Entries tagged with “equality” from Working For Walthamstow

I want to thank every woman in Walthamstow who took part in our first event last week. This is a spreadsheet with all the comments from the participants - over 100 local women took part along with Harriet Harman, Tessa Jowell, Diane Abbott, Meg Hillier and Joan Ruddock. I've not censored the comments so you can see the full range of issues we discussed and ideas we shared. I'll also be sharing these with Harriet who made her own notes (also included) about the discussion. 

This coming Saturday 1 May I and a number of the women council candidates will be holding another drop in event to continue these conversations. This will be a great opportunity to meet with other local women and also have your say on what matters for Walthamstow. If you would like to take part in this event please do get in touch for further details. 

The all -women shortlist for our MPs selection has put equality on the top of our local political agenda. As one of the seven candidates I want to take the opportunity to highlight the persistence of unequal pay which many women here in Walthamstow still experience. It means they are being undervalued and underpaid. And it's not just a problem for women in our constituency. Across the UK, women working full time earn on average 17% less an hour than men working full time - that's around £4,000 less a year on the average salary. This is the equivalent of men getting paid all year and women working for free from October 30th. And the situation in London is even worse. We have the highest regional pay gap in the country of 23%.

In response to this the Fawcett Society, the UK's leading campaign for equality between men and women, has joined forces with trade union UNISON and declared October 30th Women's No Pay Day. On this day equal pay supporters all over the country are sending a strong message that more must be done to close the pay gap by highlighting the need for action to ensure equal pay for all. As a supporter of this campaign I'd like to encourage readers to join in too, seeking action on fairer pay for women in Walthamstow and in Britain. To find out more visit the www.fawcettsociety.org.uk website.