Take action this International Women's Day: Challenge your councillors on women's rights

International Women’s Day grew out of the grassroots organising of thousands of working women in New York who were angry at their work and living conditions. It has since become a global day of celebration and activism.

In the spirit of this history, Woman’s Place UK is calling on women everywhere to challenge their locally elected representatives to improve the lives of women and girls in their region.

We have identified three key questions that we think every local councillor (and prospective councillor) should be asked – and be expected to answer.

1. What will you do to ensure that the council is providing public services that meet the needs of women including single-sex provision?


2. What are you doing to reduce the high levels of sexual harassment, abuse and violence against women and girls in your ward?


3. How will you work to increase the representation and participation of women in local democratic structures and political life?

These questions can be asked of any councillor anywhere – and any MP – but with local elections taking place in many areas this May, it’s an excellent time to find out where your political representatives stand on women’s rights.

Woman’s Place UK is not affiliated to any political party and has members and supporters from different political traditions, but we think all candidates should be able to commit to some basic principles that demonstrate their commitment to women’s rights.

For more on this action, please see our website https://womansplaceuk.org/2022/03/08/wpuk-questions-for-councillors/

Please let us know how EACH of your councillors responded by completing this quick form EACH TIME you get a response - either as a brief summary or by cutting and pasting below.

This will help us build a picture of how things stand for women and girls all over the UK.

Please note we will collate this data to provide an overview of where different parties stand on the questions.

We may also use anonymised comments to publicise the campaign and build greater participation.

Thank you.