No one said achieving gender equality would be easy. But if the WEP has got a fighting chance it needs to set out its stall on all the big issues of … - Emma Barnett

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No one said achieving gender equality would be easy. But if the WEP has got a fighting chance it needs to set out its stall on all the big issues of the day – while keeping a laser-like focus on its main battles. That way it might become a credible party that can steal seats and influence people. To get their attention, the new party must target David Cameron, Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon where it hurts. Only then will the parties that dominate Britain be forced to reckon with it. And only then will the women of the WEP truly be able to say that they have achieved a new gender equality – and retire.

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About Emma Barnett

Emma Barnett (born 5 February 1985) is a British broadcaster and journalist. In May 2024, she became a presenter of Today on BBC Radio 4. Barnett worked for BBC Radio 5 Live for six years, beginning in 2014, after three years working for LBC. Between 2016 and 2020, she presented 5 Live's mid-morning weekday programme. Before beginning her broadcasting career she worked for The Daily Telegraph, first as its Digital Media editor and latterly its Women editor. Between August 2016 and 2020, she was a columnist for The Sunday Times and, between 2019 and 2022, Barnett was one of the presenters of the BBC's flagship news and current affairs show Newsnight. She was the main presenter of Radio 4's Woman's Hour from January 2021 to April 2024. Her book on menstruation Period. It's About Bloody Time was published in 2019.

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Additional quotes by Emma Barnett

[The experience of a 24 year old sister of a friend] Just after finishing her master’s in economics, she started her first job at a City firm, full of ambition. But then she noticed something. There were no female board members – and all the way through the company there were far fewer women overall.
Rosie invited a large cross section of her female colleagues out to lunch at a local deli and pushed them on the matter. The response? Blank faces all round. None of them had “ever noticed” anything. An awkward silence ensued.
Rosie, not wanting to go overboard, dropped the issue. But, right at the end of the meal, the most senior woman present suddenly piped up. "I do sometimes wonder why all of the women who work here are so beautiful," she said.
No one knew how respond to another difficult truth: it seemed that looks had played a part in the men's hiring decisions. Rosie, bruised and bemused by the experience, has just let matters lie. She has rent to pay.

Nearly 10 years ago, my father went to prison. I had just turned 23 and was heading home after a long day at work when my then boyfriend, now husband, rang me and delivered the news. I had known my dad was in trouble, but he kept his business life so separate, I didn’t even know he was going to court the day he ended up being imprisoned for living off immoral earnings.

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Earlier this week, male MPs struggled to say the same words in a debate about the so-called "tampon tax". This is the five per cent VAT rate that stubbornly remains on all period products – ineligible for zero rating because the European Commission deems tampons (oops, I mentioned them again) "non-essential" items. Try to telling that to any woman.
Female MPs and campaigners have been fighting for years to remove this ludicrous levy.
If nappies for children, maternity pads for new mothers and incontinence aids are all exempt, why does Brussels have a peculiar problem with blood?

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