International Women's Day 2025 House of Commons Debate Briefing
Written By Kruti Walsh, Director of Policy, FiLiA
The House of Commons held a general debate for International Women's Day on Thursday
6th March 2025. This briefing, sent to MPs to participate in the debate, introduces FiLiA’s new campaign to urge the Government to better recognise and consider women in their policy making, including by consulting with a variety of women's organisations for all policy affecting the public, and consistently producing thorough Equality Impact Assessments.
Who we are
FiLiA is a women's rights charity that runs the largest annual grassroots feminist conference in Europe. Established in 2012 with charitable status achieved in 2015, the conference includes speakers and attendees from 75 countries so far, and due to demand it has grown from a one-day to a three-day annual event. Our conferences are held throughout the UK (to date, in London, Greater Manchester, Bradford, Portsmouth, Cardiff and Glasgow) in response to enormous grassroots demand. Our FiLiA 2025 conference is likely to host 3,000 attendees; it will be our biggest so far. With eight months still to go and despite not announcing a single speaker or the location, we have sold over 1200 tickets because women trust FiLiA to put on an event that speaks to them.
Over the past 12 years, FiLiA has developed relationships with women and women’s groups, across the UK and globally, unreplicated elsewhere. FiLiA’s connections with women have been nurtured and maintained through ongoing contact and support and the provision of training in response to local identified needs and by continuing to hold a visible presence in each city after each conference. As such, FiLiA is uniquely positioned to hear and record the concerns of women in the UK. Women have consistently and increasingly highlighted to us that their voices are not heard and are at times deliberately ignored in policy forums.
Our work
FiLiA is now working to provide women with the support required to ensure their voices are heard in national and local policy forums. We will particularly focus on the concerns of marginalised and disadvantaged women across the UK, ensuring that their voices are amplified. Last year, we undertook primary and secondary research to better understand and clarify women’s concerns and priorities. This research has identified that women’s current areas of concern include male violence against women and girls, poverty and the cost of living, health, racism, women’s rights to organise and be politically active, and more. Our research has reinforced that women’s differing needs and lives are not being recognised in policies and processes, and that we continue to live in a male-dominated and male-served society.
Equality Impact Assessments
The FiLiA team includes several women with significant experience of working in the Civil Service, Local Government and other public bodies, including the NHS. We also have many women in the team who are in receipt of and with personal experience of public services including welfare and benefits, the criminal justice system, and asylum and immigration services. We know intimately that well-produced Equality Impact Assessments could make a real difference in making sure women’s needs and their experiences are properly included in policy development. But we also know that they are not done consistently, done well or done at the right time of policy development and implementation. FiLiA will raise the profile of well-produced Equality Impact Assessments, as well as the use of other human rights frameworks and tools, as a mechanism for change to improve the lives of women.
Why do we need to actively consider women when making policy?
Women are different from men biologically, socially and economically. Many women may wish it wasn’t so, but this is the well-documented reality of our lives:
Women’s lives and health are disrupted by pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal impacts.
Women are fearful and at serious risk of rape, sexual violence and domestic abuse.
Women and girls are subject to street harassment, objectified and sexualised and will often take actions or pay costs to avoid being alone outside.
Women are less likely to be believed when they are in pain, and women’s symptoms for common disorders are less known and less readily diagnosed.
Women are more likely to be the primary caregiver of children and elderly and disabled family members, affecting both their participation in education, training and employment, and their earnings.
The world is not designed for women ‒ car safety, town planning, uniforms for firefighters and armed forces are just a few of the examples set out in Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez.
Women are poorer, are paid less, and have less in assets and savings.
Women are less likely to be in positions of power and influence.
Policy and law do not always recognise these and other differences or recognise women and their lives as distinct from men’s. Women’s lives, experiences and needs must be considered from the outset of policy making, so that they are baked into the design, development and implementation of policies, processes and services. Regarding women as active participants and stakeholders and involving them in policy making will mean better-made, better-targeted and better-delivered policy and legislation.
The Government already has legal and other non-statutory obligations and responsibilities to recognise women within policy, such as within the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty; Equality Impact Assessments are the tools to do the job properly because they encourage the use of data and evidence to understand how policies affect different groups. A well-produced Equality Impact Assessment can lead to better informed and effective decision-making. They can be provided as proof of consideration and commitment to equality law, and they can help create fair policy which avoids creating discrimination. Addressing inequalities early, such as through identification in Equality Impact Assessments, can prevent costly interventions or legal disputes later and protect reputational damage.
How can you help?
We are seeking support from MPs in our call for better consideration of women in policy making. You can do this by committing to:
Urging the Government to consult with a variety of women's organisations for all policy affecting the public, not just violence against women and women’s health.
Asking the Government for the Equality Impact Assessment every time a policy or an intention affecting the public is announced or a Bill is debated.
You can use your contribution at the House of Commons Chamber International Women’s Day Debate on Thursday 6th March to set out your intention to do this. We are happy to provide speaking notes if that would be helpful.
Kruti Walsh, Director of Policy, FiLiA