WE Reading and Wokingham

Thank you for your interest in the Reading and Wokingham branch. We'd love you to join us! Sign-up is further down the page.

Local Elections:

We have stood in local elections 3 times, and feel proud of our success. In 2022 we stepped aside and endorsed the Lib Dem candidate as the Lib Dems promised to review the domestic abuse services issues being experienced in Wokingham due to mismanagement from the previous council administration. Read more here.

In 2023 we will be standing in Evendons Ward, Wokingham.

Action Day Sunday 30th April

We have had a number of action days where branch members went out into the local community to interact with the voters and try win some more support for Lou's campaign. The last one was on Sunday 30th April, when we were joined by our amazing party leader, Mandu Reid.

Delivering real feminist change in communities across the UK is what this party was founded to do, and we have a real chance to win seats on both the Town and Borough councils.

Read Lou's interview with Wokingham Today about what she plans to bring to the local council if she is elected:

VOTE 2023: Louise Timlin explains how the Women’s Equality Party is making a difference in Reading and Wokingham

There is one final chance to help with our campaign efforts from 8-9am on voting day itself, Thursday 4th May, so if you can spare an hour for this very worthwhile cause then please email us at [email protected] uk.

Wokingham May Fair - Monday 1st May

We also hosted a stall at the Wokingham May Fair to promote awareness of Lou's campaign, and started a petition to demand that Wokingham Borough Council develop a specific action to address the issue of their gender pay gap, which currently stands at 15.6% compared to a national average of 2.5%.

Read Lou's article in the Wokingham Today newspaper on this topic by clicking below:

FROM THE STUMP: 100 years to close the Gender Pay Gap? No thanks.

If you would like to add your name to our petition then please email us at [email protected] uk. There will be an online version of it available soon so watch this space!

Meet the Team:

We are an active branch with 5 Branch Officers:

Lou Timlin is our Branch Lead. She lives in Wokingham and after 30 years in the Pharmaceutical Industry, she has headed back to university to study for an MA in Gender and Politics. Lou joined WEP back in 2015 shortly after the party was formed. She says, "I was listening to the radio and on the same day they announced the new leader and deputy leader of the Labour party, as well as the London Mayoral candidates. Guess what they had in common? Yep, all men. After shouting at the radio I went online and joined WEP. I became active in the local Reading and Wokingham party shortly afterwards and am now leading the Branch. It's a great way to find out more about local politics and connect with women in the community who have similar interests. I really feel we have made a difference as a branch. We're a friendly bunch and would love to see more people attend our monthly meetings, which we hold both online and in-person. I'm always happy to meet with new members - drop us a line at our email address if you have any questions or would like to meet for a chat."

Jon Skeet is our Treasurer. "I'm a husband, father, Christian, software engineer and feminist - and I try to bring my "whole self" to each of those aspects of my life. I became involved with the Women's Equality Party in 2015, about a year after I became actively interested in feminism. I support the party because I believe equality is better for everyone - being a man doesn't put me in conflict with any of the party's policies or aims. There's a huge mountain to climb, but we're making progress."

Louise I'Anson is our Data Manager. "I live in Wokingham with my husband, three teenage sons, two dogs and two cats! I am a chartered psychologist working in adult mental health from my own practice in Wokingham. I joined the Women’s Equality Party in 2021. I had been involved in some political activism in my 20s but then the demands of a family got in the way and I just couldn’t warm to any of the existing main parties. It was only after seeing a TikTok (one of my sons got me into it!) with Sandi Toksvig that I became aware of the existence of WEP and it seemed to tick all my boxes, having felt passionately about feminist and intersectional issues since my teens. I quickly contacted my local branch, met Lou and am now an active and enthusiastic member of the branch. I’ve been involved in most of our local campaigns such as lobbying our council to seek White Ribbon accreditation, and also some national WEP initiatives such as the #OnlyStatuesMatter campaign and the SeeItSayItIgnoreIt poster campaign. I’ve met some amazing people through my involvement with WEP and finally feel like I’m making a real contribution to the fight against inequality."

Branch Impact:

We have campaigned locally on many issues including domestic abuse services in Wokingham, austerity cuts to women's refuges, children's centres, subsidized travel, affordable housing, breastfeeding support and HRT shortages. We even appeared on BBC Sunday Politics South discussing a report into flexible working and the difference a 4 day working week could make to help achieve gender equality in parenting.

Lou_Timlin_flexible_working_Sunday_politics_South_July_2019.jpg

Our monthly column in Wokingham Today has covered many issues from affordable childcare, to the need for men to take responsibility and action to tackle violence against women and girls.

We have collaborated with other parties and individuals in order to get both Wokingham Town Council and Borough Council to agree to seek White Ribbon Accreditation.

Our multiple public questions to Wokingham Borough Council on their gender pay gap has resulted in the new administration committing to tackle it.

We actively support local events such as PRIDE in both Reading and Wokingham. We've attended Fresher's Week at Reading University to raise awareness of the party with new students.

We spoke at anti-Brexit rallies in both Reading and Wokingham to highlight the impact of Brexit specifically to women.

We've hosted both in-person and online events celebrating International Women's Day and this year's IWD event on 7th March was a resounding success, with over 70 people attending to hear inspirational talks from some fantastic local women including our own Lou Timlin.

After Lou introduced the evening, Sarah Hacker shared the amazing life changing work done at Alana House (part of Parents And Children Together (PACT)). This was was followed by a powerful speech by Kushinga Hare on behalf of Reading Refugee Support Group on the difficulties faced by refugee women. Marie Hemingway, from Speak Out Revolution told us about the challenges still being faced by women in the workplace. Finally we were treated to an inspiring poem by Fiona Dignan. We came away re-energised and inspired, and some of us also came away with one of the amazing prizes awarded in our raffle, all proceeds from which were shared between the speakers' organisations.

Join us:

Details of our local Branch meetings, which alternate monthly between online and in-person, as well as our monthly book club (open to all!) are on our FB page linked below. Please do get in touch, and we hope to see you soon.

Follow us or contact us:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook and Twitter @wepreading

Insta: wepreading

TikTok: @wepreading