“If women get more equality, it doesn´t mean that men get less equality.”
Kay Wesley was elected first town councillor for the Women´s Equality Party in this May´s UK local election. She joins the town council of Congleton, a town of about 27,000 inhabitants, in England´s Northwestern county of Cheshire. With Politikerin* she talks about why the Women`s Equality Party has brought women´s rights on the agenda of the other parties as well, why austerity measures always have devastating effects on women and consequently on communities, why investing in a social infrastructure is a long-term investment in the community. Also, as a successful business owner of a globally active digital agency, she has one or two things to say about what makes a business truly successful.
The Women´s Equality Party was founded in 2015 by Sandi Toskvig and Catherine Mayer. They were fed up with the way politics was run by mostly white, privileged, middle-class men that wouldn´t consider women´s issues in their policy making. And how, because of this one-sided politics, women had to pick up the slack of poor policy making. This became once again clear after the UK government introduced several austerity measures in 2008 that would cut social services and benefits. The two founders set out with the goal to put equality for women at the top of the national political agenda. To achieve these goals, the Women´s Equality Party´s political culture is based on deliberate collaborations with other parties.
Politikerin*: I´m playing a bit devil’s advocate here. Why does the UK need the Women´s Equality Party?
Kay Wesley (KW): If the UK continues at this pace with the implementation of real gender quality, we will reach that goal in about 150 years. That´s not good enough. There are things that you can do faster. Take the Feminist Party in Sweden for example. It changed laws to remove unconscious bias, to create more equal opportunities for women, create childcare opportunities. Once you get to that level playing-field, you have men doing their share of parenting and care work and that unlocks women´s potential in the workplace. There are systemic things you can do with government, with policy to make change happen more quickly.
Most people believe in equality. If you ask them outright, that´s not the problem. The problem is whether these policies are implemented or not.
All the political parties in the UK had gender equality as a footnote in their manifestos. But equality should be not just be a footnote at the bottom of a page. We are talking about half the population here, not just a small minority. It should stand on the top of the agenda. Women after all are the backbone of the economy.
So the only way to make this happen is if we are start hurting them in the ballot box. Since the Women´s Equality Party exists and started threatening other parties, all of the sudden parliament is considering if misogynistic crime should be classed as hate crime. That´s a first. We see the Labour Party putting equal parenting opportunities at the top of their agenda. So equal paternity and maternity leave and the right to flexible working is now higher on their policy list.
Politikerin*: How does the political style of the Women´s Equality Party differ from that we are seeing these days?
KW: It is very important to us that we are a collaborative party. We are not doing the typical combat politics. We stand for getting the job done. We don’t have strong policies other than gender equality which the other parties are very welcome to steal. That has worked well on a national and on a local level. In our spirit of collaboration, we are meeting other local parties who have worked on gender equality I will ask: Give me your ideas and experience. I´m also working with the Green party, they were supporting my campaign because they had no candidate here. So, I´m working with them on an integrated transport policy. The policy here so far has been about cars. But what happens to the people that don´t own a car? This affects mostly elderly women and single mothers. How do they do to get places? So that´s another project that I´m developing.
Politikerin*: In the wake of the Brexit Referendum and the current debates around Brexit, how often do you get to hear that there are much more pressing issues now than to implement equal rights?
KW: We have some interesting debates in our party about this. The party originally did not have a position on Brexit but now we are pushing for a People’s Vote with option to remain. The EU has been a positive force for equality overall. But gender equality issues have been around much longer and go back much longer than a generation. Brexit and populist nationalism issues, however, are short term crises that are all over the world.
There is now the notion that in order to be for something you must be against something else. It is this kind of combat politics: everyone has to be in a corner hating everybody else. And to be honest, this has been a powerful message against our current system of government: You have these two sides in parliament shouting at each other. That´s not modern democracy. It’s not the kind of government that you see elsewhere in Europe. We must work together to collaborate. In the midst of this combat politics, the Women´s Equality Party approach is all about collaboration. We are often being asked: Are you against men? My answer is: Why do people think we are anti-anybody if we are for something? That´s not how it works. If women get more equality, it doesn´t mean that men get less of it.
People are taking these sides about Brexit and everybody hates somebody — that is not the country I want to live in. I want to live in a country where the government, local and national, is helping me live my life day by day. So when we then start talking about what we need on a local level, we talk about better public transport, we need affordable childcare, we need support for families, we need to make sure that people don´t need to go to food banks to feed their children. People care about these matters. It is our priority to improve the social infrastructure, to build better communities and better lives, and people say: Right, that´s what we want, too. People are sick of the old-fashioned politics. They want a grown-up debate.
Politikerin*: Probably some people in your community could not identify with the goals of the Women´s Equality Party at first. What topics did you bring into this election campaign that mobilized your voters?
KW: It was very much about making clear that politicians are working for the community first, and not for themselves. Until the local election in May, Congleton has been a very Conservative town council ever since there has been a town council. It is quite traditional, it is quite middle-class, we win the Britain in Bloom competition. It is a very nice and pleasant town. But there are a lot of people who live on some of the local estates and they are a bit left behind. So, this town is divided in two halves. There are the middle-class, local folks who are engaged in local politics. During the election campaign we deliberately wanted to visit and talk to people who live in the estates. There are lot of single parents, especially single moms and elderly people, many of them women. I remember a woman with three children, and I asked: “You know that the local election is coming up?” And she said: “I never voted in the local elections because they do nothing for me. They have nothing to do with me.” That was a very typical response. And I asked: “What are the things that are important to you? I can see that you have three kids.” I told her what the Women’s Equality Party’s objectives are: to provide for affordable childcare, to better support families, to offer better public transportation services to help people get better to work and back. And after having chatted with her for a few minutes she just snatched my leaflet and said: “I am going to vote for you.” By the way, we had these kinds of conversations also with men.
I remember one man I talked to. I asked: “What is it about for you in these local elections?” He was very cynical about the town council. The local administration had recently spent a lot of money on repaving the pedestrian area in the town centre. It looks very nice but was not needed since it was already paved. This man’s perception was that money was spent based on people´s pet projects, but not based on what the community needed. “I can’t get my child into nursery but they spend a fortune on the town centre.”
Another man I was talking to, after I explained what the Women´s Equality Party was all about, said: “You know what? It is so true what you are saying. My wife had a really good job. But since we have absolutely no childcare option, she had to give up her job. So now I have to work double shifts, and I never see my kids because in order to pay our mortgage, I have to work extra hours.” The wife on the other hand is left on her own all day long with two little ones under five. He said it is not really the life they had imagined and that he was more than willing to share the parenting and spend time with his children and now they are both missing out because of the lack of affordable childcare.
So, we heard a lot of those stories. And people find the party´s message really resonating with them when it comes to more affordable childcare and building that social infrastructure. If you want to achieve social mobility, that´s one of the key ingredients — unleashing the power of women. And you do that with those structural changes.
Politikerin*: So as soon you share with the local community how it would benefit from services such as affordable childcare and better support for families, people move away from “Women´s Equality Party is against men” to “This is what we would benefit all of us”?
KW: We have party strapline and that is: Equality is better for everyone. And it is. The World Economic Forum and various other institutes have shown that the countries with the highest level of gender equality are happier and more successful societies. It does not only benefit women; everyone benefits from it.
We need to invest in in social infrastructure, not only childcare but also family support, mental health support and early years support. I know a head teacher who says that children are coming to school and they are not ready to learn: they haven´t had breakfast, they haven´t got proper shoes and don´t know how to socialize and how to mix with other children. Their parents are so busy with trying to make ends meet. The children need a lot support and help from the school. So, education budgets are now getting spent on what is basically mental health and family support which previously was social services and the health system. But due to austerity, those services have been removed and schools are picking up the pieces. So do the parents. The pressure on parents is mounting. And that increases challenges with anti-social behavior. One of my roles is being the chair of the anti-social behaviour working group. It deals with the outcomes of anti-social behaviour, what are we going to do about kids taking drugs in the park, what are we going to do about drunkenness?
But these questions only point to the output of the anti-social behaviour.
I’d like to explore what are we going to do about the input of anti-social behaviour? What can we do about the causes of anti-social behaviour? If you support families more, then maybe we can help tackle anti-social behaviour.
Politikerin*: So, the office as a town councillor is based on voluntary work. I assume you receive a small compensation for your work but
that´s it. Due to the gender pay gap and the load of the care work still being on women´s shoulders, women don´t really have the time nor the money to engage in politics. What is the Women´s Equality Party´s stand on this? Are there any strategies to tackle this representative?
KW: You are right, the service in the town council is not paid. And therefore, a lot of people who are doing the job don´t need to work or they are middle-aged and retired. So that´s not exactly representative of the population at large, is it? One of the demands of the Women´s Equality Party is that you must have policies in place to enable everyone´s participation and representation. The House of Commons for example should work a normal working day and it should provide childcare facilities. The Women´s Equality Party was the only party that offered childcare to everyone that stands. So, if you want to stand as a candidate and if you want to do campaigning, then the Women´s Equality Party will provide childcare for you. We are the only political party that does that.
In the town council, I got myself on the personnel committee of the council itself because I want to check that we are offering childcare facilities for council employees and councillors. In fact, one of the councillors mentioned to me the other day that she used to have to go to meetings and take her children along to meetings and leave them in the corner of the room. And I said: “Well, one of the things we need then is childcare for council, don´t we?”
I went to a domestic abuse survivors’ group as part of my campaign and listened to what they had to say. I can tell you — the best list of policies came out of their mouths. They said: This is what is needed in schools, this is what is needed to happen in the workplace, this is what the police should be doing, this is what housing should be like. They had all the answers. And I said: You all should be standing for the local elections, not me.
And then one said: “Well, who look after my two disabled youngsters while
I´m in the council meeting.” That´s a good point! They are right.
So why can´t those people stand and be representatives? They have experience with some tough life situations, and they recovered, and they survived. I think that´s what we need to do. I cannot achieve this all on my own in this week, but in the long term we should encourage more people to engage with politics and represent the town in the council.. We need to change the way we look at local government.
What is actually a good thing about all the populism and the awfulness of the Brexit debate is that people are now more engaged in politics. On the doorstep, everyone had an opinion, whether I agree with them or not. So, getting those communities engaged is important.
Politikerin*: You yourself are a successful business owner, with a business that has clients all over the world. When it comes to the objectives the Women´s Equality Party has in regard to equal pay and opportunity, equal parenting and flexible working hours, how well go these objectives together with your business interests?
KW: They are completely aligned with the needs of business owners like me. So, I run a digital agency, we work in digital healthcare. Our clients are big corporate companies all over the world, primarily in Europe. We are based near Manchester in Northern England. But a lot of the digital agencies are based in London. One of the things I do observe is that there is this kind of culture of digital agency life which is a 10-hour working day and a couple of hours at the pub at the end of the workday.
So very often I hear from people that they would like to work for an agency but that it is just not compatible with their family life. But I say to them: Rubbish. My agency operates totally flexible working hours. I have part-timers, I have people who don´t work Fridays, I have people who need to look after elderly parents and children. We have totally flexible working environment and yet we are a very successful agency. We often beat our London competitors in pitches. Half the people that work here would not work for me if I was running one of those typical agencies. I have incredible talent in my business, some of the top talents. Some of the people in my team are leaders in the digital health sphere, in their own right. They chose to work for me because of the way I run my business. And I am attracting that talent that my competitors are not attracting. They tend to get a lot of keen young graduates.
But when they have children themselves, they leave because they believe ‘agency life’ is not compatible with family life.
I have top notch people, but they also want to have a life, family and children — and my business works extremely well, thanks very much.
If you look after your people, if you invest in talent, you get much better business out of it. My staff is a very happy bunch as well. We have parents and in some cases grandparents, and at the same we have a great business.
So, I say — what´s good for employees is good for business.
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Kay Wesley´s personal priorities for her work as a town councillor for Congleton town council can be looked up here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/cllr-kay-wesley/about-kay-wesley-and-the-womens-equality-party/609669802880336/
Also, a word of advice if you plan to interview her. Or in fact any woman that is successful and has children — don´t ask the notorious “As a mother, how do you manage all this?” question. Not unless you are really interested in how women and men with families manage it.
The agenda of the Women´s Equality Party can be found here.
