I am passionate about challenging the inequity in representation and diversity in senior leadership in education. The statistics are uninspiring that despite the educational workforce being 73% female heavy, that only 28% of Headteachers are female. In the spring I connected with 6 other women in educational leadership via social media and we founded #WomenEd. We are a grassroots campaign to challenge and inform educational reform. We have 2500 followers, 150 blogs and an event next weekend exploring the barriers females face in the educational world. We have sparked interest globally from our campaign and will be launching regional networks in the coming months. The #WomenEd Unconference will connect 225 existing and aspiring leaders. Check out our website here: www.womened.org Follow us on twitter @womened #WomenEd

The women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 70s, now called second wave feminism is where my commitment was initially sparked. I am also committed to ensuring real equality between men and women, not neoliberal individualistic or the 'selfie generation' style equality.

I would like to see a change in some mens attitudes to women. Those attitudes are now very old-fashioned.

I have passed that significant birthday milestone, and I have 30 odd years of work experience behind me. I have been employed, unemployed and redundant (awful word) in no particular order. I have worked in the clothing industry, education and for myself. Is my experience in demand? Sadly, no. I want to see a society where jobs for "Older People" are proper jobs, with proper salaries, and the dinosaur of ageism is finally extinct. In a world where we are expected to live longer and retire later, I feel that this is a really important issue.

I am 62 years old and racing towards retirement, exhausted by the 35 year struggle in early education and family work to make equality a reality to women and their families. Why have we had to wait so long?

Women are not yet on an equal footing. We still have a way to go. I am outraged by the statistics of domestic violence and sexual violence against women in this country. I know many men who are equally outraged yet don't know how to stand up against the inequalities with us. I find the attitudes towards women staggering. I work in the media and sexism is rife because it it has gone unchallenged for so long. I'm now making waves!

because, as well as being a Socialist who believes in equality for all, I specifically am a feminist who believes in full gender equality

I believe that Women have experience that gives them insights that will help everyone achieve equality. I have never joined a political party before because there has never been a party that spoke of the need to develop equal opportunity so that we can all move forward together. My experiences of how inequality damages individuals, damages communities, damages our country made me want to be part of a movement for change and equality for everyone. When I was 16 (after failing throughout my school life culminating in failing all 7 of my O-Levels) I pushed my Mum to help me find out what was wrong with me. Eventually we got an appointment with an Educational Psychologist. He seemed to listen as I explained how hard it was to write so that people could read my words and how I wanted to write and to study. I then sat next to my mother and listened as an Educational Psychologist ignored me, looked at, and spoke directly to, my mum asking 'can she write enough to fill out a cheque?' 'Oh... yes' replied my mother 'Well then, she won't need to worry about anything; she'll be married soon and her husband will look after her' concluded the man. My desire to answer my mother's worries, to find out what was wrong with me and to have a future was written off. One failed marriage and 18 years later I started to study again, to take my GCSEs, to complete an access course, to complete my Maths and Education Degree; I could have done all of these things through my teenage years and into my early 20s if I had help, if my potential to contribute to anything had been recognised, if I had been valued. I have been teaching for 17 years and I love being part of a profession that contributes to the life of this country, a profession that at its best changes lives and empowers people to fulfil their dreams. I am excited to be part of the Women's Equality Party because at its best it promises to change lives and empower people to fulfil their dreams.

there is far too much to go into about my story but inequality is rife throughout all life. Just about every policy, system,concept used by government and business is full of extremist inequality and I want the abuse to stop now.

I am tired of waiting for the existing system to address what it does not deem important . I am WE because I am still the teenage girl formed by the seventies who discovered injustice and was hurt by it … because I am tired being labeled ‘’aggressive’’ when the exact same behaviour is identified in men as strong, clear , or to the point ! BECAUSE my mother should have had a choice…..if she WANTED to stay home with her children that should have been valued….but as a choice , not as a lack of opportunity , because it is better for everyone in the world if all women have exactly the same chances in all areas of life that men have…..I am WE because if I don't , if WE don't who will ?

I want parity in the workplace. I want to see older women like me properly represented in the Media and in advertising as well. I want to see young boys taught that girls are not porn stars and dont want to treated like the women that they [ the boys ] see on line. I am not a feminist just a woman who feels that it is absolutely time that we spoke out GOOD AND LOUD about the injustices I see everyday around me. I know that many men feel the same way.

WE must do something NOW for us, for our children, for their children.

I want all women to know that they have a voice and can stand up against domestic, emotional and physical abuse. New laws need to be supported by women for women to stop men having the financial and physical control that they have always had.

I was involved in socialist politics with a left-wing boyfriend. I began to feel that women's needs weren't addressed and our voices were silenced. One day I turned up to a meeting wearing a reversible coat. My boyfriend didn't like the lavendar colour on the outside, so I reversed it so only the sober navy blue was showing and only a tiny amount of the lavendar colour showed on the cuffs. Later at the same meeting my boyfriend made a sexist remark about me, once again trivialising my contribution. I stormed off, but not before I had taken off my coat and reversed it back so that lavendar was showing and the navy blue only peeked out at the cuffs. I later discovered lavendar to be one of the suffrage colours. I realised then and there that I wanted the same for my politics as I did for my raincoat: I wanted my women's politics to be on the outside. Yes, some of the issues are the same, like low pay can affect both sexes, but I wanted our issues to be visible. It's taken over thirty years from that moment, but at last, we have a women's party. WEEEEE!

I think that ordinary women can bring a stabilising influence into the political mix. Let our voices rise above what is deemed the norm and create a safer and more equal society where we can all prosper.