ABOUT
SUFW
MISSION & HISTORY.
Our Mission is to advocate for the sex based rights of women and girls.
Speak Up for Women (SUFW) is (possibly) the only women's rights advocacy group in New Zealand that exists for women only - look closely and you will discover that groups such as the National Council of Women include men in their definition of women. Our Ministry for Women includes men, our women's refuges include men. Your local women's centre includes men.
These groups are not fit for purpose.
SUFW is a feminist organisation seeking to ensure freedoms, safety and identities are protected for women and girls in New Zealand.
Formed in 2018, SUFW is a diverse group of ordinary women who are concerned about the impact of gender identity politics. We realised that previously dedicated women's groups now focus heavily on gender identity and what is left is a void of services and advocates for women. We are also dismayed by the way women’s voices have been silenced by slurs, smears and targeted harassment campaigns.
We came together to campaign against the sex self-ID amendment being pushed through as part of the BDMRR Bill and our hard work resulted in the inclusion of article 79(2) in the BDMRR Act 2021. This allows for the existence of women-only services and sex-segregated spaces on the basis of biological sex, not gender identity.
Our discussion group includes teachers, academics, health professionals, care workers, activists, lawyers, retirees, students, mums, aunties, sisters and daughters. SUFW is run entirely by volunteers and receives no public funds or funds from external organisations. We are not affiliated to any political party or religious organisation.
Our mission is to advocate for the sex-based rights of women and girls, with a primary focus of bringing attention to the eroding of women’s and girls' rights and language.
Our vision is for women and girls to maintain sex-based services, spaces and opportunities in New Zealand.
Our Vision is for women and girls to maintain sex-based services, spaces and opportunities in New Zealand.
Our primary focus is that "Sex Matters". It mattered to the thousands of people who wrote submissions on the BDMRR and it matters to us. We intend to keep the government in check with regards to the impacts of the BDMRR legislation and are already looking at the process that DIA are using to form the regulations of the Bill.
We will be focussing on the legislation in practise, how section 79(2) is relevant and how it can be applied in real world situations.
We want to work with women providing advice and support to ensure that services and spaces that are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sex are aware of their rights. Too many women and too many services are being bullied into accepting males on the erroneous basis that it is illegal to discriminate.
We are associated with groups who are fighting for sex based rights in sports and other groups who are fighting against gender ideology being taught as fact in schools.
Our PRINCIPLES below are core to our advocacy work.
There are lots of times when sex doesn't matter, we encourage freedom of gender expression and want our children to grow up without narrow definitions of what it means to be a woman or a man. But sometimes sex really does matter and this is where we are focussed.
Our leaders are Suzanne Levy and Tania Sturt - you can meet them here.
We would love to hear from anyone interested in supporting what we do.
PRINCIPLES.
SUFW is a diverse group of women but we have a core set of principles that we follow.
These principles form the basis of how we represent our causes and who we partner with.
These are our principles:
-
Women are adult human females; girls are human female children.
-
Women and girls have the right to live free of violence, including sexual, physical and emotional.
-
Women and girls have the right to organise and gather in safe, sex-segregated spaces.
-
Women and girls have the right to reproductive sovereignty.
-
Women and girls have the right to live free from commercial sexual exploitation.
-
Women and girls have the right to economic independence, pay equity, and living wages.
-
Lesbians are exclusively same-sex attracted females and have the right to assert their same-sex attraction without facing harassment.
-
'Sex’ refers to the biological characteristics that distinguish males from females. Sex is immutable. ‘Gender’ refers to the stereotyped roles, behaviours and attributes that society at a given time considers appropriate for males and females.