Woman Only Spaces

Background

The centre was established in 1984 by a small group of women wanting to support other women whose lives had been impacted by rape and sexual violence. In 2005 we opened up our services to men and boys. RASASC NW offers services to survivors of all genders across North Wales. However, we recognise that sexual violence is a gender-based crime that disproportionally affects women and girls – and that in order to heal from this, some women need a safe space to work through their trauma. We also acknowledge that sexual violence impacts everyone, and we believe all survivors of sexual violence deserve to be treated with dignity and have the right to access specialist trauma informed services.

Terminology and Values

The words we use reflect our world view and words have different meanings to different people.  

When RASASC NW refer to Sex, we refer to the sex a person is assigned at birth, which is usually female, male and intersex.

When RASASC NW refer to gender, we refer to how a person identifies themselves, which is a broad spectrum and can change over time.

Our default position is to be kind and accepting of differing views and to refer to people as they wish. We recognise the importance of being respectful, as a client centred organisation, of the needs of all our client groups.

Our Approach to Women Only and Men Only Spaces

We offer specialist advocacy and one-to-one counselling for both sexes and all gender identities and we feel safety is essential for anyone accessing therapy.

Single sex spaces are important to women and girls who have been sexually assaulted by men as they are concerned for their safety.  We also acknowledge that the trans community is disproportionately impacted by sexual violence, and they too will have concerns about their safety, privacy, and dignity.

To support people to feel safe at our centre we will offer both a single sex space for female service users, and a single gender space for trans women/people who identify as women.

We also offer a range of group interventions which are both sex and gender specific – to access our women groups you need to be female and identify as a women, and to access our male group you need to be male and identify as a man, and a group for transgender people based on self-defined gender. Occasionally it is appropriate for us to offer mixed groups, for example when working with parents/carers of abused children.

Our Commitment

We will regularly consult clients on their needs to ensure that inclusions/exclusions are proportionate for the women who require single sex spaces, and for those who identify by gender, recognising that clients may be deterred from accessing spaces if they feel their gender identity or sex is being denied. These checks will enable us to determine the proportionality of our response to the needs of our service users, following the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance on single sex services.

We will record and offer services by both sex and gender, to understand the profile of our clients and their preferences. Checks of potential service users will be included in our intersectional, anti-oppressive practice and other work designed to improve our inclusiveness and the achievement of a client centred service tailored to different needs and compliance with the law.