gave FiLiA 12 hours' notice that their conference would not be allowed to be held at the venue.[11][1] The venue's cancellation resulted in legal threats, describing the legal implications of the Equality Act 2010, following which the cancellation was withdrawn.[11][9][1] Glasgow LGBT rights activists, intersectional feminists and Scottish Greens politicians staged a public protest against FiLiA on 13 October 2023.[12][8][31][32] The Scotsman newspaper reported "Anonymous organisers behind the Glasgow Trans Rally had attempted to shut down the three-day FiLiA conference, which features people from around the world to discuss topics including female genital mutilation." Glasgow Scottish Green councillor Holly Bruce said "there’s various workshops and sessions that are under the guise of women’s safety, that are trans exclusionary."[30]

FiLiA has faced accusations of transphobia and protests against its events, including from the local authority at its Portsmouth meeting in 2021.[33] The Trans Safety Network described the 2022 FiLiA conference as characterised by "a disturbing trend of anti-trans extremism, conspiracy theory and harassment of trans and GNC people" and said that "much of the content on their website indicates a hostility to trans women [and] conspiratorial beliefs."[34]

In 2020 cosmetics company Lush apologised for donating money to FiLiA and Woman's Place UK, after the company had faced extensive criticism, e.g. from the leader of Young Labour, Jessica Barnard, who said it was "disgusting to see Lush funding transphobia."[35]

In 2022, the National Education Union executive passed a motion that described FiLiA as a transphobic organisation.[5] During the 2022 FiLiA conference, Labour Students described FiLiA as "an anti-trans lobbying group" and said Rosie Duffield's behaviour "has gone beyond the pale and we echo LGBT+ Labour's calls that she should lose the Labour whip" after she attended the FiLiA conference, calling upon the party to "adopt a definition of transphobia [and] deal with instances of transphobia more efficiently".[36]

In 2023, a statement posted on the Instagram profile of the anonymous Glasgow Trans Rally group said the conference was "dangerously transphobic," "encourages an environment which materially endangers trans folk, especially trans women"[11] and that "the way that FiLiA’s transphobia operates is insidious. They deliberately veil their transphobia behind ‘feminist’ rhetoric in a way that is calculated, tactical and deceitful."[4]

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