Jul 29, 2019
Mandu Reid is the leader of the Women's Equality Party. The first woman of
colour to lead a political party in Britain.
She believes that equality for women isn't just a women's
issue. She says that when
women fulfil their potential, everyone benefits.
Mandu's first experience of injustice was racial injustice. She
grew up in the shadow of apartheid South Africa - her mother is
black, her father is white.
When she was eight her family took a car journey and en route they stopped at a service station. She was confused that her father was allowed to use clean, gleaming toilets and her mother was forced to use substandard toilets. She thought it might be because her father was a man. Her parents explained to her that it was because of the colour of her mother's skin.
She remembers the outrage she felt.
Her whole premise is that her
cause isn't anti-men, it's pro-everyone. She believes that equality
means better politics, a more vibrant economy, a workforce
that draws on the talents of the whole
population and a
society at ease with itself.
Books for Emmeline:
Talking To My Daughter About The
Economy: Yanis Varoufakis
Noisy Nora: Rosemary Wells
Links:
In this interview I take questions
from listeners one of whom is worked in parliament and is
campaigning for an independent authority to be set up to hold MPs
to account. You can read her Guardian piece about that in this
link.