PRESS RELEASE

Woman Up!  Caroline and No more Page Three founder at Brighton women’s event

Caroline on inspiring local initiatives: ‘Women are finding their voices and are speaking out’

CAROLINE will discuss the high cost of living with violence against women and girls tomorrow.

In her first term in Parliament, Caroline’s proved a fierce advocate of women’s rights; a vocal and visible champion of gender issues locally, nationally and internationally.

The Woman Up! event is a free day of debates, panels and performances with subjects ranging from body image, ‘honour’ violence, forced marriage, motherhood, creative activism and more.

Caroline, Parliamentary candidate for Pavilion and Patron of national Brighton-based charity For Our Daughters will discuss her experience in standing up for women’s rights in Parliament – from the No More Page Three campaign to Personal Social Health and Economic education (PSHE), equal pay, women’s refuges, tackling gender violence and stalking.

She’ll talk about the state of women’s rights today, the change we need – and the local work inspiring her.

Caroline says: “Women are finding their voices and are speaking out – from the brilliant Everyday Sexism project to a new local initiative Brighton Women’s Voices. This day is a celebration of what can be achieved, as well as an opportunity to explore and discuss the need for action. Being an activist is very much part of my identity. I’m driven by the desire to create a future in which social and environmental justice is put centre stage - and for me that means taking action, not just talking about it.”

Last year Caroline worked alongside a Brighton constituent to strengthen the stalking laws.

She successfully campaigned to make domestic abuse a specific offence - and stresses there is more still to do - and called on the Government to develop the UK-wide strategy to end violence against women and girls - urging cross-party cooperation on the crucial issue.

Caroline says: “The effects of violence are complex, long term and insidious. The long term costs to society – to our support services, to our criminal justice system, to our very understanding of what’s acceptable to do to another human being – as well the cost to the individual, are not a price we should be willing to pay. And yet we have singularly failed to get to grips with the problem: that must change.”

ENDS

Notes

For more information or to speak to Caroline please contact Jenny Williams, press officer, on clucasmedia@greenparty.org.uk

Woman Up! Will take place tomorrow at the Emporium Brighton 10am-5pm. More details here.

Also among those due to attend are Lucy-Anne Holmes, author, actress and founder of the No More Page 3 campaign; Jean Calder, director of For Our Daughters and Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner, Katy Bourne

In Brighton and Hove, around 11,000 women experience physical and emotional violence each year. More than 2,500 women experience sexual assault and more than 6,500 are the focus of stalking (Statistics here, P13)