Speaking up for something you believe in

WITH MAINSTREAM POLITICS IN DISARRAY, THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN. LAURA CORYTON, LEADER OF THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE TAMPON TAX, LOOKS AT WAYS TO USE YOUR VOICE TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Women have campaigned for generations, but they haven’t always been listened to. The internet has changed that. Thanks to the tools and platforms offered by the online world, the everyday voices of girls and women are being listened to now more than ever before. And that can include your voice, too.

The internet is a great place to make changes as it favours traditionally sidelined voices, including those of women. At change.org, one of the biggest online petition sites in the world, most petitions are started by men but the majority of their successful petitions that secure their goal are started by women and traditionally marginalised voices. Not only this, but most of their ‘signers’ who add their names to a campaign and ‘sharers’, who relay the message on their own social media, are also female. This is significant because it shows that women are being listened to online like never before by utilising

the power the internet offers them. It also reveals that there is a symphony of female voices supporting online campaigns. Women are empowering women.

When I started a petition against the 5% ‘luxury’ tax rate we pay on period products ( because we all like to treat ourselves to a nice luxurious bulk of tampons once a month, right?). I began to realise how powerful our voices can be when we air them online. My friends were signing my petition, then one of their mums told me that she had campaigned to end the tampon tax when she was my age, too. I realised that generations of women have objected to the tampon tax but only now do we have the tools we need to be heard. I was more determined than ever to finish the job they started. Soon my petition reached 320,000 signatures. Petitions are important and effective because they clearly document views.

While my friend’s mum could be ignored individually, all 320,000 people who signed my petition weren’t so easy to push aside. As a result, in 2016 the UK passed legislation committing the

Government finally to ending tampon tax. By utilising the internet, we all succeeded.

The internet offers us so much power. When I started to tweet about the tampon tax, my petition’s signatures doubled in their thousands overnight. Suddenly people were direct messaging me from across the globe, asking if they could start their own tampon tax petitions in their country. Now we have active sister tampon tax petitions in every continent and many have won, including those in India, Colombia and Canada. Similarly, the #MeToo movement proves that when we speak up about an issue together online, we can change the narratives that dominate the real world. Following the tsunami of sexual harassment complains made against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in 2017, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted “if all women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem”. She sparked 12 million Facebook statuses all quoting #MeToo and the world began to view sexual harassment with the seriousness it deserves.

MORE POWER TO YOUR ELBOW

You can make changes in many spheres, from environmental issues to mental health, keeping your local library open to ensuring your train station is disability-friendly. By using just a few known-to-all platforms well you can make all kinds of waves:

Petitions If yours needs lots of signatures from anyone in the world to succeed, go for change.org (which I used for the tampon tax campaign) because 200 million people worldwide use the site. The Government also has its own petition site ( petition.parliament.uk), which is really good because once you reach 10,000 signatures, parliament has to debate your issue. However, change.org has better organisation tools, including allowing you to email signers and connect with social media platforms, while the Government’s website doesn’t. Campaigners working for change. org are also there to support you when you experience a hiccup ( you almost certainly will).

Twitter Some 261 million people have Twitter and 46% of these people use the platform daily. That’s a whole lot of connectivity you can benefit from. Twitter is best for spreading messages, gaining signatures and connecting with other campaigners.

Facebook Creating a Facebook group for your campaign allows signers to join a community of campaigners all working towards the same goal. It makes sure your campaigners are invested in what you are trying to change, which in turn makes your campaign more likely to succeed. With 100 million people using Facebook, you can gain a whole lot of support online.

EVERYDAY POLITICS

Being political online doesn’t always mean running a campaign or social media site yourself. Those things take up a lot of time and not everyone can dedicate hours a week to campaigning.

Keep in mind that everyday actions can be powerful and political too. Simply ‘following’ social media accounts that resonate with you, ‘liking’ posts that share a message you think is important or blogging about an issue close to your heart are powerful and innovative ways to make waves online. When you ‘like’ someone’s post, it boosts its reach. By clicking a button you are spreading a political message. You are part of change.

It’s also important to lean on your friends to make changes too. Maybe you are part of a book club, PTA, sports club, residents’ association or another small group? You can pitch your campaign idea to those around you and together you can share the time burden inherent in campaigning to ensure you’re more likely to succeed. Perhaps you can work together with your children, parents, or even grandparents to make the change you want to see? The beauty of online campaigning is that it can encompass several generations. We can amplify the voices of others as well as ourselves – just look at the multi-racial, multi-generational nature of climate change protesting this spring.

In the end, you are key to making changes online. You can launch your own campaign, set up powerful social media accounts that spread important messages or act as one of the many crucial people who support and help galvanise the efforts of others. Whatever your commitments may be, always remember that you have the power to speak up and to amplify the voices of others, online. And most importantly, it’s not all about winning, there are other important accomplishments you will achieve along the way. Wherever you may be in the world, you have power. And that’s really exciting. The internet holds the future of politics and everyone has a pivotal role to play in shaping it. Laura’s new book Speak Up! (Red Shed) is a bigsisterly empowerment guide for young women.

OF “THERE’S A SYMPHONY FEMALE VOICES SUPPORTING ONLINE CAMPAIGNS”