CUSW is the only openly and proudly single-sex society for women at the University of Cambridge. When it launched, it quickly surpassed its crowdfunding goal and became a sign of hope for women across the UK, showing that a new generation of feminists is pushing back against the harms done by trans ideology to women’s rights.

Nicole talks to Maeve, Serena and Thea about what led them to their current views on women’s rights, how they met, why they decided to start the society together and the society’s work.

You can see what CUSW is up to by following it on Substack, X/Twitter and Instagram, and by visiting its website.

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The post Cambridge University Society of Women appeared first on Sex Matters.

Its new report Beneath the surface – how gender identity is reshaping Europe, authored by Faika El-Nagashi and Anna Zobnina, is one of Athena Forum’s first major undertakings – a sharply focused and meticulously researched account of how gender-identity ideology has captured European institutions.

The report explains how activists have exploited the linguistic slippage between sex and gender to pull the foundation of material reality out from under the powerful institutions of Brussels and Strasbourg. The catalogue of harms is all too familiar to sex-realist campaigners in the UK: democratic accountability undermined; women’s rights discounted; free speech curtailed; children and adolescents harmed; the rights of gays and lesbians eroded; sporting fairness for women abandoned; and statistics distorted.

But the spirit of defiance is familiar to us too, as is the resolve to win back what has been lost.

It is timely and significant that Faika El-Nagashi chose to respond to these developments by founding Athena Forum. She is uniquely positioned to lead this work: a long-time advocate for women’s rights, a former Green party politician, and someone who was actively involved in the influential networks IGLYO (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer & Intersex Youth and Student Organisation), ILGA-Europe (the European branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association), and EL*C (the EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community).

In recent years, her insistence on the reality of sex, and that men and women are different groups, has led to exclusion from some of the very organisations she helped build. For those determined to pretend otherwise, cancelling Faika may prove to have been a serious strategic error.

I hope that Athena Forum will embody the same fine characteristics as its namesake and its founder: intelligence, courage and strategic thinking. For this to happen, it needs to gather support and build momentum. This report, which will spark conversations and create connections, is an excellent first step. Please share it, support it and speak up about the issues it so clearly reveals. Above all, don’t doubt that a small group of hardworking, thoughtful and committed citizens can win back our institutions. There is too much at stake to give up. 

If you are concerned about how gender ideology has captured European institutions, please spread the word! 

• Sign up to the Athena Forum Newsletter.
• Become a founding supporter.
• Share on social media.

The post A new initiative for sex-based rights and political courage in Europe appeared first on Sex Matters.