The Women's Equality Party are bringing you #WEPstock - a digital feminist festival to bring together inspirational women from across the UK. The festival is centred around building and developing communities and recognising the value of strong and sustainable collaborations.

This virtual festival is packed with exciting, interactive events, from an entertaining quiz night hosted by Sandi Toksvig, to educational interviews and panel discussions with Mandu Reid. With such a breadth of informative, fun and exclusive events across the four days, WEPstock is a festival you do not want to miss out on. 

Find out more about the events, features and opportunities at WEPstock!

What to expect at WEPstock:

🚶‍♀️ Workshops, panels, social sessions and more, accessed on your computer, mobile, at home or on the go.

⏰ Downloadable recordings of events you can't attend live so you can catch up on content when it suits you.

🌃 Live sessions only taking place at lunchtime and evenings to work around your schedule.

🛒 A feminist marketplace and chances to chat to others throughout the four days.

WEPstock is taking ‘virtual’ to a whole new level, with the festival taking place via a new and innovative app where attendees are able to socialise, connect, browse the marketplace and see more information about the sessions running over the four days.

The past 18 months have taught us that connection and working together is the key to progress. This app will not just allow you to browse and access the breadth of events available, but will allow you to easily connect and socialise with fellow WEP supporters. Pre-records and videos will allow you to catch up on missed events, to ensure the festival works around everyone’s busy lifestyles. 

Buy your ticket to meet like-minded people, have access to exclusive and exciting events and to support The Women’s Equality Party. We cannot wait to see you there! #WEPstock 

Want to know more? Browse our FAQs or reach out to the events team on [email protected] 

91 Percent 

Over the next month WE will be protesting for a total of 91 hours to protest the fact that Disabled women were as much as #91Percent more likely to die of COVID. [source]

One of the Government’s first acts when the COVID crisis hit was to roll back councils’ duties to support Disabled and older people. Then the plan to support those shielding was created as an afterthought, in under 48 hours; blanket Do Not Attempt Resuscitation orders were issued to people in care homes without consultation; and many of us were initially left off the vaccine priority list despite being at far higher risks of death.

Now, it has been revealed that even after adjusting for socio-economic background, poor health and housing, Disabled women with higher support needs are still 91% more likely to die from COVID-19

Why protest?

We cannot let this injustice be ignored. We must raise awareness and hold politicians to account. Over the next month we will be protesting outside Parliament for a total of ninety one hours to show politicians that we cannot be ignored.

Show your support by joining our protest.

How can I take part?

1. Sign up to cover a protest shift in your own time

>>>> Cover a protest shift <<<<

2. Save the date for our online protest at 5pm on July 20th

>>> Save the date <<<<

3. Organise a protest in your area

>>> Organise a local protest <<<

Why is it important to protest:

We must create pressure for urgent political action to make change. To do this we need to keep this issue in the media and online and we need to demonstrate that the political decision to ignore - participating will help to do both.

By showing overwhelming support for urgent action by protesting locally and making noise on social media and in our communities, this heightens the likelihood of this issue being raised in parliament. To make change, we must make noise. 

Don’t let the Government roll back our rights to at-home medical abortion services

At home medical abortion services have revolutionised access to sexual healthcare. It has reduced the number of women accessing online abortion pills illegally by nearly 90%, increased speed of access to services despite a global pandemic and is the preferred form of treatment for the majority of patients.

There is absolutely no justification for withdrawing telemedical abortion services, and denying many women access to services and putting even more pressure on our health service. 

Sign below to demand that the Government maintain access to telemedical abortion services.

Dear Sadiq Khan,

We are writing to ask you to make London a Sanctuary City for abused migrant women. 

Our city is facing two pandemics, the COVID-19 virus and the violence that it exacerbates. In the last year, rates of domestic abuse and other forms of gender based violence have spiralled across our city, and despite government rhetoric, many migrant women have been left to face that abuse alone.  

The government recently announced that it was putting travellers up in quarantine hotels, demonstrating that they have the resources and infrastructure to rapidly house people when there is political will. But they refuse to demonstrate that will, support or funding to ensure that migrant women are not trapped with their abusers.

As you know, the government’s ‘hostile’ or ‘compliant’ environment policies are stopping migrant women from leaving abusive relationships or seeking help. By stamping passports with No Recourse to Public Funds and excluding migrant women from accessing the welfare safety net, the government is denying women and children safe refuge and trapping them at home with their abusers. We can and must do better.

In the last year you have shown leadership on this issue by providing safe accommodation to 200 women fleeing domestic abuse - including migrant women. You have also funded a limited number of temporary bed spaces for women with No Recourse to Public Funds by funding the Covid-19 Crisis Project run by Southall Black Sisters and Solace Women’s Aid, but this is nowhere near enough to meet demand. Many women remain trapped in abuse and without hope of protection and support. Even with the surge in domestic violence during lockdown, which has resulted in a 34% increase in calls to domestic violence hotlines, four in five migrant women are still turned away from refuges - often with children in tow. 

We are asking you to go further by overriding the government’s inhumane policies to make London a Sanctuary City, just as Mayors across the US have done in response to Trump’s racist immigration enforcement actions. We are calling on you to ensure that migrant women in London will never be referred to the Home Office if they report their abuse to the police, and to guarantee each woman and her children:

• Safe accommodation
• £50 allowance per week, plus extra for children
• Access to wrap-around specialist support
• Legal advice and representation

Violence is not inevitable. Mayors always have a choice about whether and how to respond to the challenges facing the people and communities they represent.

We urge you to stand up to the government and to defy their inhumane hostile environment policies by ensuring that the most marginalised women are given the sanctuary and support to rebuild their lives. In doing so, you will be sending a message that London must be open and safe, for everyone.

Yours sincerely,

Mandu Reid, Leader of the Women's Equality Party

Pragna Patel, Founder and Director of Southall Black Sisters

Baljit Banga, Executive Director, Imkaan

Rosanna Lewis & Ngozi Fulani, Sistah Space

Jasbindar Bhatoa, Senior Legal Officer, Rights of Women

Gisela Valle, Director, Latin American Women's Rights Service

Halaleh Taheri, Founder & Executive Director, Middle Eastern Women & Society Organisation-MEWSo

Gabriela Quevedo, Director for Advocacy and Influencing, Latin American Women’s Aid

Matt Hawkins, Co-Director, Compassion in Politics

Karen Ingala Smith, Chief Executive, NIA

Camille Rouse, Legal Advice Service Manager, London Black Women’s Project

Dear Sadiq Khan,

Despite the fact that streets are emptier and many public spaces are closed, street harassment is still a serious problem. I am calling on you as Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner of London to ensure that women and girls can enjoy their daily exercise and move around our great city free from the fear or threat of violence or abuse.

One in five women and girls in the UK experienced street harassment during lockdown. This figure is far worse in London; more than half of women surveyed by Catcalls of London said street harassment got worse during the lockdowns, and 62% feared for their safety. Our branch in Lambeth conducted their own survey, and found that the most common forms of street harassment were catcalling, wolf whistling or unwanted comments, followed by unwanted physical contact, being followed, or sexual gestures. Respondents also said photos had been taken of them without consent, and perpetrators had even masturbated in front of them. 

London remains the worst city in the UK for street harassment and harassment on public transport. In 2016, ActionAid found that nationally, 36% of women feel at risk of harassment from public transport, but that rises to 51% for women living in London. Four years later those numbers have not changed; more than half of women experienced sexual harassment whilst using public transport in 2020, but only 2% felt able to report it. 

On International Women’s Day last year, you called for misogyny to be made a hate crime. Yet women are in the same position as they were in when you first became Mayor. We cannot simply wait for Central Government to change the law, and it is within your power to do something about this. Moving more Londoners to walking and cycling is a vital part of fighting Covid and making our city greener, but you cannot ask more women to use our streets without doing anything to ensure  they feel safe to do so. 

I am calling on you as a ‘Proud Feminist’ to fulfil your promise to make London a beacon of freedom and equality for women and girls, by developing a London-wide strategy to end street harassment and abuse on the transport network, including a public education campaign. I stand ready to work with you to make our streets and transport network safe for all women and girls. 

Yours sincerely,

Mandu Reid, Leader of the Women’s Equality Party and candidate for Mayor of London

Parents and Early Years providers are at breaking point and unless the government acts now, women’s unemployment will continue to soar - deepening and lengthening the economic crisis for everyone. This will affect mothers on the lowest incomes most acutely, who are nine times more likely to lose their jobs as a result of the latest school closures and lockdown.

Since March last year parents have been asked to home school their children for 100 working days. The result is that women are more likely to quit their jobs or be made redundant and children are being left behind.

We are calling on the government to introduce urgent measures to keep childcare and parents afloat through lockdown and beyond.

• A legal right to shared furlough or guaranteed Self-Employment Income Support for all parents. Currently, parents only have the right to request furloughing and 75% have been refused.
• Early Years and school staff to be prioritised in the next round of vaccines so that they can reopen safely as soon as possible.
• Increase child benefits to £50 per child and maintain the £20-a-week uplift in universal credit. With children at home, household bills are mounting and forcing families into poverty.
• Ten days extra paid annual leave for all parents and 20 days for single parents to help them manage caring responsibilities without the risk of redundancy.
• A bailout for nurseries to stop them closing permanently.

Sign to protect reproductive rights during lockdown

The UK government has finally approved over the remote medical abortion services, enabling those seeking pills for early abortions in England and Wales to stay at home during the Covid-19 crisis. But this service has not been extended to Northern Ireland, where abortions are now legal but services are unable to meet the demand. So women in Northern Ireland are being forced to risk their health by travelling hundreds of miles to England in order to get abortion pills that could easily prescribed over the phone. 

Reproductive rights are human rights and access to free, safe and legal abortions should not depend on where you live or whether you can leave your home. 

Ensuring safe and straightforward access to abortion services will ease the strain on the NHS and should be an essential part of the Government’s Corona virus response. Yet our government still requires women to seek permission from two doctors to have an abortion. 

WE are calling for:

1. Telemedical abortion services to be introduced in Northern Ireland
2. The requirement for two doctors to give permission for women to access abortions to be removed

These measures will protect women’s reproductive rights, ensure that all women can access abortions without having to leave their home, and free up healthcare professionals to focus on responding to the pandemic. 

Sign our petition today to call for urgent action.

"100 years later and there's so much more that needs to be done!"

WE reveal surge in numbers that show our party is a key player in post-Brexit politics

WE are holding a rally in Manchester on Saturday (2 July) to lay out our plans for shaping post-Brexit Britain