FiLiA
FormationSeptember 8, 2015 (2015-09-08)
FounderLisa-Marie Taylor and Julian Norman
Founded atLondon
Merger ofResist Porn Culture
Registration no.1163473
Legal statusCharity
Chief Executive Officer
Lisa-Marie Taylor
Revenue (on 31 December 2022)
£301,516 GBP
Websitewww.filia.org.uk
Formerly called
Feminism in London

FiLiA is a British gender-critical feminist charity founded in 2015 that describes itself as part of the women's liberation movement.[1][2][3][4][5] FiLiA organizes a conference, held first in 2008 as Feminism in London,[6] in different cities, which it now describes as the "largest annual grassroots feminist conference in Europe".[7] FiLiA is gender-critical, and states that it supports "sex-based rights."[8][7] It has lobbied against gender recognition reform[9][10] and considers gender self-identification a threat to "women's protected rights."[11] Critics describe it as anti-transgender[12] and transphobic.[13][14][15] FiLiA is critical of the sex industry and considers pornography harmful.[6] It has campaigned on behalf of women internationally, including in Iran, Cyprus, and Kenya.[16][17][18][19] It has been described as one of "the most important 'gender critical' groups" alongside Women's Declaration International.[1]

People and formation

Founders Lisa-Marie Taylor and Julian Norman resolved together in 2012 to co-organise the Feminism in London conference in 2013, and afterwards led it from "a conference to a women's rights charity", registered in 2015.[5][20][11] Taylor described attending the Feminism in London conference in 2010 as life-changing: "It made me want to join the women’s liberation movement. I never dreamed I’d be running it."[6]

In 2016, the organisation joined with Resist Porn Culture and adopted the name FiLiA, a word meaning daughter, "evocative of our intention to steadfastly continue the work of our foremothers to create a better world for our daughters".[20] The word was Alisa Lockwood's name for the art exhibition at Feminism in London in 2013.[20]

Co-founder Lisa-Marie Taylor is trustee and chief executive officer.[21] The three other trustees are Kruti Walsh, Sally Jackson, and Claire Heuchan.[21][15] Co-founder Julian Norman ceased to be a trustee in 2020.[5]

Writer Raquel Rosario Sánchez is the spokeswoman for FiLiA since 25 November 2019.[19] Previously, its spokeswoman was Heather Brunskell-Evans, founder of both Resist Porn Culture, a precursor of FiLiA,[22][20] and Women's Declaration International (WDI).[10][23][24]

Beck and co-authors describe FiLiA as one of "the most important 'gender critical' groups" alongside Women's Declaration International, Fair Play for Women, Women's Place UK, Re-sisters, and Sex Matters.[1]

Conferences

The volunteer team behind FiLiA has organised a feminist conference, originally known as Feminism in London, since 2013.[21][19][25] The conference continues the Feminism in London series held in 2008, 2009, and 2010.[26]

Feminism in London was held at the Institute of Education in 2013 and 2014.[26]

In October 2015, more than 1000 women attended the two day weekend event at the London Hilton Metropole.[6] Lisa-Marie Taylor said that Feminism in London was the "largest women's rights conference in the UK".[27] Speakers included Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality party, and Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty.[6]

In October 2017, following a break in 2016,[20] FiLiA's conference was held in Bloomsbury, with an art show including 70 women artists.[28]

In October 2018, the conference took place in Salford, with over 24 sessions, with topics including women and class, women and Palestine, and women in the media.[29]

In October 2019, FiLiA's conference, held in Bradford, aimed to "Unite women around the country in defending women's human rights and building sisterhood and solidarity". Themes included domestic abuse, sexual assault, and gender inequalities.[30]

In October 2021, postponed by a year, FiLiA held its conference in Portsmouth.[31] FiLiA said over 1100 people attended.[32] Gender-critical speaker Jo Phoenix announced legal proceedings against the Open University for "the public campaign of harassment that has made my working life unbearable".[33] The winner of the Emma Humphrey prize for contributing towards ending male violence was announced: a 45-year-old woman, referred to as Daisy, who had been conceived by rape and had led a campaign for nine years resulting in the conviction of her father.[34]

In October 2022, FiLiA's annual conference took place in Cardiff. FiLiA described it as the "largest annual grassroots feminist conference in Europe".[7] Police investigated online threats against the venue.[7] Many businesses in Cardiff responded by flying the trans flag to condemn the FiLiA event.[35] One of the speakers was Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.[7] In 2021, FiLiA had organised a global fast, by groups of women in the UK, India, Morocco and Iran, in support of her release from imprisonment in Iran.[16]

In October 2023, the FiLiA women's conference took place at Platform in Glasgow city centre.[36] FiLiA said that 1400 delegates attended, with the event selling out in June and 800 women on the waiting list.[37] Among 150 speakers were SNP MP Joanna Cherry, writers Julie Bindel and J. K. Rowling, and United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem.[37][36][38] Topics discussed included legal rights of women and the risk they face from gender self-identification.[11] Following claims by anonymous activists that FiLiA is a transphobic group, Platform gave FiLiA 12 hours' notice that their conference would not be allowed to be held at the venue.[2][36] The venue's cancellation resulted in legal threats, describing the legal implications of the Equality Act 2010, following which the cancellation was withdrawn.[2][14][36] Glasgow LGBT rights activists, intersectional feminists and Scottish Greens politicians staged a public protest against FiLiA on 13 October 2023.[3][13][39][40] The Scotsman newspaper reported "Anonymous organisers behind the Glasgow Trans Rally had attempted to shut down the three-day FiLiA conference, which features people from around the world to discuss topics including female genital mutilation." Glasgow Scottish Green councillor Holly Bruce said "there’s various workshops and sessions that are under the guise of women’s safety, that are trans exclusionary."[38]

Positions

In 2015, a position statement by the conference said that: "We are critical of the sex industry. By this we do not mean that we disapprove of the women involved in it. We are critical of the hypercapitalist and patriarchal industry itself."[6] There was anger that sex workers and pro-prostitution voices were not included in the conference.[6] Following complaints about her stance on prostitution, journalist Jane Fae withdrew from speaking, and, in consequence, so did journalists Julie Bindel and Caroline Criado-Perez.[6]

In 2018, barrister Julian Norman, chair of FiLiA, contributed to a legal discussion in The Guardian during the public consultation on reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Norman called for the law to protect everyone on the "transgender spectrum", while also ensuring that providers can "choose whether to provide single-sex or single-gender services", and that funding ensures at least some remain single-sex.[4] In her 2021 book Trans, author Helen Joyce writes that FiLiA affirmed the stance of Woman's Place UK: "agnostic on whether governments should recognise gender identities, but firm on the need for female-only spaces".[41] Joyce quotes Lisa-Marie Taylor: "While we're forced to defend the legal definition of woman, women are still being raped and battered. Female genital mutilation continues."[41]

In November 2018, FiLiA tweeted a picture of a shop window display at Marks & Spencer in Nottingham that juxtaposed women's "must-have fancy little knickers" with men's "must-have outfits to impress".[42][43] FiLiA challenged the retailer to reverse the images, and said M&S was "ignoring the wider issues and their contribution to maintaining sexist stereotypes".[42][44][43]

In 2020, the Morning Star reported that FiLiA urged the UK government to assist a British woman allegedly raped in Cyprus, and to use the case as an opportunity to address the harmful effects of pornography on society and public health.[17]

The Morning Star reported that FiLiA asked the UN High Commission for Refugees in 2020 to prevent violence against lesbians in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya[18] and in 2021 to help following an arson attack on lesbians at the camp.[45] Sally Jackson of FiLiA said: "What’s happening to these women — and their gay and transgender neighbours in the camp — is horrific and heartbreaking. Shockingly the authorities that should be protecting them, health, police and the UNHCR, are turning their backs on them when they are in their greatest need."[18]

In April 2021, Raquel Rosario Sánchez represented FiLiA to the Women and Equalities Select Committee on potential reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, alongside Nicola Williams of Fair Play for Women and Judith Green of Woman's Place UK.[19][46]

In August 2022, Raquel Rosario Sánchez described FiLiA as a "wide-ranging feminist organisation, rather than a single-issue one". She listed international links with women's campaigns in the USA, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Tigray, and Rojava.[19]

In 2022, the trustees expressed FiLiA's support for "sex-based rights" and said: "There exist some situations in which women need access to female-only spaces: in refuges, in recovery from male violence, in shared accommodation, sports, and of course in the right of our lesbian sisters to determine their own sexual orientation."[7]

Criticism

Protest against FiLiA in Glasgow, 2023

FiLiA has faced accusations of transphobia and protests against its events.

In 2020 cosmetics company Lush apologised for donating money to FiLiA and Woman's Place UK, after the company had faced extensive criticism, e.g. from the leader of Young Labour, Jessica Barnard, who said it was "disgusting to see Lush funding transphobia."[47] FiLiA was described by The Daily Dot as "openly transphobic" and "opposing the idea that you can even be trans".[12]

In 2021, a member of Portsmouth City Council described FiLiA as "transphobic", and the council flew trans flags outside its offices, ahead of the Portsmouth conference.[48]

In 2022, the Trans Safety Network described the Cardiff FiLiA conference as characterised by "a disturbing trend of anti-trans extremism, conspiracy theory and harassment of trans and GNC people" and said that "much of the content on their website indicates a hostility to trans women [and] conspiratorial beliefs."[49]

In 2023, a statement posted on the Instagram profile of the anonymous Glasgow Trans Rally group said the conference was "dangerously transphobic," "encourages an environment which materially endangers trans folk, especially trans women"[2] and that "the way that FiLiA’s transphobia operates is insidious. They deliberately veil their transphobia behind ‘feminist’ rhetoric in a way that is calculated, tactical and deceitful."[9] Writer Jean Hatchet responded to this criticism in The Critic: "These are women who have often worked their entire lives to ensure the freedom and safety of other women. They have worked in war zones, survived male violence, endured the horrors of prostitution and trafficking, escaped the Taliban, been forcibly married, and suffered FGM".[50]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Beck, Dorothee; Habed, Adriano José; Henninger, Annette. Blurring Boundaries – ‘Anti-Gender’ Ideology Meets Feminist and LGBTIQ+ Discourses. Verlag Barbara Budrich. p. 29. ISBN 9783847418573. Among the most important 'gender critical' groups [...] are [...] the Women's Declaration International (WDI), formerly known as the Women's Human Rights Campaign (WHRC), Fair Play for Women (FPFW), Women's Place UK, Filia, Re-sisters, Sex Matters
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Platform backs down after bid to cancel gender critical conference". The Herald. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  3. 1 2 "LGBTQ+ groups protest gender critical conference hosting JK Rowling as a speaker". PinkNews. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  4. 1 2 Norman, Julian; Freedman, Rosa; Batty, David (2018-10-19). "'Shifting sands': six legal views on the transgender debate". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  5. 1 2 3 "THANK YOU JULIAN FOR EVERYTHING!!!". FiLiA. 2020-05-18. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Speed, Barbara (2015-10-26). "Feminism in London conference: sex work, glass ceilings and 'vulvanomics'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Police investigate threat to burn venue hosting FiLiA Women's Rights Conference in Cardiff". ITV News. 2022-10-04. Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  8. ↑ "FiLiA Responds to NEU Transphobia Accusations". Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  9. 1 2 "Conference to go ahead as lawyers overturn decision to cancel: The FiLiA conference, with speaker Joanna Cherry MP, had been criticised for lobbying against gender recognition reform". Stv.tv. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  10. 1 2 Thurlow, Claire (2022). "From TERF to gender critical: A telling genealogy?". Sexualities. doi:10.1177/13634607221107827.
  11. 1 2 3 McKenna, Kevin (2023-10-20). "Lisa-Marie Taylor of FiLiA on the challenges facing women". The Herald (Glasgow). Archived from the original on 21 October 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  12. 1 2 "Lush UK has been donating money to anti-trans organizations". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  13. 1 2 "FiLiA Glasgow: Activists protest against 'transphobic' event". The Herald. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  14. 1 2 "Venue forced to U-turn on cancelling 'transphobic' event after legal action threat". The National. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  15. 1 2 "JK Rowling speaks at FiLiA feminist conference labelled 'transphobic'". The National. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  16. 1 2 Batty, David (2021-12-20). "Women stage global fast to pressure UK over Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  17. 1 2 "Cyprus: trial by porn culture". Morning Star (British newspaper). 2020-01-05. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  18. 1 2 3 "Lesbians in Kenyan refugee camps need our help". Morning Star. 2020-09-03. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Rosario Sánchez, Raquel (2022-08-07). "Feminists under fire". The Critic (modern magazine). Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 "Message from Feminism in London ..." FiLiA. 2016-06-21. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  21. 1 2 3 "About FiLiA Women's Rights Conference". FiLiA. Retrieved 2023-10-14.
  22. ↑ Cosslett, Rhiannon Lucy (2015-03-02). "Can porn empower women?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  23. ↑ "Trans Activism vs Feminism (and the Wider World): Heather Brunskell-Evans in Conversation with Julian Vigo". Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  24. ↑ Brunskell-Evans, Heather (5 December 2018). "The Ministry of Trans Truth". Spiked. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  25. ↑ "FiLiA Activity Report". FiLiA. 2023-08-04. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  26. 1 2 "Feminism in London :: FIL 2014". Feminism in London. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  27. ↑ "Feminism in London". FiLiA. 2015-09-29. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  28. ↑ "Migration, Cyber Women, and Breast Ironing: New Art Prize explores diverse themes". Artlyst. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  29. ↑ Doherty, Sophie (2018-10-16). "FiLiA Conference 2018: the future is female for Eccles". Salford Now. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  30. ↑ Alam, Yusef (2019-10-19). "Bradford hosts UK's biggest feminist conference". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  31. ↑ "*** ANNOUNCEMENT *** FiLiA2020 IS POSTPONED". FiLiA. 2020-05-30. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  32. ↑ "FiLiA Statement on Amnesty International UK". FiLiA. 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  33. ↑ Phillimore, Sarah (2021-12-29). "In praise of reality". The Critic Magazine. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  34. ↑ Taylor, Diane (2021-10-17). "Woman conceived through rape wins award for campaign to convict father". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  35. ↑ "The trans movement has a problem with women". Spiked. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  36. 1 2 3 4 Bannerman, Lucy; Watson, Jeremy (2023-10-16). "JK Rowling makes surprise appearance at feminist conference in Glasgow". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2023-10-16.
  37. 1 2 Sánchez, Raquel Rosario (2023-10-22). "Try to cancel us but feminists won't be silenced". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  38. 1 2 Ward, Sarah (13 October 2023). "Trans activists stage protest outside FiLiA conference in Glasgow". The Scotsman. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  39. ↑ "FiLiA activist led away by police amid rally at 'transphobic' event". The National. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  40. ↑ ""Transphobic" conference sparks outrage outside Platform Venue". Glasgow Standard. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  41. 1 2 Joyce, Helen (2021). Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality. Oneworld Publications, Simon & Schuster. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-86154-049-5.
  42. 1 2 Weaver, Matthew (2018-11-21). "Marks & Spencer accused of sexism over 'fancy knickers' display". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  43. 1 2 "Marks & Spencer knickers display branded 'vomit-inducing'". BBC News. 2018-11-20. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  44. ↑ Horton, Helena (2018-11-20). "M&S under fire from feminists over suits for men and 'fancy little knickers' for women window display". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  45. ↑ "Arson attack leaves lesbians in Kenyan refugee camp with nothing". Morning Star. 2021-08-27. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  46. ↑ "Reform of the Gender Recognition Act - Oral evidence". UK Parliament Committees. 21 April 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  47. ↑ "Lush apologises after donating thousands to anti-trans groups". Dazed. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  48. ↑ "Portsmouth council flies trans and other inclusive flags outside offices". Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  49. ↑ "FiLiA conference 2022: Transphobia, harassment and arrests at conference in Cardiff". Trans Safety Network. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  50. ↑ Hatchet, Jean (2023-10-18). "A conference that really was for women". The Critic Magazine. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
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