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TUC Motion 17 and Women’s Rights
TUC Motion 17 and Women’s Rights

Union members have been writing to their general secretaries to ask them about their union’s position on the recent TUC Motion 17. Unions are starting to respond to these letters and we will be sharing their responses soon. However, women have told us they want to discuss the implications of this motion, and what it means for women’s rights, with other members of their unions and in their branches, so the FiLiA Trade Union Women’s Network have produced this model motion for women to take to their branch meetings.

BlogMiz JakubovicSex-Based Rights, Government Policy, Lesbian Rights, Class Politics, trade unions
Take Action on TUC Motion 17!
Take Action on TUC Motion 17!

Delegates at the Trades Union Congress this week voted to support a motion committing the organisation (and by implication its affiliate unions) to campaign against the EHRC code, which provides guidance on the Equality Act for services, organisations and associations. The motion proposes a serious and substantial change to the legal rights of women and girls and yet no mention is made of this in the motion. The FiLiA Trade Union Women’s Network has produced a short model letter for union members to send to General Secretaries, which asks five key questions. If you are a member of a union, please consider sending this letter to your General Secretary. Just copy and paste the text and send it to your General Secretary either by email or post.

BlogMiz JakubovicClass Politics, Government Policy, Lesbian Rights, Sex-Based Rights, trade unions
Debating the EHRC Code of Practice at This Year’s TUC Congress
Debating the EHRC Code of Practice at This Year’s TUC Congress

This year’s TUC Congress takes place in Brighton between 13-16th September. On the agenda is a motion submitted by the TUC LGBT+ Conference, opposing the EHRC Code of Practice. The motion raises important issues for the majority female membership of trade unions, and for lesbian and gay trade union members.  In this blog we present the motion, along with some questions that TUC delegates may wish to raise at their delegation meetings or in their local branches and regional/national assemblies.

BlogMiz JakubovicSex-Based Rights, Government Policy, Lesbian Rights, Class Politics, trade unions
FiLiA Calls on UNISON, USDAW, ASLEF and The Musicians’ Union to Change Stance on Labour Women’s Conference
FiLiA Calls on UNISON, USDAW, ASLEF and The Musicians’ Union to Change Stance on Labour Women’s Conference

Four unions are boycotting Labour Women's Conference because it is adhering to the law on women's spaces. The FiLiA Trade Union Women’s Network has sent this letter to the General Secretaries of each union to express our incredulity at this stance. We are also publishing it here.

Blog, StatementsMiz JakubovicClass Politics, Sex-Based Rights, Lesbian Rights, Government Policy, trade unions
FiLiA Response to Amnesty Apology
FiLiA Response to Amnesty Apology

We welcome Amnesty International UK's apology and its acknowledgement that FiLiA, and other women's organisations, should never have been labelled ‘anti-rights’ in their A Growing Threat: the Anti-rights Movement in the UK report. We also welcome the announcement of an independent external review. However, if the review only asks how this document was published, it will miss the point. It needs to ask why.

Statements, BlogMiz JakubovicSex-Based Rights
FiLiA Letter to Amnesty International UK
FiLiA Letter to Amnesty International UK

FiLiA has written to Amnesty International UK, following the inclusion of FiLiA in their (now withdrawn) report A Growing Threat - the Anti-Rights Movement in the UK. Alongside many other organisations targeted in this report, we have asked for the evidence and decision-making process which led to their conclusions. Where they will find no evidence, we expect an explanation, apology and formal retraction of the statement. We have also asked for a meeting and a public commitment to cease referring to Women's rights organisations and campaigners as ‘anti-rights’.

Statements, BlogMiz JakubovicSex-Based Rights
Trade Unions and the EHRC Code of Practice
Trade Unions and the EHRC Code of Practice

It is over a year since we celebrated an historic victory for women in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers. This blog reviews the most recent misguided attempts by Britain’s trade unions to undermine the Equality Act 2010 and argues why working-class women must ‘take back control’ of their own trade union movement.

On 21st May, Bridget Phillipson finally laid the EHRC Code of Practice before Parliament, after a delay of more than eight months. Since then, several unions, along with the Trades Union Congress and Scottish Trades Union Congress, have doubled down on their opposition to the Supreme Court ruling and issued statements to that effect.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINtrade unions, Class Politics, Sex-Based Rights
The EHRC Code of Practice Has Finally Been Laid
The EHRC Code of Practice Has Finally Been Laid

This is a significant legal and political moment: the Minister for Women and Equalities has laid guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) about how organisations should apply the law under the Equality Act 2010, more than a year after the landmark Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers.
Women can use this moment to organise, scrutinise and challenge institutions that continue to deny women their lawful single-sex spaces, services and associations.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINGovernment Policy, Sex-Based Rights, Lesbian Rights
Holding up Half the Sky – Women and the Labour Movement
Holding up Half the Sky – Women and the Labour Movement

The labour movement sees itself as the champion of women’s rights but continues to be complicit in our oppression. Women’s participation is constrained and subject to conditions that other oppressed groups do not face. By tackling the sex and misogyny in its midst, it would not only demonstrate its commitment to women's rights but build its own strength. The labour movement needs women: without us it will fail. This is the text of a speech made by Kiri Tunks for FiLiA Trade Union Women’s Network, as part of a women-only panel, at the Morning Star Conference '1926 to 2026 – Organised Labour 100 Years from the General Strike'.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINClass Politics, Sex-Based Rights, trade unions
Stabbing Or Shooting Someone Is Not the Only Way to Kill Them
Stabbing Or Shooting Someone Is Not the Only Way to Kill Them

But then, everything stopped.

Two years into my studies, the Taliban returned to power. With a few cruel words, they closed the doors of every university to women. My faculty, once a symbol of hope and purpose, became a silent place where girls were no longer welcome.

They did not shoot me. They did not stab me, but they killed something inside me.

Because when someone takes your education, your purpose, your future, they are not just stealing your rights.

They are erasing your existence. But I am not the only one. I am just one example of more than 20 million girls and women in Afghanistan who are now banned from going to university, entering a park, sitting in a restaurant, or even walking freely in an open space to breathe.

BlogFiLiAGlobal, Sex-Based Rights, Violence Against Women
Letter in support of Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson
Letter in support of Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson

FiLiA warmly welcomes the Government’s choice of preferred candidate for the next Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson. As part of the process, she appeared in front of two Parliamentary committees and her performance was assured, knowledgeable, and principled. It is clear the Government made the right choice. We are extremely disappointed, therefore, to learn that the Committees are not endorsing Dr Stephenson. We have written to the Minister for Women and Equalities to express our support for Mary-Ann.

StatementsFiLiAGovernment Policy, Sex-Based Rights
Women Deserve Better: FiLiA Responds to the Equality Law Call for Evidence
Women Deserve Better: FiLiA Responds to the Equality Law Call for Evidence

Critical protections for women are too often unconsidered and failing in their purpose.
We have responded to the Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO)’s equality law call for evidence to raise the alarm that the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is failing women. The OEO is examining whether non-public bodies exercising public functions are meeting their obligations under the PSED. However, this narrow focus misses a more fundamental opportunity.

StatementsFiLiASex-Based Rights
Used, Silenced, Branded: How Saudi Arabia Recycles Its Women
Used, Silenced, Branded: How Saudi Arabia Recycles Its Women

To Saudi Arabia’s allies in London and Washington: stop treating our lives like a line item on a trade deal. From Trump’s Riyadh photo-ops to his latest pledge of ‘no more lectures on how to live,’ the message is clear: authoritarianism is culture, and repression is tradition—as long as the oil keeps flowing. And from Keir Starmer’s silence, it seems Britain agrees. The economy comes first, human rights second. We’re not asking for heroism. We’re asking you to stop hiding behind diplomacy while our rights are crushed. If you can put human rights on the table when it's Russia or Iran, you can do the same with Saudi Arabia. If you can leverage deals for weapons, oil, and football, you can do it for freedom.

BlogFiLiAGlobal, Violence Against Women, Sex-Based Rights
For Women Scotland Supreme Court Victory
For Women Scotland Supreme Court Victory

On Wednesday morning, in a packed courtroom at the Supreme Court in London, the judgment in the For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers (FWS2) case was handed down. The Supreme Court unanimously agreed that the terms ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex. Holding a GRC does not change sex for the purposes of the EA2010. The court ruling makes clear to all what ordinary women across the UK have been saying for years: the law protects single-sex spaces and services.

StatementsMiz JakubovicSex-Based Rights, Lesbian Rights, Justice and the Law, Feminist History, Government Policy
Equality Impact Assessment: An Underrated Tool for Lasting Feminist Change!
Equality Impact Assessment: An Underrated Tool for Lasting Feminist Change!

Many of the women we have spoken to feel frustrated with decision makers who seem blind to the female perspective or the impact their work has on women.

Behind our laws, practice and provision, workplace policies or budget cuts, there’s often an invisible bias ‒ one that disproportionately adversely affects women.

And the impact is felt even harder by those at the intersections of race, disability, class and migration status. Too often the needs of women with disabilities, ethnic minority and migrant women, lesbians and women living in poverty are ignored, their voices sidelined, and their struggles compounded by policies that never considered them in the first place.

BlogFiLiASex-Based Rights, Disability, Class Politics, Government Policy
Marching for Our Sisters - Million Women Rise
Marching for Our Sisters - Million Women Rise

As FiLiA volunteers, our group consisted of women from different parts of the world. Some of us grew up believing that sex-based violence was mainly an African issue, shaped by the struggles in our home countries. The UK, after all, prides itself on human rights and women’s rights. But as we stood among thousands of women, each carrying their own stories of pain and survival, we realised a harsh truth: violence against women knows no borders.

BlogFiLiASex-Based Rights, Class Politics, Anti-racism, Global
Fighting for the Forgotten Women in the UK's Asylum System: Accelerate Action Because They Cannot Wait Any Longer
Fighting for the Forgotten Women in the UK's Asylum System: Accelerate Action Because They Cannot Wait Any Longer

One of the most terrifying experiences women face is the Home Office Reporting System. For years, I had to report in person every single week, knowing that, at any moment, I could be detained.

The impact on mental health is devastating. The days before reporting are filled with anxiety, not knowing if you will come back, not knowing if that would be your day to disappear into detention.

The fear is relentless. Reporting is framed as a welfare check, but we must call it what it truly is: state-sanctioned psychological warfare. These women already live under strict controls, in National Asylum Support Service accommodation, barely surviving on limited financial support. The Home Office knows exactly where they are. So why force them to report? To keep them in fear.

BlogFiLiAGlobal, Anti-racism, Sex-Based Rights, Lesbian Rights
International Women's Day 2025 House of Commons Debate Briefing
International Women's Day 2025 House of Commons Debate Briefing

The House of Commons held a general debate for International Women's Day on Thursday 6th March 2025. This briefing, sent to MPs to participate in the debate, introduces FiLiA’s new campaign to urge the Government to better recognise and consider women in their policy making, including by consulting with a variety of women's organisations for all policy affecting the public, and consistently producing thorough Equality Impact Assessments.

BriefingFiLiASex-Based Rights, Government Policy
Letter to Chief Constable Gavin Stephens Chair, National Police Chiefs’ Council 
Letter to Chief Constable Gavin Stephens Chair, National Police Chiefs’ Council 

As a national organisation working for women’s sex-based rights, we are writing to express our considerable anger and distress at the news that the National Police Chiefs’ Council is reviving the discredited guidance allowing male staff identifying as women to perform intimate searches on women. The fact that this would bring all police forces into line with the recently-declared policy of British Transport Police increases the fury among women concerned about women’s rights.

StatementsFiLiASex-Based Rights, Violence Against Women
Sex and Gender in Trump’s America
Sex and Gender in Trump’s America

We all know how we got here. The failure of the left to address the gender identity activism gave this extraordinary open goal to the right. It was all predictable; we predicted it. Now we’re here.

This does not absolve us from thinking critically about the harmful consequences of working with Christian Right groups, including the ADF and the Heritage Foundation, which are coalition partners in Project 2025.

BlogFiLiAGlobal, Sex-Based Rights, Reproductive Rights, Class Politics, Violence Against Women
Cricket and Women's Liberation Afghanistan
Cricket and Women's Liberation Afghanistan

We urge the England Cricket Board to withdraw the England team from the forthcoming match against Afghanistan on 26th February, which is scheduled as part of the International Cricket Council Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 tournament. To go ahead with this match, while the Afghanistan government further restricts women’s rights and the ability to have any social existence, implies that the Board and the team are unconcerned about the denial of the most basic human rights for female people.

StatementsFiLiASex-Based Rights, Global
Amnesty: denying women justice, freedom, truth and dignity
Amnesty: denying women justice, freedom, truth and dignity

One wonders how the world’s largest human rights organisation, whose main claim is to ‘work to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied’ has found itself in opposition to women - some of whom have been victim to the most egregious suppression of their rights and dignity - discussing what has happened to them and why.

BlogFiLiASexual Exploitation Industries, Violence Against Women, Sex-Based Rights
Unions for Women by Kiri Tunks
Unions for Women by Kiri Tunks

Women are rightly critical of trade unions. Sexism and misogyny abounds and Women raising concerns about their sex-based rights have been, at best, ignored and at worst vilified and attacked. Many Women now feel that unions are working in opposition to our rights. But trade unions remain a powerful force within UK society and Women make up the majority of the membership. Can we make the union movement work for us?

FiLiASex-Based Rights, Class Politics
Interview with Yasmin Morais, founder of project Vulva Negra
Interview with Yasmin Morais, founder of project Vulva Negra

Yasmin Morais is the founder of Vulva Negra, the first materialist feminist project ‘born from the desire to unite the materialist perspective of radical feminism with the narratives of black theorists and the lived experience of black Brazilian and Afro-Latin women.’ Yasmin travels around Brazil and the world with her itinerant lectures at the ‘Encontro Feminista Vulva Negra’ (Vulva Negra Feminist Meeting).

In this interview, Andreia Nobre talks to Yasmin Morais about the many pressing issues currently affecting Brazilian women, including femicide, domestic violence and the plight of black and brown women in a Latin American country, despite the country having been under a leftist government since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected for office in 2022 for the third time.

BlogFiLiASex-Based Rights, Class Politics, Violence Against Women