Women's No Pay Day campaign success...

On the 30th October I campaigned for an hour with colleagues from the Students Union, at the University where I work, for Women's No Pay Day. They continued for a further hour, and during that time we collected a total of 121 signatures to add to the letter to the Secretary of State demanding important inclusions in the forthcoming Equalities Bill.

I was very happy with the signatures we gained, but even more thrilled at two other things -
1 that 3 women from the SU committed time to campaign - after much persuasion -
2 that people we spoke to didn't know the reality of the pay gap and were horrified - many saying that they thought we had equality already

I was particularly thrilled because the initial responses when trying to encourage people to campaign with me, was very dispiriting. I started the day thinking it was probably going to be a disappointing and futile exercise. People had led me to believe that no-one cares.

I firmly believe that if people know the facts, they do care and will take action. Many people came back to the stall we had bringing a friend who they had talked to, who also signed the petition. At least a third of the people we spoke to, who then signed, were men.

You can see a report of our event and others on the day here, at the Fawcett website - I took the photo.

If you still haven't signed up it's not too late - click here to sign.