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Fund feminist candidates in local elections
United Kingdom
Aim
The Women's Equality Party is fundraising to ensure feminist candidates are elected to local councils across the UK.
The Women's Equality Party's candidates are the only candidates who can deliver feminist policies and make meaningful change happen in their local areas. Your support is vital and means they are able to print and deliver leaflets, be provided with childcare provisions and ultimately reach many more voters.
Since the inception of the Women’s Equality Party in 2015, our movement has lifted up women from across our community. Women who’ve never thought about being involved with politics before, let alone standing as a candidate, representing a political party or even becoming a councillor. Kay Wesley was one of those women.
And since she was elected as our very first Women’s Equality Party Councillor she has changed the political game. Not only has she carried the WEP torch throughout the last 5 years as a councillor, but she’s brought compassion, energy and an unrivalled determination to her post.
It’s difficult to truly measure the impact of Kay’s position: in a time where the rights of women across the world are under increasing threat, having truly feminist representation in politics is more vital than ever. Kay’s forced her constituency to take a look at the economic, social and political climate and not just consider an intersectional approach to childcare, representation and violence amongst others, but prioritise it.
Celebrating Kay’s achievements is an easy thing to do - there are so many and, as a Party, we’re incredibly proud of her.
The harder thing to do comes next: helping Kay to do all of this again. Kay’s up for reelection this year and is facing competition from across the board.
So we’re asking people like you, who stand for equality and who’ve consistently helped us to lift women in our movement, to fund the future of the Women’s Equality Party’s first ever elected representative.
Kay's impact in her community
- Kay has launched a domestic abuse clinic for Congleton so that victims don’t have to travel to Crewe or Macclesfield;
- She's succeeded in getting White Ribbon Accreditation (engaging men to challenge male violence);
- Ensured the council has declared a Climate Emergency;
- Campaigned for a new Congleton tip to support the natural environment and trees in planning decisions;
- Lobbied for better bus services and cycle/walking provision;
- Supported the community during COVID;
- Worked with Congleton Pride to help Congleton become more LGBTQIA+ inclusive;
- Engaged with Cheshire Police to challenge hate crime and make our streets safer;
- Co-ordinated the response to the cost-of-living crisis;
- Created a new Council Equality and Inclusion Policy. As a result of her work, all her Council decisions are now tested for Equality and Environmental Impact as well as Financial.
Imagine the impact if every council in the country had a feminist representative like Kay. That future is not so far away, with your support.
Kay never saw herself in politics, but she was angry. She believed women in Congleton deserved better. Her care for the people around her and in her community is what make her an incredible councillor.
Read Kay's story for yourself:
"I never considered myself to be a politician; like lots of people I had political views and shouted at ‘Question Time’, but never thought I would stand for local government. I’m ashamed to say that I was quite cynical and thought, as many do, that ‘they are all the same’ and one person couldn’t make much difference.
Also like a lot of people, I have been angry for a long time about the injustices in our country, the fact that some people have less freedom, safety, opportunity, just because of a characteristic they have such as being female, LGBT+, disabled, elderly, a single parent, on a low income…
As a woman I have experienced discrimination of course. At work: the technology job I didn’t get because ‘you won’t fit in the (all-male) team’, the colleague who touched my bum, the boss who talked to my breasts, the manager who told me I was ‘too emotional’ to become a leader. And in life: the catcalls in the street, misogynist trolling on Twitter, the waiter giving the bill I asked for to my male companion, being told I’m ‘lucky’ to have a husband who cooks and parents his own children…the list goes on.
And I know that these things are small compared to what some women face. The epidemic of violence against women and girls in this country is shocking. Rape is practically decriminalised with a conviction rate of less than 1%. Two women a week are killed by a current or former partner. In Congleton we have an incident of domestic abuse reported every day, on average.
The World Economic Forum Gender Gap report 2022 said that a girl born in the UK today has 22% fewer life chances than a boy (based on representation, economic opportunity, education and health), just because she is a girl.
Successive governments have had gender equality and other equalities on their list of things-to-do, but these things always seem close to the bottom of the list and get deprioritised, even though the ‘business case’ for equality has been proven again and again. If you’re diminishing opportunities for half the population, how can your country compete on the world stage?
So when in 2015, Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer said ‘enough is enough’, and launched a party that put gender equality at the top instead of the bottom of the agenda, I and thousands of other women (and some men) around the country shouted ‘At last!’ and joined up. The Women’s Equality Party was born."
The Women's Equality Party is the only party that puts women front and centre. We're demanding better and doing politics differently.
The legal bit...
As we're a political party we're required to run permissibility checks on donations over £50. These will be completed as you make your donation and therefore we can't accept anonymous donations.
If you give over £50 your details will appear in our election returns, and if you donate over £7,500 your name will appear on the Electoral Commission website.
Published and promoted by Hannah Peaker on behalf of the Women's Equality Party at Kemp House, 152-160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX
This project successfully funded on 3rd May 2023