Our position on trans+ inclusion
Bristol Women’s Voice is a voice and influence charity, working to make women’s equality a reality for all women across Bristol City. We seek to ensure that women are empowered to speak out about the issues that impact on their lives, particularly women from marginalised groups, by making sure decision-makers hear and act on their concerns.
We are a membership organisation and have more than 4,200 women signed up for our BWV newsletter.
Bristol Women’s Voice’s membership and activities are open to all who self-identify as women.
Additionally, we recognise that some people who are gender non-binary may be presumed to be women, or live as women, and these individuals share many of the experiences that women do and face similar forms of discrimination. Our membership and projects are open to gender non-binary people that may wish to access our service if they feel comfortable to do so (understanding that they are likely to be ‘read’ as women) and feel that this will benefit them.
We are striving to achieve equality for all women in Bristol and recognise that in some circumstances, single-sex spaces may be appropriate and while Bristol Women’s Voice’s services are open to all women, including trans women, we support individual organisations’/institutions’ right to apply the legislation under the Equality Act 2010 (schedule 3, part 71) law to provide single sex spaces if they feel this is the best way to support the women they work with.
Bristol Women’s Voice supports the collection of data on sex as well as gender to develop an accurate picture of all women’s issues and develop services and products to best meet their needs.
Our mission
We are on a journey towards increased equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) for all women, and our position on important issues will always be informed by our organisational mission, our members, and the reality of women’s lived experiences.
We recognise and understand that many of our members hold strong and wide-ranging views., however, we are confident that if we remain guided by our values and maintain integrity and transparency in communication, we can hold space for genuine, on-going exchange of opinion whilst working together for equality for all. In times of limited income and capacity, the focus for our energy has to be the work we can do in building a movement to end misogyny.
Bristol Women’s Voice is constituted to work with women in Bristol to fight for equality. To achieve this aim, we need your support and your influence for our campaigns to maximise the benefits for all women across the city.
The more support we have, the more we can lend weight to our calls for change – be it calling for, for example, affordable childcare, greater awareness about the menopause, an end to sexual harassment, or more police accountability to women.
If members or members of the public are interested to learn about the process we undertook to reach this position which included drawing on good practice in the sector and consulting with local stakeholders, we happy to take questions. Please contact Katy Taylor on director@bristolwomensvoice.org.uk.
