WRC was established in 1984, originally as a network of teaching professionals to promote anti-sexist, anti-racist teaching materials in the educational curriculum and eventually evolved into a women's centre. In response to consultation with organisations in the women’s voluntary and community sector (WVCS) in the late 1990s, WRC took on its current role as an umbrella body providing capacity building and support for women’s organisations and registered as a charity in 1998.

WRC takes its position from the historical context of the Women’s Liberation Movement. We stand by a structural analysis relating to women being oppressed as a group and refrain from current neoliberal positions, which focus on individual rights, as we do not see this as a route to transformational change.

We, therefore, focus on collective and collaborative action across women’s organisations and we are committed to provide strategic advocacy and being a voice and champion for the women's sector. WRC positions itself on a theory of change that is based upon the work of Patricia Hill Collins and the need to address the domains of power simultaneously. This approach acknowledges the need to work for change simultaneously across the personal, cultural, and institutional arenas in order to realise transformational change.

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“In addition to being structured along axes such as race, gender, and social class, the matrix of domination is structured on several levels. People experience and resist oppression on three levels: the level of personal biography; the group or community level of the cultural context created by race, class, and gender; and the systemic level of social institutions. Black feminist thought emphasizes all three levels as sites of domination and as potential sites of resistance"

Patricia Hill Collins

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WRC promotes CEDAW and adopts the term ‘substantive equality’ as opposed to equality of opportunity. Equality of opportunity does not address the un-level playing field or the current societal bias towards men. Substantive equality requires an acknowledgement of the un-level playing field and remedies which address this to realise tangible change. WRC recognises the need for temporary special measures as noted by CEDAW to achieve substantive equality such as positive discrimination, e.g. all-women shortlists for selecting MPs as enacted by the Labour Party to increase the number of women MPs.

The women’s sector provides WRC with a wide reach, which maintains our knowledge base and ensures we are kept well-informed of current manifestations of structural inequality across all aspects of women’s lives.

WRC understands the difference between sex and gender: sex is biological, and gender is a social construct. We believe that 'gender' is used to compound and maintain women’s oppression within the dominant ideology by defining 'masculinity' and 'femininity' which then, for example, supports gender stereotyping. 'So, girls play with dolls and wear pink, boys play with cars and wear blue'. And the sexual division of labour, which sees women taking on the majority of caring roles and low-paid work.

Read more about how we work to create transformational change for women:

Our approach

The difference we make

Values, Mission & Vision

Why we exist