Campaigning for real change for women.

The economic crisis, combined with an approach to paying down the deficit that focusses on cutting public spending, has left women:

Poorer – with 74 per cent of £22bn of austerity ‘savings’ coming from women’s pockets;

Earning less – with women making up the ever-growing majority of low paid workers, and the value of low pay declining;

Less equal – with more women moving into the less-equal private sector, the gender pay gap has increased for the first time in five years;

Over-burdened – as vital support services, such as child and elder care drain away and women are left carrying the load;

More vulnerable – as funding for services that support victims of sexual and domestic violence is reduced;

Less independent – as benefits that help shore up women’s financial security  are rolled back;

At the same time, the government has scrapped or undermined key organisations and laws concerned with protecting and advancing women’s rights:

In law  – the Public Sector Equality Duty – the core piece of legislation concerned with advancing women’s equality in government policy and practice – has come under repeated attack.

In practice – the public body created to advise the government on women’s views, the Women’s National Commission, has been abolished.

All the while, key decisions are being made at the highest levels of power without women around the table, and the wider political and media environment remains ever hostile to women in politics:

Women make up just 22.7 per cent of MPs;  – the UK ranks a dismal 64th place in world rankings.

Women in the political sphere face sexist attitudes – from journalists questioning the clothes they wear in the House of Commons to fellow politicians suggesting low level sexual harassment is just part and parcel of life in Westminster and apparently seeing no reason why it should stop.

The Fawcett Society has been leading the fight on all these fronts since 2010.

It has secured a number of crucial successes, including playing a key role in protecting the Public Sector Equality Duty, successfully lobbying for the introduction of shared parental leave and the right to request flexible working for all – both key to reducing the gender pay gap, and making real inroads with the major parties on addressing the numbers of women in their ranks.

In the run up to the 2015 General Election the Fawcett Society will be stepping up the fight and campaigning for real change for women.

Fawcett’s 2015 General Election Plan of Action was announced on 8 March. Among a wide range of actions, Fawcett will be:

Identifying the policies it knows will make a difference to women, especially those worse affected by austerity – and asking the parties to adopt them;

Analysing the different parties’ manifestos, examining what their policies would mean for women and women’s rights – and publicising the findings;

Making sure women’s views are heard. Fawcett’s plans include a ‘hustings’ event, where women from throughout the UK will be able to question leading politicians on their policies, and a toolkit for local level lobbying;

Calling out sexist treatment of women politicians. Woman candidates should not face greater levels of interest in their appearance or family status than their male colleagues; with your help, Fawcett will be naming and shaming journalists that subject women to sexist media coverage.

Over the next 14 months Fawcett will be working hard to deliver all of the above and more, but they can’t do this without your support.

Tell them what you want the parties to deliver for women in 2015. Use the hashtag #changeforwomen, on Twitter, or comment on our facebook page.

Or send a donation.

Or join in.