What would happen if a couple of well-connected women, with the time and knowledge to do it properly, created a national political party that advocated specifically for women’s issues?
At best, the three key issues that disadvantage women – male violence against women, the gender pay gap and lack of female representation in all forms of public life – get a token nod from male-dominated politics in the UK and Australia.
At worst we have men like Tony Abbott mouthing platitudes at Rosie Batty, while cutting funding to women’s refuge services all over the county.
We can be (and are) angry, afraid, frustrated or despairing in response, but none of those things seem to have much effect.
So, instead of just getting angry, a group of women in the UK are getting involved.
The Women’s Equity Party is the fastest growing political party in the UK. The party was started by Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer and has just elected Sophie Walker as the party leader.
They’ve only opened up membership in the last few weeks and already thousands of women have joined and 58 branches have opened up across the UK.
They don’t claim to be alternative government (yet), they are a committed single issue party formed out of the frustration of watching women being so thoroughly ignored by the UK government for so long.
At the moment they have six points of focus:
- Equal representation in politics and business
- Equal representation in education
- Equal pay
- Equal treatment of women in the media
- Equal parenting rights
- An end to violence against women.
They plan on running candidates in the 2020 general election, at the very least, will mean the media and other political parties will be forced to acknowledge their concerns and deal with their issues. And in all likelihood, they will end up providing some real representation for women in the UK parliament.
I’m sure I’m not the only woman in Australia who has thought about how an Australian Women’s Party could turn politics inside out in this country. And what a good thing that could be.
Imagine for a moment what a couple of Women’s Party MPs or Senators could do from the cross bench in our Federal parliament.
Take into account how close the next election is going to be and how utterly disenfranchised the electorate is with the major parties.
Think about social media and how connected women’s groups are, and how easy it would be to reach out to your base. Think about the Country Women’s Association and how terribly the regional areas are treated by Canberra.
Think about the (so far) 52 women killed this year, the pay gap getting worse, the gender disparity in our national leadership and how no one in our current parliament appears even slightly interested in genuine action on those things.
Then, if you’ve got the time and the money and the perseverance to deal with political life, take note of what Sandi Toksvig, Catherine Mayer and Sophie Walker have just done with the WEP in the UK.
Australian Women’s Party – you’d have my vote.