New Women's Equality party calls for female role models in schools

Sandi Toksvig, Sophie Walker, Catherine Mayer at the Women's Equality Party policy launch
Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images
Pippa Crerar20 October 2015
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Every school should carry out a gender audit of its curriculum to ensure female role models such as scientist Marie Curie are being promoted, Britain’s newest political party said today.

The Women’s Equality Party wants gender equality to be an issue during Ofsted inspections, while it would be included in the guidelines which set out what under-fives should learn.

The radical proposal by the party, which has 45,000 members, is one of a handful of policies announced today to challenge gender expectations in schools. WE, the brainchild of comedian Sandi Toksvig and writer Catherine Mayer, published its plans for achieving equality in business and politics, equal pay, shared parenting, treatment by and in the media and for an end to violence against women.

It also called for the education system to create opportunities for all children, including recruiting more men into childcare and primary school teaching to provide role models in traditionally female-dominated professions.

However, with men more likely to be in senior leadership roles in schools, WE would also consider gender quotas for primary teacher training and for head teachers. Age-appropriate relationships education should be compulsory and taught by specialist teachers. The party, led by former journalist Sophie Walker, also proposed 15 hours a week free childcare as soon parents return from maternity leave,.

WE would also scrap the married couples tax allowance and use the funds — more than £800 million by 2018/19 — to restore legal aid for domestic violence cases and provide counselling for abused partners.

Parliament would be placed in “special measures” for two elections, with women making up at least 66 per cent of new MPs and 75 per cent of new peers, to achieve a 50:50 parliament by 2025. In the launch speech, Ms Walker said: “We are not a specialist party. Women are half the population.”

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