J. K. Rowling’s New Endeavor: A Private Fund to Support Women Protecting Their Sex-based Rights.

By Claire

On May 24, 2025, J.K. Rowling announced her new, personal legal fund for women suffering the consequences of losing sex-based rights. While J.K. Rowling has consistently provided her support both emotionally and spiritually, she has decided to expand her financial support beyond her own personal discretion and create something that will live beyond her.

As a woman, mother, and survivor of male physical abuse, she has a unique and powerful perspective on protecting women and girls. She knows the length that some people will go to to keep women controlled and quiet, and knows how easy it is for society to slip into relegating women’s abuse and confinement as acceptable collateral damage for men’s demands to go where they please and take what they want- including women’s spaces, jobs, titles, and safety.

The website for the fund is currently fairly sparse, and will rely on an application-based process where a board will determine how and to whom funds will be allocated. This continues her personal brand of activism that focuses on women, girls, and children as men and the TQ+ movement encroach on their spaces, body autonomy, and right to privacy and freedoms of speech.

The organization makes sure to highlight J.K. Rowling’s inspiration for the organization- the Greek Goddess of wisdom and war: Athena, “who believed warfare should only be used to protect the people and achieve justice.” It’s important, the website states, for women to be able to protect themselves against oppression and unfairness.

The fund, titled “J.K. Rowling’s Women’s Fund” (JKRWF) will offer “legal funding support to individuals and organisations fighting to retain women’s sex-based rights in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces.” It is currently limited to funding legal support for individuals who want to fight their own battle on the grounds of sex-based discrimination. As stated on the organization’s website, it will be tailored for women and organizations who:

1. Have lost their livelihoods or are facing tribunals because of their expressed beliefs

2. Are being forced to comply with unreasonable inclusion policies regarding single sex spaces and services, or female-only clubs and events

3. Are challenging legislation which takes away the freedoms or protections women are entitled to

4. Don’t have adequate means to bring actions to court or to defend themselves

The most poor and vulnerable women, as always, suffer the most, and this is an important step in female solidarity between financial classes. J.K. Rowling has provided a pathway for the wealthiest individuals and organizations to distribute their resources down to those with less through voluntary self-sacrifice of time, money, and reputation. It is essential for society to see powerful women rich in courage, joy, and principles displaying them openly. It is enriching to see our most resource-rich women invest in women as a whole, and it’s vital for that investment to be voluntary and passionate.

It is an honor to witness women’s joy, celebration, wit, and flaws. Instead of simply talking, J.K. Rowling has backed her beliefs with action and accountability, showing her resolve and her willingness to place her ideas on the world stage. She has done this without ever insinuating that trans-identifying people as a whole deserve exclusion, abuse, or mistreatment, focusing her activism on trans-identifying males who display specific harmful behavior commonly associated with male-patterned abuse, showing that those patterns do not disappear with a change in aesthetics, branding, or pronoun change. She has also focused on those individuals and organizations that support, prop up, and enable these males, bolstering the power of the women who have been mistreated by them.

While many support her endeavors, some will clutch their pearls at her audacity. Some will be aghast at a woman using her resources and her voice to maintain her own integrity instead of putting everyone else’s needs above her own. What men want should not overpower women, and in a world where the TQ+ movement has everything (Hollywood, the government, an entire political party, the pharmaceutical industry/big med, and capitalism) backing them, J.K. Rowling stands as a pillar against the storm. She is a unique figure of power, alone within her class and sex, protecting the women and children most vulnerable to manipulation.

Women have a spiritual, cultural, and practical value in society that is independent of their personal choices and identity. Because of their biology, they have a unique window into life and society that men are not able to access, and this perspective matters. J.K. Rowling has shown us the beauty in voluntary self-sacrifice. She has sacrificed her safety, resources, and reputation for the purpose of giving every woman the honors of free speech, free belief, and the right to tell men (even ones who pretend to be otherwise) no.

Embodying our no is both a birthright and a responsibility. And now, we have a little bit more power behind it.

Visit jkrwf.org to find out if you or your organization qualifies to apply for funds.