The world faces political, social and economic unrest, and women are disproportionately affected by every measure. For Mandu Reid, Leader of the Women’s Equality Party (WEP), making big change is top of the agenda, and Reid knows ‘You don’t make change by making small modest asks.’

“Politics isn't serving anyone at the moment and it's certainly not serving women,” explains Reid. With the two major political parties showing that women aren’t a priority, the WEP faces a challenge to “make a case for equality being a top priority at a time when the cost of living crisis is starting to bite.” She explains: “Institutions need to stop taking a gender-neutral approach to problems because problems do not manifest in a gender neutral way, women are at the sharp end.”

Education and accountability

For Reid, the issue begins in education, where she says “Stereotypes need to be unravelled so that there’s no longer direct or indirect funnelling of boys and girls toward certain professions.” An approach which leads to problems later down the line. “The gender pension gap is the inevitable consequence of inequality that women start dealing with from childhood,” she explained. 

Small Budget, Big Impact

Reid posed a challenge to creatives, to help the WEP create a campaign to lobby for universal free childcare; a step which would enable greater equality by making change on an institutional level. Yet, for the WEP, pushing forward an agenda that champions equality is done on what Reid describes as a ‘shoestring budget.’ 

She explained: “Politics is an expensive game. I’m trying to lead a movement that's representative of the poorest half of the population - we are campaigning on a shoe-string budget and we are under pressure to be more creative, more innovative.”

Adding: “On International Women’s Day the world economic forum unveiled the latest data that showed it's going to be 130 years in most developed countries at the rate we’re going before equality between men and women is a reality. We are impatient, that's not good enough - our impatience drives us, our passion drives us, our imagination drives us. Imagination is a weapon of mass creation and what that does is propels us to see the world differently. Despite odds being stacked against us we wake up every morning and find creative ways to challenge the status quo.” 

Leadership that encompasses all

It’s in challenging the status quo, through inclusive leadership that Reid is able to create inclusive policies. She explains that she “tries to make sure that we campaign for the furthest first because that allows us to be more radical and visionary. If your starting point is the bulk of people who are in the middle, sure you hit a big critical mass but you’re limited in your thinking and fail to unlock the type of solutions that make transformational change.”

In adapting and learning Reid has seen the party grow to 45000 members. Her parting advice for leaders is to “try to create a culture where mistakes are something we can learn from; if institutions operated in that way we wouldn't have some of the problems we face right now.” 

Image credit @ Bronac McNeill photography