Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London has launched a new 2018 campaign to drive gender equality. His motif is to mark the 100 years since women gained the vote in the UK.
#BehindEveryGreatCity is a play on the feminist slogan of the Sixties and Seventies. Khan has announced that it is a major campaign which recognises our progress but addresses how much further there is to go.
Khan says: “I passionately believe that it can’t just be a fight for girls and women, it has got to be all of us.” The campaign coincides with the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which gave some women the right to vote.
On the day, Khan quoted Malala Yousafzai: “We cannot succeed while half of us are held back.” The mayor added that we need more boys and men getting it because we will benefit as a society if we are equal.
Khan insists that businesses over a certain size will have to publish their overall mean and median pay gaps. This is thanks to the government’s legislation to be brought in next year. In light of the allegations made against Harvey Weinstein and #MeToo, Khan says he wants there to be safe avenues for people seeking support. “It is important that when you see it, you highlight it, call it out. It’s a wake-up call.
2018 looks to already be an exciting time for women. Spring next year, there will a statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett. Transport for London’s art programme has announced it will present works only by female artists for the entirety of 2018.
“I think London is the greatest city in the world,”.”It’s the city I want to raise my daughters, but it’s still the case in 2017 that there are problems. If you’re born a girl you don’t have the same chances as if you’re born a boy.”
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