By Kate Metcalf, Co-Director, Wen
A history that refuses to sit still
The story of women and environmental justice has never been a footnote. It has always been a force. As we have marked Women’s History Month, I’ve been thinking about the long lineage of feminist activism that Wen is part of. Not a neat timeline, but a living, unfinished story shaped by women who refused to accept that harm to their bodies, their communities and their environment was inevitable.
Wen was founded in 1988 by women who could already see what is now undeniable. The environmental crisis was showing up in women’s health and daily lives. Our founder, Bernadette Vallely, remortgaged her house to get Wen off the ground. That act speaks to the urgency and belief that shaped our beginnings. From the start, Wen connected gender, health, equity and environmental justice in a way that was ahead of its time and remains essential now.
From early campaigns to today
This history matters because it shows how change happens. In 1989, Wen successfully campaigned to stop chlorine bleaching in period pads and nappies, and published The Sanitary Protection Scandal, breaking new ground on toxic exposure and women’s health.
Today, that work continues. Our recent research identifying glyphosate in tampons at levels far above drinking water limits has mobilised tens of thousands of people to demand regulation.
The context has shifted, but the underlying issue has not. Women are still expected to navigate unsafe systems, often without transparency or protection.
Alongside national campaigning, our work has always been rooted in community. Programmes like Soil Sisters support women in refuges to reconnect with nature as part of rebuilding their lives. Climate Sisters brings women together across the UK to shape climate justice on their own terms, with their time valued and barriers to participation removed. These spaces are where collective action becomes real.
Marking this moment
This year, Wen’s history is being formally recognised with the launch of our archive at the London School of Economics.
We’re marking this with an event at LSE Library, bringing together Wen and the Black Environment Network. The archive captures decades of feminist environmental organising and makes visible the role that women, particularly those whose voices are often overlooked, have played in shaping the environmental movement.
This is not only about preserving the past. It is about recognising that this work has always mattered, and ensuring it continues to inform what comes next.
The context we are working in
The world feels increasingly unstable. War, genocide, displacement and deepening inequality are not separate from the climate crisis. In the UK, women, particularly racialised and marginalised women, are facing rising living costs, unsafe products, insecure housing and overstretched care systems, alongside the accelerating impacts of environmental breakdown.
These pressures are connected, and they are systemic. Yet responsibility is still too often placed on individuals, particularly women, rather than on the systems that create harm.
That’s why collective action still matters.
Wen was built on the idea that women coming together can challenge that imbalance of power. That remains true today.
Collective action allows us to share the weight of what we are facing and demand systemic change. It creates space for learning, for connection and for building alternatives. It also reminds us that none of this work happens in isolation, and is not our singular responsibility.
The next chapter
Women’s History Month is a moment to reflect, but also to recognise that this history is still being written. Every campaign, every community connection, every conversation that challenges injustice adds to it. Wen’s role is to support that work, to amplify diverse women’s voices and to keep pushing for systems that are safer, fairer and rooted in justice.
That is the thread that connects our past and our future.
Read our briefing on the impact of climate change on women
Kate Metcalf, Co-director, Wen
Kate has over 20 years’ experience developing community and international networks within international development and environmental organisations with a focus on gender and social justice. Kate leads Wen’s Feminist Green New Deal project aiming to ensure that women, racialised and marginalised groups are central to the green economy.
