THE Wellington branch of the Women’s Institute (WI) is to vote on whether to cut ties with the over-arching organisation after it was announced transgender women would be excluded from formal membership.

In December, the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) said it can ‘no longer legally offer formal membership to transgender women’ after the Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman under the Equality Act (2010) refers only to biological sex.

The new policy will be implemented from April 2026.

In their February meeting, Wellington WI discussed the future of the group following the NFWI’s new policy.

A spokesperson said the decision to exclude transgender woman from WI membership “caused some shock and consternation amongst the Wellington members”.

In the meeting, co-president Karen Janas explained: “There has been no legal rationale or detailed guidance to local WIs to explain why this policy has been introduced or how it should be implemented in practice.”

She has since formally written to the NFWI chair and chief executive to raise her concerns, but has received no response to date.

Karen told members that, as a result of this new policy, some WIs had decided to close down, as they felt unable to remain in a ‘non-inclusive organisation’.

An anonymous vote will be held before the group’s March meeting, where members will decide whether to remain a branch of the WI, to leave the WI and close the group, or leave the WI and form an independent women’s group.

In a statement in December, Melissa Green, NFWI’s CEO, said: “We have been actively seeking alternative ways - outside of formal membership - of continuing to extend fellowship, sisterhood, and support to transgender women, who have been such an important part of our WI family.”