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Reclaiming Our Power: Reflections from the Women’s Sector Leadership Conference
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by Rizwana Bi
Last month, I attended the Women’s Sector Leadership Conference - Reclaiming Our Power: Organising for Change in Birmingham, hosted by the Women’s Resource Centre in partnership with Women Acting In Today’s Society (WAITS), Roshni, and Muslim Women’s Network UK (MWNUK). The conference brought together people from across the women’s sector to celebrate the social and political impact of the women’s movement and explore how we can work together towards a more inclusive and sustainable future. Through keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops, and networking, attendees shared ideas, built partnerships, and created a collective vision for change.
Grassroots leaders spoke candidly about the systemic barriers they face. We heard about how by and for organisations - those led by and for minoritised women and girls - continue to deliver vital, culturally competent support rooted in lived realities. These organisations don’t just provide services; they create spaces of safety, healing, advocacy, and empowerment that mainstream organisations often cannot replicate. More crucially, raise the platform for voices of all women, going beyond the assumption that women’s issues are the all the same.
Trustee of MWNUK, Faeeza Vaid spoke about the challenges and significance of these organisations being vehicles of change within the sector:
“Voices of women of colour, Muslim women, working-class women, disabled women – have too often been left out, we’re spoken about rather than included. Faith is often treated with suspicion, [seen as a] barrier to women’s rights, but for many Muslim women and people of faith – faith is a deep source of resilience, and we needed a space where that complexity could be held. So, organisations like Muslim Women’s Network UK, I think has been a necessary vehicle of change within the women’s sector.”
Yet despite their expertise and impact, by and for organisations remain chronically underfunded and undervalued. According to the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s report (2022), they were 6 times less likely to receive statutory funding than specialist domestic abuse organisations. When given funding for services, 57% of by and for services were likely to be commissioned for less than £25k. Such polarity has led to reliance on short-term grants that entraps many into a vicious competitive circle battling for next win to survive. Equally has led to toning down of rhetoric that may be considered problematic or too political.
Funding of specialist by and for services could provide net savings to local public services averaging at £18,024 per woman over 3 years - Southall Black Sisters
Conversations around accessibility and funding for specialist by and for organisations in the women’s sector is exhausting. But if we cease to talk about this than what are we at risk of losing?
The CEO of WAITS, Marcia Lewinson comments on how organisations are having to re-model values and aims to fit in:
“Women’s organisations over time have had to become formalised, aligning with charitable funding requirements. This often meant toning down radical rhetoric to secure resources and legitimacy within the mainstream system. This has led to the professionalism of roles in the sector, which takes away from what organisations aim to do in the first place. And it also takes away the passion and innovation within the women’s sector.”
CEO of Roshini, Surwat Sohail goes further discussing the consequences of the changes within the women’s sector:
“Coming into the sector almost 27 years ago, the focus was very much about justice, the change and the women we are supporting. What we have seen over the years as Marcia has described is professionalism. We’ve got all these measures to put into place....funding you’ve got definitions from charities commission – you’re not allowed to or get involved in political change – all these has had a major impact on how we work. We are burdened with what a lot of people are calling professionalism. We need to really get out there, bring those feminist voices back in the sector.”
This is not just frustrating - it is unjust.
The impact of chronic underfunding is stark, many of the conference attendees spoke about how their services are at breaking point just as the need for support grows. To survive staff were having to juggle multiple roles to keep essential services running, often experiencing burnout and vicarious trauma in the process.
Survivors of violence, discrimination, and inequality increasingly rely on these organisations as lifelines. There are also cost benefits as highlighted in a recent report by Southall Black Sisters –funding of specialist by and for services could provide net savings averaging at £18,024 per woman over 3 years to local public services. Yet funding cuts and rising costs threaten to force some to reduce services or close altogether.
Throughout the conference, solutions emerged from the voices of those closest to the issues:
- Capacity building: Grassroot women’s organisations pooling resources to overcome barriers. This includes raising awareness, sharing expertise, and coming together to meet gaps in skills or knowledge.
- Building financial sustainability: Ring-fenced, long-term funding for by and for minoritised women and girls’ organisations, enabling them to plan ahead and invest in staff and services.
- Diversifying decision-making power: Leadership and decision-making must be truly representative, including women from minoritised communities.
- Addressing systematic barriers: working together in holding power structures to account and interrogating who gets to lead.
The conference was a testament to what is possible when people come together to organise for change. But collaboration alone is not enough if funding systems continue to sideline by and for organisations, treating them as an afterthought rather than essential partners.
If we truly want a women’s sector that can meet today’s challenges and support the most marginalised, funders and government must:
- Prioritise and ring-fence long-term funding for by and for organisations led by minoritised women.
- Recognise these organisations as equity partners with expertise rooted in lived realities, not simply subcontractors or token voices.
- Match rhetoric with investment that reflects the urgency and scale of the crises facing women and girls today.
The financial reality for survivors underscores this urgency: research shows it can cost up to £50,000 to flee an abuser and rebuild a safe life - a sum out of reach for many without specialist support.
We know what works. We see it every day in organisations holding space for those most marginalised, creating safety, dignity, and hope. Now we need the resources, power, and solidarity to sustain this work and protect the communities that rely on it.
"We need to really get out there, bring those feminist voices back in the sector” - Surwat Sohail
Rizwana
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