One of the UK’s largest women’s charities has today published its position on single-sex spaces. Women’s Aid, whose mission is to promote the protection of women and children who have suffered from or are exposed to domestic abuse has, after a year-long consultation, rejected the growing trend towards gender-neutral spaces. In a compassionate yet punchy statement, the organisation said: “The provision of single-sex domestic abuse services is a founding principle of Women’s Aid, and we will defend it.”
It shouldn’t be controversial to say that women need space in which to be women, but it is. It is wild to think that this statement will spark outrage online, but it will. That the chief executive of this incredible organisation will today be fearing for her safety and that of her child — just for doing her job. But that’s the world we are living in right now.
