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About the Campaign | Campaign Demands | Get Involved | Campaign Videos

About the Campaign

Too many women are living in poverty, unable to feed their children, their families or themselves. 

Too many women experience violence and abuse, unable to find refuge or to get the support they need. 

Too many women continue to be disproportionately affected by the cost-of-living crisis and struggle to find truly affordable housing. 

Too many women’s voices are ignored by those in power. 

This is why we have launched the ‘Speaking Up for Women’ campaign. As the leading umbrella body of women’s organisations, this campaign will allow us to push for the needs of our members who have experienced a sustained and mounting demand for their life-changing and life-saving services - throughout austerity, the pandemic, and now, the cost-of-living crisis. Chronic underfunding has left them unable to help all the women that need it. 

Through our membership, we have a deep insight into what is happening on the ground to the most marginalised and vulnerable women in our society: poor women, those who in violent and abusive relationships, those who have been raped, those who have no recourse to public funds, Black and minoritised women. We need more money and resources. And we need to be at the heart of all policy decisions. We don’t just want a seat at the table. We want to be listened to. We want our demands acted on. We want real, fundamental change for women and girls. 

Overwhelming demand for services 

Women's organisations have reported vastly higher and sustained demand for their services since the pandemic started. Chronic underfunding has left their staff burnt out and having to turn women away. But for every £1 of investment in the women's sector, a further £3 is saved by the state. Despite this, women's organisations received less than 2% of grant funding in the UK in 2021, despite making up over 50% of the population. 

If the needs of women and girls are not given the attention and resources they deserve, our society crumbles. This is why this campaign is not just about firefighting for more money and resources - although we are demanding this too! It is also a longer-term vision for women and women's rights to be at the centre of the national agenda. 

Campaign demands

• We demand that women's voices are listened to, that policy and legislation truly reflect the needs of women, and that research addresses gaps in data and evidence. 

• We demand that the women's sector be given a seat at the head of the table when it comes to all political decisions made that affect women and children in all areas of public and social life. 

• We demand that community-based organisations are funded to do their life-saving work, providing critical support to women and children who face abuse, poverty and homelessness, through an independent, long-term, national Women's Fund. 

• We demand that violence against women and girls to be considered and resourced as a public health crisis. 

How will we do this? 

Bigger social and cultural change won’t happen simply by some policy people having private meetings with MPs. We need a bigger movement that channels our anger, despair and desires into meaningful challenges to power. We need a multi-pronged plan that seeks change at all levels. This is why our campaign will:

• Use the upcoming elections to empower grassroots, ‘led by and for’ organisations and the women they support to make their voices heard.

• Develop a ‘Grassroots Manifesto’ for a bigger vision of social change that finds resonance beyond the women’s sector.

• Develop a toolkit and put on events/trainings to up-skill women in campaigning, influencing and collective action to make sure women's issues are heard and acted upon - locally and nationally. 

Our collective voice has greater impact and we need your support!

So how can I get involved/find out more? 

• WRC has launched a petition (co-signed by Imkaan and Respect) asking for our campaign demands. It includes the demand for a long-term, independent, national Women's Fund. Government must respond to 10,000 signatures or debate the issue with 100,000 signatures. Sign and share the petition here.

• Following a survey conducted in March 2023, WRC published a report investigating the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on women's organisations and their service users. We will continue to use this in our lobbying and campaigning efforts going forward - feel free to do the same! Read the full report and executive summary here.

• Follow us on twitter @whywomen and share our campaign tweets and our promotional campaign videos! 

Campaign Videos