On Tuesday, the Women’s Equality party (WEP) will announce its ideas for how equal pay, equal representation and equal parenting can be achieved. Next year, it hopes to field candidates in elections. The party, led by journalist Sophie Walker, was founded three months ago and now has 45,000 members. We have been asking people to tell us why they joined. Here are some of their responses.



‘For some reason feminism has become a dirty word. I hope the party can restore a sense that women’s issues are important and relevant to everyone’

When I left my all-girls school in the late 1970s I had been educated to believe I could do anything I wanted to do and that I was equal to men. It was a cruel disappointment when I went to work in the City and gradually realised that life was far from fair or equal. Now as the mother of two daughters I feel outraged that Britain has not moved closer to equality, and that on far too many women’s issues most of the population (women included) do not even seem to realise there is a problem.

I hope the party can raise awareness of issues such as the pay gap, and point to the other countries that are doing better than us, where it does not seem to be “inevitable because women are the ones that bear children”. I hope the party can force some of these issues on to the political agenda, so that the mainstream parties realise that adopting them will win them votes. For some reason feminism has become a dirty word. I hope the party can restore a sense that women’s issues are important and relevant to everyone.

Jane Turner, business owner, Bath

‘I would like a more just society irrespective of gender’

I was a member of the Labour party until very recently. I became disillusioned with Labour during the process for electing the new leader and I cannot honestly support Jeremy Corbyn. After the contest, I was particularly annoyed that they gave women junior posts, and in particular I felt they should have given shadow Treasury to Angela Eagle. So I decided to look elsewhere and remembered Sandi Toksvig setting up a new party. I googled and joined. I would like a more just society irrespective of gender.

Pat Gibson, works in education

‘I believe that policies that promote gender equality will give society a greater respect for women, which I hope will help end violence against women and girls’

It’s taken me until my late 20s to recognise the huge problems caused by gender inequality, both on an individual and a societal level – and now I’ve opened my eyes, I see it everywhere. As I approach the years when people generally begin settling down and having children, I’m suddenly very aware of how differently men and women get treated, and the huge impact this has on women’s lives. It’s not right, and I don’t want my future to be impeded just because I’m a woman, while the men around me exceed in all aspects of public life.

When I heard about the Women’s Equality party, I got in touch with them immediately; it was a no-brainer. I don’t see any other political parties making gender equality a priority – or even recognising there’s an issue – and progress has been painfully slow. I think the only way to speed things along is to start taking votes away from the main parties and building a voice that can’t be ignored.

Women are massively underrepresented in parliament, so I hope the Women’s Equality party can act as a constant reminder that we do exist and we need to be listened to. I want to see women equally represented across all aspects of public life, from politics to the media to the workplace, and for the pay gap to be well and truly obliterated. I believe that policies that promote gender equality will give society a greater respect for women, which I hope will help end violence against women and girls.

Alexandra Windgate, media manager, Edinburgh

‘The party really is a broad church, not a different option to the Labour party but something that is completely different’

When I understood how the Women’s Equality party would operate – not as a pressure group but as a political movement focused on the most important areas of inequality and on taking action around issues that will have the biggest effect in creating equality – I was in. My experience has not disappointed and the party really is a broad church, not as some people hoped/feared a different option to the Labour party but something that is completely different, new and keen to make a new kind of politics that is completely free from the baggage of an old party (of any persuasion) trying to reinvent itself.

I hope, and believe, that the Women’s Equality party is not envious of power, does not desire to ‘take over the world’, but would see a job done as parity in political representation, parity in pay, parity in parenting and also better education for all sexes that addressed gender bias in both what is taught in schools and also how it is taught. It would also have addressed the way in which the media represent women and worked with both men and women to reduce violence and harm.



If this can be achieved by other parties moving these up their agendas and making these their priorities then there would be no need for us to have a majority and form a government (which, let’s be honest, might take a while) but if they don’t, then maybe we’ll have to get a few more MPs elected for the Women’s Equality party and do the work ourselves.

Deborah Mason, artist, London

‘I see female victims of violence, children growing in homes where it’s not good enough and where there’s something we as a country can do about it’

I am a social worker in the city I love. I see the privileged and the disempowered on a daily basis and feel lucky to have the choices and relationships I do. I know that this isn’t everybody’s journey. I see female victims of violence, children growing in homes where it’s not good enough and where there’s something we as a country can do about it.



I am so fed up of the ‘them and us’ rhetoric that fills parliament. I want to hear the ‘we’ rhetoric, where everyone benefits from everyone’s success. Not just a tiny population of people who find themselves born into privilege and expectation.

Rosie, social worker, Sheffield

‘I joined because I am tired of having to repeat myself to be heard while male colleagues or friends are listened to straightaway’

I joined because I am tired of having to repeat myself to be heard while my male colleagues or friends are listened to straightaway. I am tired of seeing women portrayed as one- or two-dimensional characters in the media, vilified for how they dress, and attacked when they speak out. It is not acceptable any more, I am tired and WEP is the only party where I feel my voice is being heard and whhich is standing for things that are important to me.

In the short term I hope the party can manage to get its message across and attract supporters that represent the population of the UK. By that I mean women and men of all backgrounds and abilities. In the longer term I hope that the party manages to create a movement that draws the attention of the mainstream parties and makes them change the way they prioritise equality and particularly women’s equality.

Carrie Lynch, scientist, Walthamstow

‘An unequal society has a detrimental effect on all, not just those who are held back’

[I joined the WEP] so that my four daughters can, hopefully, grow up in a more equal Britain. An unequal society has a detrimental effect on all, not just those who are held back. In 23 years of teaching in comprehensive schools, many of my most brilliant students were and are female. Why then is it harder for them to become MPs, judges or even headteachers?



I want the WEP to raise the profile of equality issues. To agitate and press for more equal parliamentary representation. In the long run to help form a society where everyone is simply judged on what they do, not who they are.

Matthew Stokes, teacher

‘We do most of the real work of looking after each other and are not as interested in gain, so end up with less’

I would like a UK that is more thoughtful and focused on releasing the potential of all its citizens and a political system where women’s voices are not silenced. Women are still struggling with sexism and unequal pay and domestic violence and rape and a world formed by men to their own advantage.



We do most of the real work of looking after each other and are not as interested in gain, so end up with less. I’m a lesbian and although intensely interested in the world of politics as an observer, have never been moved to join anything before hearing Sandi [Toksvig] talking such sense.

Nisha Jani, therapist

‘The pace of change is just too slow and it’s time to push this issue to the very front of the national agenda’

I’ve been a feminist since I was 11 and read The Female Eunuch. Some things have changed for the better in that 45 years, but not nearly enough and not nearly fast enough.



Women still earn so much less than men over their careers and are at much greater risk of poverty in old age. There are still bare breasts on display in a national newspaper. Only a third of the cabinet are women. A grotesque percentage of female undergraduates experience sexual assault at university. The pace of change is just too slow and it’s time to push this issue to the very front of the national agenda. Then we can help the rest of the world do the same.

I’ve just heard the prime minister mention gender inequality in pay in his conference speech - the issue is rising up the political agenda and WEP is going to drop-kick it to the top. I also believe that WEP is going to improve conditions for vulnerable women on low incomes – which includes the carer class on no income.

I believe it will tackle the issues which see young women falling behind in educational achievement after the age of 18, despite the fact they lead up to that point. I also believe WEP will steer policy into doing much for women in abusive relationships and at risk of violence and exploitation from unacceptable cultural beliefs.

The people of all genders who have founded and joined WEP are creating a new way of doing politics in this country. And it’s going to change it forever.

Maggie Alderson, writer, Hastings