Government respond to Sector Collective Letter on Racism

Back in August, WRC collected the signatures of 130 women's organisations for a letter denouncing the racist violence that erupted across many cities in the UK. The response to the callout was swift and determined: these acts of racist violence undertaken in the name of outrage at the murder of 3 young girls in Southport, were not in our name.

Our letter has now been responded to, with an invitation from Annaliese Dodds MP, Minister for Women and Equalities, for a meeting to discuss our needs and demands.

In the letter, she mentions the "new violent disorder unit...set up to disrupt those involved and hold social media companies to account." She also refers to commitments to make lives better for women, "from flexible working to stronger equal pay rights to tackling workplace harassment."

Interestingly, she mentions the drive to include the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act and "to introduce a Race Equality Act to tackle the structural racial inequality that scars our society". How this will differ from the existing provisions in the Equality Act is not known at this stage.

We will be meeting with the Minister to talk about the need for more Black and minoritised women's voices in policy-making, as well as pushing for more short and long-term funding to aid the chronically underfunded women's sector. Watch this space!

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