An interview with Patsy Stevenson, British campaigner for women’s issues, recipient of Harper’s Bazaar’s Women of the Year award (2023), Selfhood ambassador and writer.
By Catherine Gregson
2024 is set to be one of the most tumultuous years in international election history. People in countries such as the USA, Mexico, India, Iran and Russia will be able to head to polling stations and decide on the leader of their country. This will be occurring in the UK too, with some predictions stating it will take place in the latter half of 2024.
Many divisive international and national issues will frame and, potentially affect the sway of, individual votes in the UK’s 2024 election. For example, a political party’s stance on the war in Gaza may affect their outcome in the polls. There are also several key domestic issues likely to cause debate, such as taxation and green investment.
Organisations are encouraging parties to raise awareness in their manifestos of how policies can be implemented to aid women. The Fawcett Society, a charity which campaigns for women’s rights in the UK, has called on all electoral candidates to pledge a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of misogyny and sign up to the Centenary Action’s Women Count pledge to help achieve an equal gender split in parliament by 2028 (as well as other recommendations). A coalition of over 70 organisations which work against female violence have created and signed a joint 2024 election manifesto, which calls on parties to recognise and adopt the policies stated. Organisations which are part of this manifesto include Women’s Aid, Agenda Alliance, End Violence Against Women, Hibiscus and Bold Voices.
Abortion is another women’s issue which may mean women wish to vote for a particular party in the 2024 UK general election. Later in March 2024, it’s expected that there will be a vote in parliament on the new abortion law amendment which would result in any woman with a terminated pregnancy outside of the legal parameters (which currently stand at 23 weeks and 6 days) no longer being imprisoned. 1 in 3 women in the UK will get an abortion in their lifetime, thus, this is an incredibly important issue to many women. Some view this as, what could be, a successful step in the right direction to the complete decriminalisation of abortion. The MPs are expected to get a free vote on this amendment, thus meaning the MPs can vote however they wish, without any pressure from the party whip. Women may wish to view the party split of how MPs voted, once the result has been announced and this might be something they take into account when going to the polling station later in 2024, for example. The majority voter leaning of each party may be indicative of the overall party’s position on women’s issues, such as abortion (at least certainly will display the MPs in each party’s individual opinions on abortion, which can influence the party’s stance on it). On this, Patsy Stevenson (avid defender of women’s rights) commented, “It’s just about looking at who’s making things worse”, “Even abortion rights are at risk at the moment; so, we’re all affected by these things.”
Patsy Stevenson became widely known after attending the Sarah Everard vigil in London on the 13th of March, 2021. Images of her being pinned down by the Metropolitan police during the vigil circulated widely on the internet, drawing significant attention to the events of that night. Sarah Everard was raped and murdered by the serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens and her murder went on to shine a light on the danger women and girls face in public streets daily from men. A vigil planned in Clapham Common was prohibited by the police due to COVID-19 regulations in effect at the time. Despite this, Patsy Stevenson and many others attended it and faced arrest. Patsy told me she was compelled to attend the vigil because “what happened to Sarah was just so sickening that I had to go. I was going along to show support and solidarity, and as well for all women that have gone through things like that”.
In September 2023, Stevenson and Dania Al-Obeid (another woman arrested at the Sarah Everard vigil) settled their legal case against the Metropolitan police and received an apology and agreement to pay damages. Moreover, the findings from the inquiry into Wayne Couzens, which were conducted under chairwoman Lady Elish Angiolini, concluded that three different police forces could have stopped Couzens from becoming a police officer as there was a range of failings in how he was vetted and a lack of investigation into previous allegations against him. Couzens had a nearly 20-year span of alleged sexual offences. This damning report showed how he should never have been able to become a police officer in the first place and Angiolini even stated that unless changes were made to the national police force there is “nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight”. Patsy Stevenson has been vocal about the findings of the inquiry, taking to ‘X’ after its release stating: “He [Wayne Couzens] was reported eight times before he murdered her. Eight times.”
As well as being vocal about the state of the police force in Britain, Patsy is a feminist activist and public speaker. She has written a book, which is set to be released later this year. She recently became an ambassador for Selfhood, a movement which works to challenge patriarchal systems of power and encourage gender equality in society. Additionally, she received the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year award in 2023 and was handed the award by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. In her award acceptance speech, she said: “Everything you do is a grain of sand… if you’re standing up for trans people and are creating safe spaces that’s a grain of sand, if you speak up about the lack of diversity in a room, that’s a grain of sand. All of these grains of sand may seem small but they are not, they all collaboratively create a feminist beach and that beach may not even be ours to walk on but in generations to come hopefully we’ve all created something women can walk across without fear”. These words are inspirational to women and serve as a reminder that even though every feminist act committed may feel small and lack impact, it goes towards a larger movement, inspiring other women to take action too. Patsy Stevenson was interviewed for Wempower, to gain her opinion of the 2024 UK general election and the issues women face in British politics.
Patsy said she could remember being involved in political activism from as young as the age of 10, despite her family upbringing. She said, “None of them do anything that I do, or have the same beliefs as me”. Yet, she tells me an anecdote of seeing a Sainsbury’s advert on television for milk and feeling compelled to call Sainsbury’s “every single day for a month, saying, ‘I want to know if the cow that this milk has come from is okay’. Are they being harmed?’”. Eventually, Sainsbury’s responded to her, informing her that they had created a system so people could view what farm the cow came from with the milk carton. This displays that she has been spurred by compassion into activism from an early age. Her first word was ‘no’. Patsy said, “I’ve always remembered times when I’ve been like, ‘Oh, what can I do?’ That’s always been a recurring theme throughout my entire life is: ‘how can I help with that?’, ‘What can I do?’”.
Patsy Stevenson revealed that she’s never voted in a general election before, and this is because, “I’ve never felt like anyone’s telling the truth, which is true”. “I think that every time I’ve watched things on television they’ve said ‘Oh, Labour’s doing this. Tories doing that.’ I’ve always thought no one’s looking at fixing any issues that I think are issues. Everyone’s lying like it’s just some big game”. Moreover, she tells me her parents have never voted or registered to vote, thus she said she “had no idea about politics at all when I was younger”. Despite this, she now says that she wished she had voted in the last general election as: “every vote counts, in my opinion. I will be voting when there’s a general election this year”.
She has now become a registered member of a political party. Despite this, she still feels uncomfortable with the way political parties are handling social issues such as trans rights, and even says they’re using it as a “political game”. “There are some great MPs who are amazing, but half of them don’t care at all so it’s hard to know who to vote for, or how to vote”. Patsy Stevenson is part of a group called ‘The Movement Forward’ (along with Carol Vorderman), which aims to encourage citizens to vote tactically in the general election and put proportional representation on the agenda of the next government.
When I ask Patsy Stevenson why she participates in politics her answer is simple: “It’s a human right. Because the people that I support are refugees, people without homes, working-class people, LGBTQIA+ people. Even more so the trans community too, because they just don’t have a voice, and they’re completely demonised at the moment in the UK”. However, she has personal reasons also: “Unfortunately, I think when I was younger, I didn’t realise the impact that government had on everyday people. Now, I know some of the reasons why I went through what I went through. I moved out when I was 18, I had absolutely no money. The healthcare system let me down because I had mental health issues throughout my whole life. There are so many different times I was let down but also, I’ve grown up and realised that everyone around has been severely let down by the government too.”
Patsy then told me a personal story: “My uncle was let down massively. He died a week before Sara’s vigil. So that was one of the reasons why I went to the vigil. It was because I was already grieving, and just at a loss. My uncle was in a hospital bed, unconscious for a couple of days. I was looking after him. But then he passed away in a hospital bed. I just thought, if I’m grieving this much for someone in the hospital, I can see them there with me, I can hold them. Then, what happened to Sarah was just so sickening that I had to go, I had to show support. So, I thought I was going along to show support and solidarity, and as well for all women that have gone through things like that.”
Patsy tells me her bottom line for being passionate about politics is because “people matter.” She thinks “everyday people” are neglected by the British government and that needs to change.
— To read on, purchase a copy of the Wempower Magazine, out on 1st May—
Patsy Stevenson on ‘X’: https://twitter.com/PatsyeStevenson?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Patsy Stevenson’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patsyestevenson/?hl=en-gb
See valid forms of ID you can bring with you to the polling station: https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/photo-id-youll-need
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Find out what parliamentary constituency you live in: https://members.parliament.uk/constituencies
See previous general election results for your constituency: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2019/results
