Urgent measures are now needed to protect women’s rights in post-EU world

“Voters have made their voices heard and they have decided that Britain’s future is brighter if we leave the European Union,” said Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party.

“This morning WE call for urgent measures to retain and expand the vital rights and protections created as a result of our former EU membership. The EU prompted Britain to introduce legislation insisting on equal pay, maternity leave and protection from sexual harassment in the workplace. Now Britain must lead the way among its former partners to champion these rights and set out clear targets for the next, pressing advance of women’s equality.”

Walker also said that after a referendum campaign in which women’s voices were woefully lacking, it was now essential that women be brought into the nationwide debate about Britain’s future.

“This was a horrible campaign; an argument that until the final days of the referendum campaign was conducted largely between white middle-class men, with ill humour and little understanding of voters’ disenfranchisement,” Walker said.

“The other political parties must learn from this. They must do better to represent British people, particularly women who are consistently undervalued and undermined in our country’s most pressing decisions.”

She added: “It is essential that women be included in the huge job this country now faces of removing itself from the European Union. Their voices are essential for a full understanding of women’s needs and right to equal opportunities, and also for any possibility of an independent Britain reaching its full potential."

“We created the Women’s Equality Party to build a constitutional vision for women’s rights in the UK that will enshrine our policy objectives - equal pay, parenting, education, equal opportunity in business and politics, equal treatment in the media and an end to violence against women - in law."

Co-Founder and President of the Women’s Equality Party, Catherine Mayer, added: “The UK’s decision to leave the EU clearly shows that old politics is failing. I am deeply concerned about the implications of Brexit for women and this outcome means that the Women’s Equality Party is more urgently needed than ever before. But it also shows the potential of the party to drive the change that is so long overdue."

Click here to read Sophie Walker's article in the Telegraph: Why our brave new post-Brexit world must have women at its heart and click for Sophie's Newsweek article: Why Brexit presents an opportunity for women.

Click here to read our response to David Cameron's resignation.

Published June 24, 2016