Liberal Democrat Women will formally come into being on 8 June, the culmination of 18 months’ work bringing together the party’s existing women’s organisations: Campaign for Gender Balance and Women Liberal Democrats. In launching Liberal Democrat Women we want to create a more powerful platform for all Liberal Democrats – male and female – who want to see gender equality in Westminster and beyond.
Liberal Democrat Women will focus on 4 core areas of activity: policy, campaigns, women’s representation and networking. It will do everything its predecessor organisations did, and hopefully much more.
To realise this bold ambition we need YOUR help. We need new talent for the first Liberal Democrat Women Executive, which will be elected over the summer. To get involved you first need to join Liberal Democrat Women – and until 31 May you can do so at a special rate of £10 (click here to join now).
If you believe passionately in equality now is the time to step forward and do something about it. Liberal Democrat Women’s first elected Executive will have a unique opportunity to shape the culture and agenda of the new organisation. Our aspiration is that Liberal Democrat Women will be an open, dynamic and innovative organisation with a broad and diverse membership base across the whole party.
Attracting and involving new people is crucial to that aspiration. We need fresh ideas and an injection of new energy. That’s why, after many years of involvement in both Campaign for Gender Balance and Women Liberal Democrats, I won’t be standing for Liberal Democrat Women’s Executive. A new organisation needs new faces. I’ll continue to campaign vigorously for gender equality (not least as a Trustee of the Fawcett Society) but it’s time to move on. So if you’re interested in standing for the Liberal Democrat Women Executive and want to know more please do get in touch via Roxana Cimpeanu at LDHQ (020 7227 1319 [email protected]). I’m very happy to have an informal chat about what’s involved.
This is a unique opportunity to build Liberal Democrat Women into the kind of organisation YOU want it to be. Don’t miss it!
The inaugural meeting of Liberal Democrat Women will be held in Birmingham on 8 June. Nominations for elections to the Executive close on 5 July, but you need to be a paid up member of Women Liberal Democrats /Liberal Democrat Women by June 14th 2013 in order to stand for the executive this time round.
Until 31 May you can join Liberal Democrat Women for £10 (click here).
* Dinti Batstone is a member of WLD and Acting Co-Chair of Campaign for Gender Balance.
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17 Comments
Saw this and joined online with PayPal – thank you for the reminder!
Shall we set up Liberal Democrat Men? You can’t achieve equality with discrimination.
Equality means treating people equally regardless of sex, not favouring someone of one sex over another. Just so you know, because unfortunately too many people believe equality is having exactly 50-50 representation.
Great news Rebecca!
Eddie – like any Liberal Democrat party member you are very welcome to join LDW. Nick Clegg has!
Thanks, I just get worried about creeping sex discrimination against men. And yes, I think more needs to be done for women.
“creeping sex discrimination against men.” AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH…..HA.
Oh wait, you weren’t being funny? Oh dear.
@Callum: so do you think it was right that men were barred from applying to be the Labour candidate for Wavertree MP in 2010?
You also have a very childish way of debating something. You will also find that many women agree with me on this so you can laugh at us all your like.
Luckily, men are too busy enjoying all the wealth, power and bodily autonomy to notice the discrimination creeping up on them.
Dinti: Have joined/donated, thanks for the reminder.
Eddie: Many women might agree with you on this, it doesn’t make you (and them) right. I am far from convinced there is any “creeping sex discrimination against men” going on.
Andy, if you can’t see how all women shortlists discriminate against men then you must be blind. There are people within our party who want to see them introduced.
I’m also against gender quotas because these automatically lead to all women and even potentially all men shortlists.
Good Morning ..As current Chair of Women Liberal Democrats it is probably worth reminding people that we work to
” eliminate all discrimination based on gender” .That includes everyone. Women’s organisations do not just concentrate on parliamentary representation, we have a much wider remit working on policy and international affairs, supporting our members and raising and debating a wide variety of issues. If we had a parliament that was representative of the country groups like ours would still exist, because the type of challenges that women face in their homes and work can be different from those faced by men, and women could and should be involved in the solutions to those problems.
I’m glad that you aim to eliminate all discrimination based on gender, so why isn’t it called Liberal Democrats for Gender Equality?
I’m also worried that people outside the group will get discriminated against because they are seen not to be pro equality enough. Same goes towards other groups.
I think it’s unfair that women are born without equal opportunities to men and that the government needs to spend significantly more money on it. I don’t think gender inequality will be reduced significantly without it.
I respect people’s freedoms and good intentions, but I still want to speak out when I think something is wrong.
Eddie’s using some railroading arguments very typical of Men’s Rights Activists. Probably best not to feed him.
Well, I’m one of the few men who have asked for significantly more government spending on reducing gender inequality, yet I still get accused of being anti women for being in favour of mens’ rights too.
The government needs to step in to reduce organisations’ fears of maternity leave. In my opinion the current arrangements are inadequate.
Someone thought when they saw the sign of the stand at Lib Dem conference I was sitting at that it read ‘gents association’ and wondered if that was the opposite of women Lib Dems.
Unfortunately I was sitting at the agents association stand
Silly Eddie, it’s not about equality.
Would love to join but keeping a strict watch on spending till my income is sorted out, best wishes in any case.