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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
The Cost of Work is Still Far too High
The Cost of Work is Still Far too High

Following our March 2026 webinar, preparing for International Workers’ Memorial Day, Ann Henderson, of the FiLiA Trade Union Women’s Network, highlights the need for workplace action on stress, asbestos and sexual harassment — and more women leading on safety.

Miz Jakubovic
FiLiA Incident Review – Conference 2025: Statement from the Trustees
FiLiA Incident Review – Conference 2025: Statement from the Trustees

Following an incident at the Saturday night party of our 2025 conference, FiLiA’s trustees commissioned an independent review to understand what happened and how we can do better.
That review has now been completed. We are grateful to the independent reviewer, Deb Cartwright, for her thorough, fair and compassionate approach. We accept her findings and recommendations in full. Read our statement on this here.

Miz Jakubovic
The Invisible Killer: Asbestos and the Dangers for Women in the Workplace
The Invisible Killer: Asbestos and the Dangers for Women in the Workplace

Asbestos is killing more women every year. But evidence shows that many still aren’t aware of the disease and how it can be acquired at work. This blog is based on a speech given by Susan Aitouaziz for the FiLiA Trade Union Women’s Network Health & Safety is a Women’s Issue webinar. Held on 26th March 2026, in preparation for International Workers’ Memorial Day on 26th April 2026.

MICHELLE KERWIN
Abolition in Action, Celebrating 10 years of the Abolition law with French Sisters
Abolition in Action, Celebrating 10 years of the Abolition law with French Sisters

If you want to understand what real change looks like in practice, this account from Paris is a powerful place to start. It brings together survivor voices, political leadership and frontline activism to show how the Equality Model can shift both law and culture, holding men accountable while supporting women to exit prostitution. More than a reflection, it is an urgent reminder that abolition is not just possible but already happening, and that the UK has much to learn from it.

MICHELLE KERWIN
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'.

MICHELLE KERWIN
Women in FiLiA – Reflections on the Past Week
Women in FiLiA – Reflections on the Past Week

If you looked closely, amid half a million people, you could spot the FiLiA contingent at the Together March. Our politics (small p) haven’t changed – but the context in which we operate has. Read about our week of feminist activism!

Miz Jakubovic
Women First Return to Westminster
Women First Return to Westminster

On 17th March, Hannah Shead, FiLiA Women First project Lead, was invited to talk on behalf of FiLiA Women First at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation, chaired by Tonia Antoniazzi MP, with secretariat support provided by UK Feminista. This blog is about this meeting, where Hannah spoke about how prostitution is male violence.

Miz Jakubovic
Joint Statement from Project Resist and FiLiA on ‘Earned Settlement’
Joint Statement from Project Resist and FiLiA on ‘Earned Settlement’

Following our co-produced response (alongside LISG and women in the FiLiA Women's Assembly) to the Government's consultation on the 'Earned Settlement’ policy, Project Resist and FiLiA have released a joint statement calling on the Government to reconsider the policy in its entirety. If enacted, it will have a terrifying impact on the poorest and most vulnerable migrants, particularly women. The political direction of travel could not be clearer, and we must resist. Read the statement and join our call here.

StatementsMiz JakubovicGlobal, Government Policy, Anti-racism, Lesbian Rights
Unbuyable Debate – Some Reflections
Unbuyable Debate – Some Reflections

Written by Hannah Shead, FiLiA Women First Project Lead, this blog reflects on the Unbuyable debate that took place in Scottish Parliament and is a summary of the key issues and outcome. We call on local authorities to work with us to use our Women First audit tool. We call on policy makers to listen to the voices of survivors of the sex trade, not just those with the loudest platforms.

Miz Jakubovic
Older Lesbians
Older Lesbians

When women age we become increasingly invisible in our culture, and this applies even more so to lesbians. This was a short speech given as part of the lesbian stream of workshops and events at FiLiA 2025. It speaks about our identities as older lesbians, some of the issues we are confronted by and the importance of lesbian community and of consciousness-raising groups as a way of exploring the issues of old age and the sisterhood we need to support one another through the difficulties and the joys.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINLesbian Rights
Amplifying Women’s Voices on the Harms of Surrogacy
Amplifying Women’s Voices on the Harms of Surrogacy

FiLiA has a lengthy history in highlighting the harms of surrogacy and egg donation on women and children, and also in supporting action and activism to address this violation of women's human rights. The FiLiA Women's Assembly, a growing network of women across the UK, recently arranged a focus group in order to respond to a new consultation on surrogacy. A consultation which signalled that the threat of surrogacy law reform, with a potential relaxation in the laws which govern this exploitative practice, persists. There is, however, a powerful, grassroots movement of women in FiLiA Women's Assembly mobilising resistance.

Miz Jakubovic
FiLiA Young Women attend Sussex Freshers' Fair
FiLiA Young Women attend Sussex Freshers' Fair

In late September, two members of our Young Women’s Volunteer Group, Amy and Lily, went to the Sussex University Freshers’ Fair on behalf of FiLiA. Here, they share what the experience was like, and what they learned from it.

FiLiA
Why feminists mark the UN day for the elimination of VAWG and why our activism can never be limited to 16 days.
Why feminists mark the UN day for the elimination of VAWG and why our activism can never be limited to 16 days.

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the 16 Days of Activism are not symbolic hashtags or polite reminders. They are part of a long feminist tradition of refusing silence, refusing minimisation and refusing the global indifference that too often greets male violence against women and girls (MVAWG). These moments matter because they amplify the truth that patriarchy works overtime to obscure: that MVAWG is not natural, inevitable or random, it is political.

BlogFiLiAViolence Against Women
FiLiA’s Parliamentary Event – The Speeches
FiLiA’s Parliamentary Event – The Speeches

The FiLiA Campaigns and Policy team are pleased to have formally launched the FiLiA Women's Assembly (FWA) and our new report, Making Policy Work for Women, with an event in Parliament on Wednesday 19th November 2025. We are very grateful to Tonia Antoniazzi MP for being our Parliamentary sponsor for this event. She, Fran, a member of the FiLiA Women’s Assembly, and Kruti, FiLiA’s Director of Policy, all gave short speeches at the event and we are proud to share them here.

BlogFiLiAGovernment Policy
Statement from the FiLiA Trustees on the FiLiA2025 conference
Statement from the FiLiA Trustees on the FiLiA2025 conference

The FiLiA Trustees have been reflecting since our conference finished six days ago, listening to the many Women affected and looking after our team, who have worked exceptionally hard over the last two years in preparation for our largest and 10th conference. It is clear there are multiple perspectives and experiences and we want to start by acknowledging that this statement won’t satisfy everyone but we hope it reassures Women that we have listened, will continue to listen and are responding to the issues that occurred last weekend.

StatementsMiz Jakubovic
Book Review: Planet Patriarchy: Global Tales of Feminism and Oppression by Rahila Gupta and Beatrix Campbell
Book Review: Planet Patriarchy: Global Tales of Feminism and Oppression by Rahila Gupta and Beatrix Campbell

Rahila Gupta and Beatrix Campbell, two feminist titans whose activism and writing spans a century between them, have written an urgent dispatch from the frontlines of a war, one seemingly without end. The US radical feminist, Kate Millett, once wrote: ‘Perhaps patriarchy's greatest psychological weapon is simply its universality and longevity... Patriarchy has a still more tenacious or powerful hold through its successful habit of passing itself off as nature.’ (Sexual Politics, 1970). As much as feminists have disputed the naturalisation of that oppression, we have to contend with its persistence.

BlogFiLiAGlobal
X is Not Safe for Women
X is Not Safe for Women

Another notification on my X account. It’s porn, again. They keep sending me porn. This time it’s different. It’s my face. The woman in the image, being penetrated from behind, smiles back at me with my own face. The thing is, it’s not me. There’s a photo of it, but this scenario never happened. They’ve turned me into ‘deepfake’ porn. Over the last six weeks, my Collective Shout colleagues and I have been subjected to a sustained, intense campaign of misogynistic threats and abuse. Why? Because we successfully campaigned to get rape, incest and child sexual abuse games off a few popular gaming platforms.

FiLiA
FiLiA demands #FreeBetty
FiLiA demands #FreeBetty

On 10th August 2025, Ms Lachgar was arrested in Rabat and placed in police custody pending investigation, following the online publication of a photograph in which she wore a T‐shirt reading “Allah is lesbian,” accompanied by a caption critiquing Islam. Ms Lachgar has since been targeted with thousands of threats, including calls for rape, death, stoning and other extreme violence.

Her arrest, conducted under Article 267‐5 of Morocco’s Penal Code, which criminalises public insults to Islam, carries severe penalties ‒ up to five years in prison and substantial fines.

Ms Lachgar is due to speak at our FiLiA conference in a matter of weeks. She is well regarded, and the audience of over 2,000 are anticipating being able to hear from her about her work on women’s rights and freedoms.

FiLiA
Urgent Concern: L’Oréal’s Collaboration with Pornography Industry
Urgent Concern: L’Oréal’s Collaboration with Pornography Industry

L’Oréal’s Urban Decay brand has appointed Ari Kytsya, an adult content creator on OnlyFans, as a brand ambassador, in a campaign heavily promoted to teenage audiences. We are deeply concerned that this partnership glamorises the pornography industry, an industry proven to fuel violence against women, normalise sexual exploitation, and harm young people’s perceptions of healthy relationships.

Along with sister organisations KairosWWT, nia, Women at the Well, and CEASE, we have written to L’Oréal calling on it to distance itself from an industry that profits from the degradation of women and to uphold its own stated ethical principles.

StatementsFiLiASexual Exploitation Industries, Violence Against Women
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
New Government RSE and PSHE guidance – Report Card: Progress Made but Can Do Better!
New Government RSE and PSHE guidance – Report Card: Progress Made but Can Do Better!

In 2016, gender still meant the socially constructed gender stereotypes and gender roles. They are the root cause of misogyny and male violence against women and girls. They impact access to justice, safety, health care and citizenship. It is because of this that building critical analysis skills around gender was key to education as a way to prevent practices such as (but not limited to) child sexual abuse and exploitation, sexual violence, domestic abuse and female genital mutilation (FGM). My campaign was in memory of a girl who via gender stereotypes of sexual objectification was raped and murdered. The whole point was to make sure girls were safer.

BlogFiLiAViolence 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