Woman's Place UK
Woman's Place UK was a British campaign group founded in 2017 by Judith Green, Ruth Serwotka and Kiri Tunks. It ended its campaign in late 2024. The campaign was prompted by the UK government's consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act, which considered whether people should be able to change their legal sex through self-declaration.
What you can find
From 2017 onwards, the group organised public meetings across the country and published five demands in 2018, including an evidence-based debate, the retention of facilities for women only and better data collection. The website contains statements, blogs, resources and recordings of meetings. In its final statement, dated 28 November 2024, the group announced that it was ending the campaign after seven years because most of its original demands had been achieved.
Background
Opponents call the group transphobic; in 2018, a local authority cancelled a room booking. A group of British academics defended the organisation in 2020. See also legal and society.
The five demands
According to its own website, the original five demands were: a respectful, evidence-based debate about the consequences of the proposed reform; the retention and, where necessary, expansion of facilities for women only; a review of how the exceptions for separate facilities in the Equality Act are applied; consultation with women's organisations about the impact of self-identification on those facilities; and consultation about the impact on data collection. The homepage summarises the group's position by stating that violence against women and sex-based discrimination still exist, and that women therefore need their own places, separate spaces and dedicated services.
Meetings and opposition
The local authority that cancelled a meeting in September 2018 was Leeds. The city council said that the meeting was incompatible with its values of equality and inclusion. In February 2020, the group held the Women's Liberation 2020 conference at University College London, featuring panels and workshops. The Labour Campaign for Trans Rights called Woman's Place UK a hate group, and writer Lola Olufemi described the group as clearly transphobic. Thirteen academics from University College London subsequently defended the group. The website provides an overview of all the meetings, which the group says were always sold out.
Funding
In 2019, the University of Oxford made £20,000 available for research into women's sex-based rights. Cosmetics company Lush donated £3,000 in December 2020 and later apologised for doing so.
How to use and assess this source
The site is now an archive of a concluded campaign, containing blogs, resources and reports. It shows how opposition to self-identification took shape in left-wing and trade union circles. The materials are advocacy. For the subject itself, see trans people and women's safety, and for a related British group, see Fair Play For Women. Sex Matters also works in this area.