Women’s safety will be at risk if England’s largest group of women’s shelters lifts a ban on male staff, critics have said.
Women’s Aid has agreed to hold a review into a policy change which would accommodate transsexuals – overturning nearly half a century of women-only refuges.
But women’s sexual and domestic violence charity NIA has questioned the move, alongside a rape survivor.
Safety
Head of the NIA Karen Ingala Smith said: “I hope refuge providers protect the ‘for women by women’ vision of the feminist survivors and activists who built the refuge movement.
“A women-only space is one of the ways we can create a sanctuary for women to begin their recovery from men’s violence.
“Women and children escaping violent men should at the very least be able to expect this of a refuge.”
‘Terrified for other women’
A rape victim who stayed in a Women’s Aid refuge added that she is “terrified for other women” if the ban is lifted.
“I went through a patch where I feared and could not bear the sight of any man.
“The wonderful support I got just could not have been provided by staff who, to all intents and purposes, are men.”
‘Vulnerable’
And Transgender Trend, a group of concerned parents who challenge pro-trans propaganda, told The Sunday Times: “Recent victims of male violence need women-only spaces where they can feel safe from men.”
“This risks retraumatising vulnerable and victimised women for the sake of ideology”, it added.
Former Education Secretary Justine Greening, who has long been a champion of the trans agenda, admitted that concerns from women’s groups should be taken into account.
Greening said she supported the change but added that the Government should be “absolutely listening to the voices of women’s groups in all this and their concerns”.
Concerns
The concerns come as the UK Government considers making it easier to ‘change sex’ by allowing people to self-declare their gender.
In a statement, co-chairwoman of Women’s Aid Mary Mason said: “We have agreed to start a review of our whole transgender policy, including the possibility of employment for self-declared transgender women without a gender recognition certificate.”
The review is expected to take up to four months.