Just a month ago, a contingent of Southwark WEPers headed to the party’s second Conference! And what a weekend it was. Over three days we enjoyed a packed agenda centred around:

MAKING CHANGE HAPPEN

Friday Evening

After many of our branch officers spent the day at an intensive activism workshop, sharing how they have made change happen - packed a punch. Opened by Yvonne Thompson CBE and bought to a high by none other than Sophie Walker - this was an impactful and emotional evening.

If you do one thing after reading this email, watch Sohie’s inspiring speech on hopeful feminism.

The WE Voices Open Mic is a rare and wonderful thing: for three hours, the stage and the microphone was anyone’s. Yes: anyone’s.

We heard from women so new to public speaking they were accompanied by Sandi herself. We heard from women sharing truly brave stories about trauma that shaped their life and brought them to the fight for women’s equality.

We heard from women already making a difference, sharing their ideas and successes.

Friday evening showed absolutely everyone that Women’s Equality Party really are doing politics differently.

Saturday

Interested in the impact of Brexit on women… or Sandi’s view of feminist economics? How about what we can do to engage and recruit more BAME women… or whether technology will fix inequality or deepen it? Well Saturday’s agenda of talks and workshops had it all covered.

Sunday

After a hilarious all female comedy night on Saturday night, WE were back bright and early for a day of Party Business. A huge 24 party motions were passed ranging from the party’s new position on Brexit to abolishing the single payment system of Universal Credit. You can check our post about Brexit here.

WE hope this gives you good overview of the conference! Every single one of us took away learnings that we will be able to apply to our work here in Southwark.

In summary - Conference represented what a better world really could look like: women (and men!) of all backgrounds and intersections sharing ideas, inspiration, feedback and experiences with respect, humour and ambition. WE hope you’ll join us at the next one!

PS - watch out for further write ups of some of the sessions that took place throughout Conference.