‘IT’S TIME WE WENT ON STRIKE’
Writer Catherine Mayer has spent the past two years building the Women’s Equality Party alongside GH columnist and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig
One of Sandi’s plaintive little jokes is ‘Can we go home now?’ The Women’s Equality Party arose out of a feeling that the need was there and it tapped into something, which is why it has grown so extraordinarily fast. We need to keep going with what we are doing, so sadly the answer to Sandi’s question is, ‘Not any time soon.’
We didn’t plan the party, it was accidental. I suggested it at the Women of the World festival in 2015 because I was so shocked that women were saying that they weren’t going to bother to vote. This was less than 100 years after women first got the vote. Sandi, a good friend, had a similar idea and we met for a beer to discuss doing it. We both have permanent roles – I’m President and she is MC, which is either Master or Mistress of Ceremonies, depending on the date!
Gender equality is good for men and women. It’s not just about the economy, it
means a better society. A lot of men would like to spend more time with their children and the pay gap stops them from doing that. Most men want better relations with women – they want a kinder, gentler society. It’s why a lot of men have joined the Women’s Equality Party.
Feminism is not about superheroes, it is about people working together. My book, Attack Of The 50 Foot Women, is all about what female power and influence would look like.
Now I want to organise a day when women go on strike. Women in Iceland went on strike in 1975 and made men understand how much women contributed. I want to do the same here. It will take a while to organise properly – the NHS would grind to a halt if women all stopped working at once. One day can’t solve everything, but it can change a lot of opinions.