Charter for the Women's Action Network Portsmouth - Women's Action Network Portsmouth

Charter of the Women’s Action Network

Introduction.

The Women’s Action Network exists to advance the rights, dignity, safety, and well-being of women in all their diversity throughout the United Kingdom. The organisation is founded on the belief that substantive equality requires political courage, social solidarity, and practical action to remove the barriers that continue to shape women’s lives.

The organisation affirms that modern equality must address the material realities of women’s lives, including unequal pay, reproductive injustice, gender-based violence, health inequality, economic exclusion, and the systemic undervaluation of care. It works to build a society in which every woman can live free from discrimination, coercion, poverty, and fear.

Purpose

The purpose of the Women’s Action Network is to:

Promote and protect the human rights and equal status of women across all areas of public and private life.
Campaign for equal pay for equal work and for fair, secure, and dignified employment.
Advance reproductive justice, bodily autonomy, and access to compassionate, lawful, evidence-based healthcare.
Work to prevent and end all forms of gender-based violence, abuse, harassment, and exploitation.
Support health equality for women, including the national establishment and strengthening of Women’s Health Hubs.
Promote women’s economic empowerment through education, skills, fair employment, social security, and financial independence.
Recognise, value, and advocate for the visibility of unpaid care work as a cornerstone of society and the economy.
Build solidarity across differences and strengthen collective action for justice, equity, and liberation.

Core Values

The Women’s Action Network is guided by the following values:

1. Equality

Every woman is entitled to equal dignity, equal protection, and equal opportunity. Equality must be real, practical, and measurable in law, policy, institutions, workplaces, and communities.

2. Inclusion

The organisation actively welcomes and champions every woman, regardless of age, class, disability, neurodiversity, race, religion or belief, sexuality, or gender identity. Inclusion is not symbolic; it requires active participation, accessible structures, and fair representation.

3. Bodily Autonomy

Every woman has the right to make informed decisions about her own body, health, sexuality, and reproduction, free from coercion, violence, stigma, or political interference.

4. Safety and Freedom from Violence

Women have the right to live free from all forms of male violence, domestic abuse, sexual violence, coercive control, harassment, trafficking, and exploitation. The organisation supports survivor-centred, trauma-informed, and rights-based responses.

5. Health Justice

Women are entitled to equitable, respectful, timely, and high-quality healthcare. The organisation supports policies and services that address women’s distinct health needs across the life course, including the expansion of Women’s Health Hubs and greater recognition of inequality in diagnosis, treatment, and care.

6. Economic Justice

Economic equality is essential to women’s freedom. The organisation supports equal pay, decent work, trade union rights, access to education and training, affordable childcare, social protection, and the redistribution of economic power.

7. Solidarity

The organisation is rooted in shared struggles and collective responsibility. It seeks to unite women across differences in a common cause against patriarchy, misogyny, injustice, and structural inequality.

8. Care, Empathy, and Mutual Respect

The organisation values empathy, listening, accountability, and mutual respect. It recognises care work, both paid and unpaid, as socially essential and rejects cultures of contempt, humiliation, and exclusion.

9. Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination

The organisation opposes racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, ableism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, ageism, class prejudice, and all other forms of hatred and discrimination. Justice for women requires resistance to all systems that divide, degrade, or endanger people.

10. Unity Against Division

The organisation rejects divisive culture wars, scapegoating, and attacks on minorities. It stands for principled debate, democratic engagement, and community cohesion grounded in justice, equity, compassion, and shared humanity.

Commitments

To give effect to this Charter, the Women’s Action Network commits to:

Campaign peacefully and lawfully for legislative, policy, cultural, and institutional change.
Centre the voices and lived experiences of women affected by discrimination, violence, poverty, and exclusion.
Promote accessible participation and remove barriers to involvement in the organisation’s work.
Use evidence, research, and listening to inform advocacy and public engagement.
Foster respectful dialogue while refusing hate, harassment, or dehumanisation.
Build alliances with individuals and organisations committed to equality, human rights, and social justice.
Maintain independence, integrity, and accountability in governance and decision-making.
Support intergenerational leadership and collective learning.

Standards of Conduct

All members, officers, staff, volunteers, and representatives of the Women’s Action Network are expected to:

Treat others with dignity, courtesy, and respect.
Act in ways consistent with inclusion, equality, and non-discrimination.
Avoid conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation, victimisation, or abuse.
Respect confidentiality where required and handle sensitive information responsibly.
Engage disagreements constructively and in good faith.
Uphold the reputation and objectives of the organisation in public and private conduct connected to its work.

Organisational Vision

The Women’s Action Network seeks a United Kingdom in which women in all their diversity are safe, healthy, respected, economically secure, and fully represented in every sphere of life. Its vision is of a society beyond patriarchy, where equality is lived in practice, care is valued, and solidarity overcomes division.

Adoption and Review

This Charter is adopted by the organisation’s founding and governing body and should guide all constitutional documents, policies, campaigns, and public positions. It will be reviewed periodically to ensure that it remains effective, inclusive, and responsive to the realities facing women across the United Kingdom.