Woman's Place UK

Woman's Place UK[lower-alpha 1] (WPUK) is a British political advocacy group founded in 2017.[2] The group is opposed to gender self-identification for transgender people in the UK, and has advocated restricting access to women-only spaces on the basis of "sex, not gender".[3]

Woman's Place UK
Formation2017
FounderJudith Green
Ruth Serwotka
Kiri Tunks[1]
TypeGender-critical feminism
Region served
United Kingdom
Websitehttps://womansplaceuk.org

History

The group was founded in response to the British government's launch of a consultation on proposals to change the Gender Recognition Act away from a medicalised system towards one based on statutory declaration. In late-July 2018, the group issued five demands:

  1. Evidence-based debate about the impact of the proposed reforms;
  2. An increase in women-only spaces;
  3. A review of exemptions in Equality Act 2010;
  4. Women's organisations to be included in the consultation;
  5. A review of how the proposed reforms would affect data collection.[4]

In September 2018, Leeds City Council cancelled a booking made by WPUK at Leeds Civic Hall, stating that the group's views were "not in line with Leeds City Council’s values and policies on equality and inclusion" and venues that hosted previous events by the group had attracted safety concerns.[5]

In February 2020, WPUK held an event titled "Women's Liberation 2020" at University College London, including a number of panel discussions and workshops, marking 50 years since the first National Women’s Liberation Conference in the UK.[6][7]

Funding

In November 2020, WPUK published accounts revealing that the University of Oxford was one of its biggest funders, having paid the group a £20,000 consultancy fee for its "support research into women's sex-based rights" one year earlier.[8][9]

In December 2020, Lush gave WPUK £3,000 for "events organisation".[10][11] After facing criticism for the donation, Lush issued an apology, stating that "we want to assure you that [deliberately funding campaigning against trans rights] would never be our intention and we are sincerely sorry that any of our funding has gone towards doing this".[12]

Media coverage and criticism

The group has been described as transgender-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs).[3][1] It has faced opposition from Pride Cymru and the Wales Equality Alliance.[13] The Labour Campaign for Trans Rights has described it as a hate group.[14] London Feminist Library organiser Lola Olufemi described the group as "a clearly transphobic organisation" after she withdrew from an event at the University of Oxford.[15][16] In her 2021 book The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice, author Shon Faye described the organisation as "the most well-known grassroots anti-trans feminist group".[17]

The group has opposed being categorised as TERFs, stating that a number of trans women who oppose gender recognition based on statutory declaration, such as Debbie Hayton and Kristina Harrison, speak at their meetings.[3][18][19] In February 2020, 13 academics at University College London wrote an open letter to The Guardian arguing that the group was not a "trans-exclusionist hate group".[20][21]

See also

Notes
  1. Formerly known as A Woman's Place UK.

References
  1. Andersson, Jasmine (19 June 2020). "Trans teachers accuse union of 'transphobia' after quiet election of controversial activist". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  2. "Home". Woman's Place UK. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  3. "Why some women don't back 'self-identifying'". BBC News. 20 October 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2021 – via YouTube.
  4. "Our 5 Demands". Woman's Place UK. 23 July 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  5. "Leeds feminist event cancelled at 11th hour by council after 'transphobic' claims". Yorkshire Evening Post. 28 September 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  6. "Women's liberation bursts back onto the scene". Morning Star. 2 February 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  7. "BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Frankie Bridge, Women's Liberation 2020, 'The Gift'". BBC. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  8. Krasteva, Gergana (8 February 2020). "Oxford historian wants the legal definition of a woman to be based on sex only". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  9. Krasteva, Gergana (14 December 2020). "Oxford University biggest funder of 'anti-trans' group". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  10. Melero, Shannon (20 December 2020). "Why Did Lush UK Give Money to an Anti-Trans Group?". Jezebel. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  11. "WPUK Financial Statement 2020". Woman's Place UK. 28 November 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  12. Peters, Alex (2 December 2020). "Lush apologises after donating thousands to anti-trans groups". Dazed.
  13. "Protest by transgender community over A Women's Place meeting". BBC News. 12 April 2018.
  14. Brown, Andrew (20 February 2020). "When Social Justice Activism Becomes an Act of Self-Destruction". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  15. Parsons, Vic (3 March 2020). "Trans allies pull out of University of Oxford feminist conference over ties with 'clearly transphobic' Woman's Place UK". PinkNews.
  16. "What's wrong with Woman's Place UK?". Freedom News. 19 February 2020.
  17. Faye, Shon (2021). The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice. Penguin Books. p. 265. ISBN 9780241423141.
  18. "A system of gender self-identification would put women at risk". The Economist. 3 July 2018.
  19. "WPUK Myth busters". Woman's Place UK. 28 November 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  20. Letters (20 February 2020). "Woman's Place UK is not a 'trans-exclusionist hate group'". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  21. "UCL Women's Liberation Convenors respond to defamation of WPUK". blogs.ucl.ac.uk. UCL UCL Women's Liberation. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
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