UK Feminista leads Feminist Lobby of Parliament

Hundreds of women and men from across the UK descended on Westminster today for UK Feminista’s first Feminist Lobby of Parliament, led by suffragette leader Sylvia Pankhurt’s granddaughter, Dr Helen Pankhurst, and featuring the ‘Olympic Suffragettes’, a group of women who performed in Danny Boyle’s 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.
 
Highlighting a variety of equality issues to MPs and Peers, the lobby saw an array of feminist organisations join together in order to identify and promote solutions to some of the key issues of women’s inequality today. Speakers at the pre-march rally held at Church House included Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, the Shadow Home Secretary; Conservative Amber Rudd MP; Caroline Lucas MP, former Green Party Leader and Dr Miranda Whitehead of Women Liberal Democrats.
 
UK Feminista believes that now is a critical time for women’s equality, with profound dangers in terms of women’s economic independence, abortion rights and the persistence of age-old inequalities. It calls for a strong Government commitment to challenging inequality, as it is mandated to under the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
 
Today’s event included a rally followed by a march toward the Palace of Westminster, after which supporters were invited to make their case directly to their constituency Member of Parliament. Among the key areas raised by the lobby were the following:
 

  • The importance of ensuring that every school plays their part in preventing violence against women and girls
  • The need to take action to end the stereotyping, objectification and sexualisation of women in the media
  • A call for urgent investment in childcare for all
  • The need to take action to ensure justice for women seeking asylum
  • Protecting reproductive rights and support an abortion law for the 21st century

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    The Barrow Cadbury Trust supports community organising work undertaken by UK Feminista in Birmingham and the Black Country. You can view images from the day below.