FiLiA-commissioned report on Mapping Women’s Sector Organisations and Community Groups
This report forms part of the FiLiA Legacy Project – Campaigns and Policy, which seeks to amplify the voices of women, particularly those who are marginalised, within national and local policy, and to support their influence on decision-making. Developed during the first year of the three-year project, it contributes to the foundational aim of building knowledge, infrastructure, and capacity. In the summer of 2024, Dr Shonagh Dillon and Dr Sarah Cheverton were commissioned to map women’s sector organisations and community groups across six FiLiA cities, with findings complemented by a detailed mapping of identified groups.
Alongside related research by Dr Rosie Lewis and Pragna Patel (Project Resist), this report provides a timely snapshot of the women’s sector across diverse UK contexts. It highlights the close interconnection between formal women’s services and grassroots community groups, reflecting how many VAWG services evolved from activist-led initiatives.
A key finding is the widespread concern among participants regarding policy debates on sex self-identification, which are perceived as challenging women’s ability to organise as a sex class and maintain single-sex services, particularly for lesbian women and in devolved nations. The report also identifies practical priorities for strengthening women’s influence, including developing online toolkits of grassroots campaigning, supporting human rights-based policy benchmarking, and providing accessible guidance and training to increase women’s participation in local democratic and leadership roles.
The report aims to inform and strengthen the next phase of the FiLiA project.
Read more about our Campaigns and Policy team here.