Heavens, they can whistle, these women. Which, when they heard something they liked at the Women’s Equality Party launch - ie often - the audience did, along with whooping, cheering, and even ululating. If a party’s future growth reflects the euphoria of its launch, WE should shortly be in government. (No, that’s not WE as in you and me, but the cunningly inclusive abbreviation by which the party will henceforth be known) Within nanoseconds of an instruction to keep tweeting, dozens of fingers hovered over keypads. WE sisters are nothing if not social media-savvy.
And they seem friendly. The handful of men who turned up were welcomed. And which other party has ever told journalists: “Thank you so much for coming?" Leader Sophie Walker’s challenging messages - for example on the £245bn pay gap - were delivered in a mellifluous, lightly Scottish accent that could hardly agitate the most diehard male chauvinist pig.
Some speakers were slightly bit more caustic. Catherine Riley, fantasising a long list of TV drama non-stereotypes she’s like to see, ended with “successful single women who don’t have a drink problem” Beside complaining that “we are taxed for having periods” 17 year old Honor Barber, tackled quotas—which WE back to accelerate equal women’s representation in parliament and on boards—by pithily declaring: “Quotas may be scary but not having equality when I’m 80 and most of you are dead is scarier.”
The most affecting was Somali-born activist Nimco Ali, herself a victim of Female Genital Mutilation who promised that WE would support “survivors of all kind of violence” with “funding for shelters, rape crisis centres, legal aid services and family counselling.”
Ms Ali’s presence mattered because the audience did seem predominantly white and middle class, doubtless drawn from those of the 45,000 new members who could get to Conway Hall on a weekday morning. With WE fielding candidates next May it was hard to know how big a movement this is the beginning of. But those present had no doubts, judging by the tweets that poured happily out from the hall. Such as: “#WElaunch is trending in London. Now let's take over the world!”
