Learn about the causes we are fighting for and how you can get involved.
Narrow your search or read everything.
Choose format
Reset filter
"We still have daughters, aunties, mothers, cousins, and two-spirit relatives who have never been found and whose perpetrators have never been brought to justice. There is clear evidence that the epidemic of MMIW is directly linked to fossil fuel production." Tara Houska, Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe and founder of Giniw Collective
Any proposals for reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and its interaction with the Equality Act 2010 do not impact only a small number of people, they affect the whole population of the UK, in particular women and those with other protected characteristics, therefore they must take into account the views of that wider population.
“I feel so excited! In my time we were five crazy women on the corner, very exposed to attacks by a very hypocritical society. This struggle was a pillar of my life, and now I hand the struggle to our granddaughters. They should expand the right to abortion in the rest of Latin America.” Alicia Schejter
Dr Heather Brunskell-Evans is a feminist, academic, social theorist and philosopher. On this episode of the podcast, she discusses her latest book, Transgender Body Politics published by Spinifex Press. Transgender Body Politics analyses the political movement of transactivism in a broader sense, explaining the damage this has done to women. Heather outlines the tragic absurdity of having to argue that lesbians don’t have penises, that “women” is a far preferable word than “menstruators" and feminists not being allowed to speak respectfully about this issue with women who disagree.
In an impressively comprehensive yet lean volume, Heather makes a convincing case that certain campaigns under the label of “transgender rights” are, in fact, masculinist projects that centre men’s rights, and give supremacy to male feelings. This erodes women’s ability to name, understand and organise for themselves as a distinct group of human females separate to males and dismantles women’s sex-based rights.
We’ve a new series about to start with the politically astute Radical Girlsss and have recent podcasts and blogs from Canada, Kenya, Afghanistan, Japan, France, Australia, Saudi, New Zealand, Spain and Cameroon.
Stephanie Davies-Arai reflects on how her expertise in communication and combating gender stereotypes relates to her work in analysing the harms of gender identity teaching for young people. She explains how feminism informs what she does at Transgender Trend, an organisation she set up to question the mainstream narratives. Stephanie outlines the relationship between the "social transitioning" of children and adolescents in schools and the "affirmation model" of medical practice in gender clinics, and how girls may be more profoundly affected by these ideas. She covers recent developments in the UK such as the Kiera Bell case, in which Stephanie provided evidence about how our cultural context is inextricably linked with questions of "gender" and medical decision-making.
Simone Watson is a Survivor activist. She is the director of Nordic Model Australia Coalition and a former human rights delegate for Amnesty International. Simone entered prostitution in a legal brothel in Melbourne in her 20’s, she found the world of legalised prostitution to be anything but ‘safe’ and left.
This episode features Ro Edge from Speak Up for Women. She is the New Zealand Spokewoman for Save Women Sports Australasia. Ro is a women’s rights advocate who comes from a sport loving family, so she has a special interest in ensuring girls and women retain their pathways to achieving sporting excellence. Ro’s daughter is currently studying under a university sporting scholarship in the USA. Her niece is focused on representing New Zealand at the Tokyo Olympic Games. She joins FiLiA Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sanchez in discussion.
Valérie Pelletier (aka Legal Tender) is a militant abolitionist radical feminist from Montréal, Quebec. She is a survivor of prostitution, now a public speaker, a conceptual artist. a vlogger, a singer (jazz, country etc.) and the happy mother of 4 cat children. She is also involved at CAFES (Collectif d'Aide aux Femmes Exploitées Sexuellement).
Afsana Lachaux is a policy specialist and an award-winning women’s rights campaigner on access to justice and violence against women and girls. This podcast interview highlights Afsana's legal struggle to obtain contact with her son Louis and the pitfalls of Sharia law in Dubai for women. Afsana writes about why a British court ordered her to pay her ex-husbands £94K legal bill here. She continues her battle as a mother to be reunited with her child, which so far has spanned eight years and three countries.
Dr Nicola Williams, the Director of Fair Play for Women, is a research scientist specialising in human biology. She has held a number of senior scientific positions within the pharmaceutical industry. She is now dedicated to her full-time voluntary role as campaign director and public spokeswoman for Fair Play for Women. Dr Williams has an excellent working knowledge of the laws designed to protect women and the transgender community. As a professional scientist, she also offers a critical and informed view of current research necessary for evidence-based policy development. She joins FiLiA Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez in discussion about why sex matters in women’s sport.
Cherry Smiley is a feminist campaigner, artist, and researcher from the Nlaka'pamux (Thompson) and Diné (Navajo) Nations. She has worked as an anti-violence worker in rape crisis centres and transition houses for battered women and their children, as the assistant coordinator for drop-in anti-violence groups for Indigenous girls, and as a project manager for a national native women’s organization. Cherry Smiley spoke with FiLiA’s Spokeswoman, Raquel Rosario Sánchez, about her work as a campaigner for the liberation of Indigenous women and girls, and as a researcher within the Canadian academic system.
Mary Stolinski is not only a survivor of the sex trade but also a radical feminist thinker. She analyzes her personal story in the light of feminist and Marxist theories, and explains how a liberal, capitalist and misogynist society sacrifices women to the sex trade. Mary refutes the prevailing liberal beliefs about the sex trade and gender ideology.
Dr. Linda Blade has worked for 25 years as a Sport Performance Professional coach in Edmonton teaching fundamental biomotor skills to athletes in over 15 sports (from beginner to elite). Since 2014, Linda has served as President of the Board for Athletics Alberta, where she has a duty to contend with proposals to insert ‘gender identity’ into Canadian sport policy. Linda insists that the struggle to preserve women’s sports for biological females is, “the hill I am prepared to die on”.
Sharron Davies MBE, is a professional Olympian swimmer from England. She learned to swim at six years old, to train by eight and began obtaining public recognition in international competitions by eleven years old. Aged thirteen, she represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games of 1976. The height of her sporting career came in the year 1980, when she won the silver medal at the Olympic Games held in Moscow, losing to the German Petra Schneider. Years later, when the scandal about how East Germany used to enhance their athlete’s performances through illegal drugs broke out, Schneider admitted that her victory was illegitimate. Therefore, Sharron Davies is recognized by the sports community worldwide as the rightful winner of the gold medal. For this podcast, she join’s FiLiA’s Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez in a conversation about the importance of women’s sport, fair play and sex-based athletic categories.
We’ve reached a small milestone in our team: 100 episodes of the FiLiA podcast. To celebrate this very special episode, I spoke with a few of the amazing women who bring life and magic to FiLiA - Lisa-Marie, Julian, Sally, Kruti and Raquel. Their reflections, insights and discussion can be heard here, covering the three charitable aims of FiLiA: building sisterhood and solidarity, amplifying the voices of women and defending women’s human rights. The team discuss highlights and challenges of the journey this brilliant feminist charity has been on so far, the importance of organising an annual gathering for women to speak together and where FiLiA plans to go. Women joined the discussion from the Welsh Hills, London, Portsmouth and the Dominican Republic (so we hope listeners will forgive us if the audio isn’t perfect) to share FiLiA memories, feminist insights, favourite quotes, and ways to support our work.
Angelika Chaffey discusses You My Sister, new charity set up to support survivors of the sex trade - whose work is heavily informed by exited women. You My Sister’s first project was to create a unique mental health recovery programme specifically tailored for women who have exited any branch of the porn/sex trade. This has been created and will be delivered with survivors and is a hugely powerful form of peer-led guided recovery. It is run online so, in theory, women from anywhere in the world could take part! The course takes women through their journey, from understanding why they entered the sex industry, how the industry works to keep women trapped within it through to exiting and moving on.
FiLiA stands in Solidarity with JKRowling.
We commend the courage and determination of all the women around the world who, regardless of status and position, continue to stand up in defence of their sex-based rights, in spite of the predictable, but nevertheless shocking, misogynist backlash prevalent in society.