The following is a copy of the letter that feminist student society Women Talk Back! has sent to the Minister of Education Gavin Williamson regarding sanctions imposed by the Bristol SU for being a single-sex feminist society. The Bristol SU also seeks to ban the president of our student society, PhD student Raquel Rosario Sanchez, from leadership roles for defending women’s right to privacy, dignity and safety during an incident that took place in March 2020. The students are seeking support in what they regard to be an attempt to erode their rights to free speech, freedom of assembly and to single-sex spaces.

Dear Mr Williamson,

Following your announcement of proposed legislation to protect academic freedom against “rising intolerance” within universities in February (‘Turning the tide on cancel culture will start with universities respecting free thought,’ The Telegraph), we would like to inform you of an on-going threat to student’s free speech and freedom of association, both inside the Bristol SU and the University of Bristol. 

We are Women Talk Back!, a University of Bristol student society that holds regular female-only consciousness-raising meetings where we engage in lively discussion and debate, while centring our experiences as women living under patriarchy. We are open to all women, regardless of student status, age, income or background. The group was set up informally among students and affiliated with the Bristol Student Union in 2018, gathering weekly inside the University’s Multifaith Chaplaincy. 

The issue of male violence and its impact on women and girls, is discussed in virtually in all our meetings. Our attendees have stressed how important it is that we protect their rights to privacy, safety and dignity when discussing such sensitive matters. Therefore, when affiliating to the Bristol SU, we consulted with discrimination lawyers to help us explain why we utilise the single-sex exceptions in the Equality Act 2010. As well as regular discussion groups, Women Talk Back! holds larger, public events, inviting feminist speakers to discuss topics such as sexual assault, prostitution and academic freedom. 

We welcome the fact that there are hundreds of student societies open to everyone, including another feminism-themed one, but we proudly prioritise women’s lives and experiences in ours. After we became affiliated, the cornerstone of our student society being our women-only status, the Bristol SU changed its bylaws to modify it’d definition of ‘women’ to mean:

 “All who self define as women, including (if they wish) those with complex gender identities that include 'woman', and those who experience oppression as women.” 

This definition is not in accordance with UK law. Also, there is no definition of the word ‘men’ in the Bristol SU bylaws. 

On the evening of 1st March 2020, Women Talk Back! held a consciousness-raising meeting titled ‘Boundaries and Feminism’. We described this meeting as: 

“One of the core foundations of human relationships comes out of boundaries. Where do I end and where does the other begin? My space. My will. My rights. All of these interact and are negotiated when we encounter others. Most often than not, women’s lives seem to be bounded by social conventions, laws, traditions, culture... rather than boundaries being the result of a balanced negotiation between a woman’s needs and desires, and other people that surround her.”

A couple of student trans activists, including a self-identifying transwoman, turned up to the session. All information regarding our society clearly state that our consciousness-raising meetings are women-only (as opposed to our larger events that are open to everyone). The male student stated being aware that Women Talk Back! operates under the single-sex exemptions of the Equality Act 2010, but said they thought that by showing up in person and “being nice” to us, they would be able to circumvent our boundaries. We recognised these student trans activists from their previous targeting of some of our larger events and protesting feminist events hosted by other student societies, including a time when they had to be removed by security (paid by students) after attempting to hijack the meeting.

The President of our student society reiterated that we are using the law to hold our women-only meetings and males are not allowed to join the meeting. They refused to accept that and this provoked a 45-minute standstill between our President and the student transactivists, in which she continuously repeated the aforementioned point, over and over again. As retaliation for establishing and maintaining boundaries, they reported us to the Bristol SU claiming that women saying “no” constituted “extremely harmful psychological injury.” The Bristol SU validated this account. 

Following the 1 March 2020 incident, the Bristol SU retroactively claimed that we were never single-sex to begin with, which is a curious assertion because our women-only status has been the most pressing bone of contention in our relationship with the Bristol SU during these past three years. 

The Bristol SU opened up an investigation into this complaint and Women Talk Back! provided three witness statements (aside from our President’s separate account) from women who were present that night in which we detailed the intimidating nature of this incident and how we felt threatened into being forced to weaken our boundaries for fear of retaliation from student trans activists. The result of this investigation was the Bristol SU sanctioning our student society and banning our President from leadership roles. The Student Union ordered:

• Mandatory diversity training so we accept males into our women-only space

• Our President must step down from her role, and cannot run as a committee member on any other society’s committee for two years

• The group is not allowed to be female-only, and we must make it clear on our social media pages and our page on the SU website that our group is ‘open to everyone’

As a student society, we have stood up for women’s right to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and to uphold the single-sex exemptions in the Equality Act 2010. As a result of that, we have been punished. We wish the Bristol SU respected our rights, as women, but evidently that is not the case. We feel deeply concerned about the message this situation sends to the public. 

We want to be clear, particularly to young and potentially impressionable women who might be intimidated by the prospect of peer pressure, that women have a right to say “no” and refuse the advances of any male who makes them feel intimidated or threatened, which are sentiments that we all felt that night. We also want to stress that no amount of emotional manipulation, blackmail or institutional coercion justifies the erosion of women’s boundaries around ourselves and without our consent.  

The University of Bristol and the Bristol SU have both created an institutional climate in which male students feel entitled to force themselves into women’s spaces where they are not allowed. And to seek punishment and sanctions against the female students who assert their boundaries. Our President, PhD student Raquel Rosario Sánchez, is currently taking legal action against the University of Bristol for their institutional response to the continuing targeting she has experienced from student trans activists who refuse to accept her right to express feminists opinions they might disagree with over academic and policy matters in which she is an expert. The case is due to go through the courts this year.

It is important to note that at the time this incident and subsequent sanctions were imposed on us, the Women Talk Back! leadership was entirely made of international students from Latin American and the Caribbean. Why should it fall on immigrant women within British academic institutions to uphold UK law? 

While we are grateful to our President for her unwavering commitment to protecting women's rights to privacy, safety and dignity, and to uphold the single-sex exemptions enshrined in the Equality Act 2010, it should not fall on students to fight for our legal rights against academic institutions and student unions that prove themselves to be complicit in the relentless targeting of feminist students and staff. 

No woman should ever have to spend 45 minutes repeatedly asserting her boundaries when dealing with a male person who refuses to take the word “no” for an answer, like Raquel did that night in March 2020. And as a result, no group of female students should ever be punished and coerced into weakening our established boundaries, by institutions with a duty to protect us from targeting, like we are right now in March 2021. These are not the lessons women should be learning in academia. 

This was not an isolated event, but rather the culmination of a pattern of behaviour displayed by the Bristol SU in an attempt to bully our student society out of existence. It is clear that they do not want to be associated with a student society that presents an alternative view to those with the loudest or most threatening voices. Our experience of dealing with the Bristol SU is an example of “unacceptable silencing and censoring” that you referred to in your recent comments relating to your new legislative proposals. Unfortunately, this is one of many examples of breaches to free speech (and freedom of assembly, in our case) that are particularly targeting feminist students, groups and speakers. 

The proposed policy changes you have laid out would help our student society greatly, as the Free Speech Champion could provide an official framework that we can utilise to report these breaches. We are keen for these proposed changes to be adopted as soon as possible so that we can take our response further. We would appreciate a meeting to discuss the obstacles students are facing when simply trying to exercise their rights to free speech, freedom of assembly and single-sex exemptions under the law. 

Thank you very much and we look forward to your response. 

Respectfully and with gratitude,

Women Talk Back! 

You can read the Women Talk Back! Statement on the Bristol SU regarding this matter here. Learn more about Women Talk Back! on their website, facebook and twitter.