With an unrivalled weight of history behind it, tracing its roots back to Millicent Fawcett’s successful parliamentary campaign to win women the vote, Fawcett today continues to deliver vital evidence, reasoned argument and critically, a nonpartisan and independent voice on women’s rights.

Here are some of our major historical achievements:

  • We persuaded the Government to require large employers to report on their gender pay gap, including bonuses
  • We were a key player in lobbying for the Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act
  • We secured the Sex Discrimination (Amendment) Act in 2002, permitting the use of all-women shortlists for political parties selecting candidates, and ensuring greater representation of women in politics

Here are some of our major achievements in recent years:

  • We launched the viral social media campaign #FawcettFlatsFriday in support of Nicola Thorp, an employee of agency Portico, who was sent home from work at PwC for wearing flat shoes instead of heels. The campaign gained coverage across the media, was the top trend on Twitter, reaching four million people. The media pick up and the support it gave to Nicola’s online Government petition means the legality of enforcing high heels is now under inquiry with the Petitions Committee and the Women and Equalities Committee, and the agency Portico immediately changed its policy to allow female staff to wear flat shoes 
  • The Conservative Party pledged to extend gender pay gap reporting requirements to men and women of different ethnicities in 2017, just months after our report ‘Gender Pay by Ethnicity in Britain’, which included the recommendation for gender pay gap data by ethnicity to be routinely collected
  • We supported calls from UNISON and other organisations to remove harmful employment tribunal fees that block women's access to justice. The Government scrapped the fees after the Supreme Court ruled they were unlawful.
  • We persuaded Boots and Tesco to reprice some of their own product goods to match similar products for men following our research into sexist pricing
  • We campaigned alongside  MPs, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, FPA and Amnesty International UK to successfully lobby the Government to provide funding for Northern Irish women to have access to NHS abortions in England

We keep women's rights on the political agenda, and we affect real change. Help us keep improving the lives of all women in the UK.

Add your support. Join us today.