Women & men race over the same distances on the roads and on the track, but in cross-country the women's races are often much shorter, sometimes barely more than half of the men's distance. For example, at the SEAA Main Championships the senior men run 15K while the senior women only run 8K. That is as if the London Marathon was 26.2 miles for men and only 14 for women. This both downgrades the women's event compared to the men's, and sends a message to girls that they are not capable of as much as boys. Sport should be empowering girls and women, not keeping them in their place. It is 33 years since the women's marathon was included in the Olympic Games. The IAAF have equalised the distances run in the World Cross-Country Championships, and Scottish Athletics have done the same for their national championships. It is high time competitions in England followed suit.

This is important because there is lots of homeless woman or just woman in general who are having to spend an average of £3-5 a month just because the way woman are built biologically.

New government funding plans threaten to dismantle our life-saving national network of refuges and put the lives of women and children trying to escape domestic abuse at risk. A Women’s Aid survey of refuge services showed that the proposed new model of funding could force over half of refuges responding to close or reduce their provision - resulting in 4000 more women and children turned away from the lifesaving services they desperately need. Already there are not enough refuge spaces to meet demand; data from Women’s Aid shows that 60% of total referrals to refuges were declined in 2016/17. When on average two women a week are killed by a partner or ex partner across England and Wales the stakes could not be higher. Under the new plans, rent money which would have in the past gone straight to domestic violence refuges would instead go to local authorities - effectively forcing refuges to compete for funding with other local services. Refuge managers have warned “if the plans get implemented it will be the end of domestic violence refuges." Visit the Women’s Aid website to find out more about this campaign: https://www.womensaid.org.uk/what-we-do/campaigning-and-influencing/campaign-with-us/sos/

The changes, giving LA’s the money for refuges, will lead to refuges being closed because local authorities that are already stretched will be unlikely to want to pay for a woman and her children who have come from out of town( for safety reasons). The LA will want to use the money elsewhere, meaning more women will be killed and injured at the hands of abusive partners. It will also lead to more emotional trauma for children living in abusive households

This is important to us as we feel strongly that the benefits of wearing trousers hugely outweigh the negatives. Some of which are; The policy of wearing only skirts encourages the objectification of young girls, and therefore has led to many girls becoming extremely self conscious of themselves, when they should be focused on their learning. It is understood that we can be penalised for having our skirts too short, this would easily be avoided if we had the option to wear trousers as the boys do. We live in the 21st Century where there are millions of women in the work place who have highly demanding and professional jobs, most of which wear suits, with trousers therefore it cannot be argued that trousers on girls does not look professional. Gender fluidity is a common thing in today society, we should allow everyone their rights to express themselves how they feel they want to, under the school rules of course. However not allowing females to wear trousers when that is how they want to present themselves in plainly immoral and depressive.

Imagine fleeing domestic abuse, finding the courage to start a new life, only to discover you can’t find work, claim benefits, or even rent a home. That’s the reality for many domestic abuse survivors, whose abusers often steal or destroy their identification documents – passports, birth certificates and driving licences. Emergency ID would enable survivors to prove their identity and citizenship and allow them to access benefits and housing support immediately. It could also be used to support them when trying to gain DBS checks, driving licences or passports.

Tower Hamlets council is evicting over 100 vulnerable residents from Hopetown women-only hostel in Whitechapel. The council is closing the hostel and cutting women-only hostel beds in the borough by one third. They have issued eviction notices and are forcing residents to move to mixed gender accommodation or sending them miles away out of borough. Hopetown Hostel in Whitechapel is one of the last women-only hostels in East London. Most homeless women and non-binary people are survivors of violence or abuse. With refuges closing their doors and a housing crisis, gender specific hostel services like Hopetown provide a vital space for survivors. Tower Hamlets council are treating survivors and other vulnerable women appallingly and are putting them at risk.

The Bank of England's policy making committees make decisions which have a huge impact on everyone in Britain, yet their members come from a narrow range of backgrounds. Over the last decade, the Bank’s policies have disproportionately benefited the wealthiest in society, while doing very little for the rest of us. [1] Unless its most powerful committees are representative of society as a whole, they won’t fully understand how every community is affected by their decisions. 75% of those on the Monetary Policy Committee, which is in charge of setting interest rates and policy such as quantitative easing, were working in the City or for large companies before taking up their post. There are no members with recent experience working on behalf of the interests of the rest of society, such as in trade unions or civil society organisations. And out of the 23 members on the Bank’s most important committees, only two are female, and BAME communities are underrepresented. Appointments to the Bank’s most senior positions are made by the Chancellor. We support Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Nicky Morgan MP's recent call for Philip Hammond to seek out and appoint a more diverse range of candidates. ----- [1] Researchers at civil society organisations like Positive Money have shown that quantitative easing and low interest rates - the Bank of England’s main policy responses to the crash - have benefited the richest households by almost 200 times as much as the poorest. See our website for more details.

The EU referendum represented a low point in post war UK democratic politics. Only now are problems coming to the fore that were not considered in the referendum and not debated at the time. Oeople did not know the consequences of them and Brexit impact reports are being unacceptably hidden from the people. This is unacceptable and we need a final decision when we know exactly what Brexit means and that means the full terms of an any deal.

Low self-esteem, poor body image, anxiety and depression are increasingly rapidly in young women. Powerful advertisers and retailers would have the women of tomorrow believe that to be beautiful, acceptable and successful you must be the epitome of thin; measuring a size 4 or less. Whilst retail chains aimed at older women are starting to use mannequins that represent normal, wonderful women, retailers aimed at the 14-24 group still have below size 4 mannequins in their window. Their message is that unrealistically thin, unhealthily thin is beautiful. Girls come in a myriad of sizes, they need to be represented and celebrated not ostracised from main stream fashion. Beautiful bodies deserve beautiful clothes whether skinny or curvy. Our daughters deserve more. Statistics show that, "The 2017 version of Miss Average [woman] is 5ft 5in, weighs 11st, wears a dress size 16 and has a shoe size of 6." Retailers have a responsibility to support positive and diverse body image in young women, not to perpetuate the cycle of self-loathing. All girls are beautiful; retailers step up and make a change for positive body image for life.

Women's Football is growing by the day and one of the biggest clubs in world football is not backing it, showing a lack of equality and professionalism.

Currently all of the 8 house names at moulton school and science college are male. It's 2017 and we need equal representation.