Can you put your mind back to three years ago – after Brexit, Covid, Ukraine and Trump I? Life in the North East was falling apart for too many people. Certainties, equalities and hopes for the future were unwinding and austerity had never finished up here. So a small group of women got together to look at the potential opportunities provided by the election of the first Mayor of the North East Combined Authority. This area of Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear is home to around one million women and girls. We wanted to use this opportunity to ensure that the needs of women and girls were not ignored and were central to policy-making.
What did we do?
We formed a group and based on kindness and connections, we put together a campaign, with pledges for candidates to adopt. We interviewed all the candidates, held a successful hustings meeting, encouraged women to register to vote, produced a pack about voting, explained the voting system and the new requirements, and urged women to vote. We didn’t promote any specific candidate nor tell women who to vote for. We live-streamed the debate, which had 350 participants and received significant media coverage.
Since that time we have met with the Mayor, engaged and advised on consultations, taken resolutions to local councils about the importance of data and information, and four of the local Councils have adopted our pledges. Northumbria University now has an associated researcher to monitor progress on the pledges and form part of the public account with the Mayor and the Combined Authority.
The situation now
This has been positive, but it’s obvious to us from our experience, work and conversations that life for too many women and girls in the North East isn’t improving, in fact it’s getting worse. Where I live in Newcastle, we have three female MPs and a women mayor, however there are likely to be fewer women candidates for the upcoming council elections across Tyne and Wear because of misogyny, harassment and hatred, often delivered through social media. One woman candidate we spoke with, shared her experience of having to consider a safety plan for her children at school.
The gender pay gap for North East England is currently around 13.7%, higher than the national average of 12.8%. This works out at a difference of around £90 a week, for a woman on the average wage. The Women of the North Report highlights the many areas where health of local women is significantly worse than the UK average. Women in the North East live shorter lives and also have a shorter healthy life expectancy than the national average. Many parts of the North East have extremely high rates of child poverty and the North East Child Poverty Commission No Time To Wait’report highlights that “low pay continues to disproportionately impact women in our region”.
In 2025, we decided to keep going and extend our work as the position of women and girls in the North East, was getting worse. We are all volunteers and not paid to do this work, but we agreed to set up a formal organisation to campaign on and promote these issues. We applied for and received a grant from the Andrew Wainwright Reform Trust to host five women and girls-themed election debates in Tyne and Wear before the local elections on Thursday 7 May.
We have asked the significant political parties in each local authority area to send a representative to be part of a panel. This will give local communities the opportunity to question candidates and secure commitments on important local issues affecting the lives of women and girls including safety, housing, social care, the environment and public health. All five debates will be chaired by an independent, experienced senior journalist and will be live-streamed by the Young Women’s Film Academy. For more information about the debates, to book tickets and submit a question click here.
Once again, we are encouraging women to use their votes and have produced an information pack about all aspects of voting, including why local authorities matter to women and girls, for use by local groups and organisations. To request a pack email us at onemillionwomenandgirls@gmail.com
Key dates for the debates
- Gateshead – 6.30-8pm on Monday 13 April at St Mary’s Heritage Centre
- Sunderland – 6.30-8pm on Tuesday 14 April at Sunderland Minster
- South Tyneside – 6.30-8pm on Thursday 16hApril at WHIST, South Shields
- North Tyneside – 6.30-8pm on Monday 20 April in Burnett Hall at Linskill Centre, North Shields
- Newcastle – 6.30-8pm on Tuesday 21 April at Northern Stage (Stage 2), City Centre
Other key deadlines include:
- 9 April for candidate nominations
- 20 April to register to vote
- 21 April for new postal vote applications
- 28 April to apply for a voter authority certificate
You can find more about our work on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1millionwomenandgirls
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/one-million-women-and-girls
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1millionwomenandgirls
Website: https://www.onemillionwomenandgirls.org/
Sally Young is a director of One Million Women and Girls
