Join us for a quick practice run of Waltham Forest online! 

Put names to faces and let us know what you'd like to talk about in future meetings. 

Our book club will meet online on Sunday evening, 5th July.

The title, Inferior, being read in June, is written by Angela Saini and published by 4th Estate.

Join Tabitha Morton, Christine Dean (Ending Violence Against Women and Girls), Ruth Wilkinson and Suzi Martin (Equality in Scotland) for our third policy picnic.

We will be discussing our campaigns in England and Scotland to end violence against women and girls (VAWG) in light of the increase in rates of domestic abuse. Our Policy representatives for ending VAWG and our Scottish representatives will look at the opportunities and gaps in recent & upcoming legislation, and we'll look ahead to the lessons we can learn from the conditions this pandemic created for VAWG about how to end violence for good.

RSVP today to be a part of the policy picnic, 1:30pm to 2:30pm on Thursday 9th July!

What is a policy picnic?

Covid-19 is shining a light on the inequalities that left vital services underprepared and which exposed poorly paid health and care workers, mainly women and disproportionately BAME women, to this deadly virus. The measures introduced to contain the spread of the virus have exposed how fragile work is, and how flawed our welfare system is. Women in precarious work have watched their income fall away and turned to a benefit system designed to penalise instead of support people at their most vulnerable. Women are bearing the brunt of this pandemic in so many ways. Our mission has never been more urgent.   

As we begin to look to the future WE are holding a series of policy picnics to talk to our members about your experiences of the crisis and to hear your ideas for building back better.

☕ Bring your lunch or a snack and a cuppa to talk to your policy representatives and fellow members in an informal discussion that we hope will lay the foundations for our future policies and campaigns.

*This is event is for members only, if you would like to attend but you aren't yet a member why not join today?

Feeling the effect of 'restrictions on your liberty'? At least your not locked in the attic ... !

Leeds Branch of the Women's Equality Party are holding the next in their series of 'Culture Club', our regular book and film discussion group. We'll be hosting this on Thursday 9th July at 20:00 and given the current restrictions this will be online via Zoom.

Our next book is Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea. It's a feminist and anti-colonial response to Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, describing the background to Mr. Rochester's marriage from the point-of-view of his ‘mad’ wife, Antoinette Cosway, Brontë's devilish ‘madwoman in the attic’. Antoinette's story is told from the time of her youth in Jamaica, her unhappy marriage to a certain 'unnamed' English gentleman, who renames her Bertha, declares her ‘mad’, takes her to England, and isolates her away from the rest of the world in his mansion. Antoinette is caught in an oppressive patriarchal society in which she belongs fully to neither Europe nor to Jamaica. Wide Sargasso Sea explores the power of relationships between men and women and develops postcolonial themes, such as racism, displacement, and assimilation.

We'll also be discussing the Netflix 4 episode series, Self-Made, a chronicle of the incredible story of Madam C. J. Walker, who was the first African American self-made millionaire. Walker made her fortune by developing and marketing a line of cosmetics and hair care products for black women through the business she founded, the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, founded in 1910. She became known also for her philanthropy, activism and patronage of the arts, whilst Villa Lewaro, Walker's lavish estate in New York, served as a social gathering place for the African-American community. 

You are welcome to join us, whether or not you have read the book or watched the series! Use this link to join the Zoom Meeting. Meeting ID: 835 4902 8903

We look forward to seeing you then. 

Join our branch meeting by Zoom and catch up with what we have been doing.

Link in branch update email on 8 July.

This month's Branch Meeting will be via Zoom. We'll be discussing our ongoing campaigns, as well as the latest on the care campaign. 

Everyone welcome and there are always new people attending - no experience of politics necessary!

Zoom details will be emailed to all respondents who RSVP closer to the event. 

Our book for July's Feminist Book Club is 'My Sister, the Serial Killer' by Oyinkan Braithwaite. Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2019, My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker - and more difficult to get out of the carpet - than water...

All you need to join is a computer with audio and video. All are welcome. It doesn't matter if you've read the whole book, half of it or just the first 10 pages, come and join the conversation. All are welcome. 

The video link and password will be available a few days ahead.

For August we are reading BRIT(ish) by Afua Hirsch.

The Sunday Times bestseller that reveals the uncomfortable truth about race and identity in Britain today.

You're British. Your parents are British. Your partner, your children and most of your friends are British. So why do people keep asking where you're from? We are a nation in denial about our imperial past and the racism that plagues our present. Brit(ish) is Afua Hirsch's personal and provocative exploration of how this came to be - and an urgent call for change.

It doesn't matter if you've read the whole book, half of it or the first 10 pages, come and be part of the conversation. All are welcome.

Zoom link and password will be available a few days beforehand.

Join the branch meeting to find out what's been happening in our branch.

Probably by Zoom, with link published in branch update email on 28 August.