‘March of the Mummies’ to demand childcare reforms

Thousands of mothers are set to take to the streets in a Halloween-themed protest aimed at pressuring the Government to help families with young children.

Those taking part in the protest, called the March of the Mummies, will be demanding “urgent progress on women’s rights” and improvements in the childcare sector, the organisers from the Pregnant Then Screwed campaign say.

Up to 14,000 mothers will take part in demonstrations in Cardiff, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle, Norwich, Belfast and Exeter on Saturday, according to the organisers.

In Cardiff, the marchers will gather at Aneurin Bevan Statue at 10.30am and begin marching at 11am. There will then be a rally Cardiff Central Library. Organisers say they expect the rally to end at 1pm.

Speakers at the rally will include former Plaid Senedd member, Bethan Sayed, Agile coach Angharad Edwards, aerial and circus teacher and performer, Rowan Whitehead, Campaign Manager for project Diverse5050 WEN (Women’s Equality Network) Evelyn James, and Stacey Grant-Canham, mother, lecturer and founder of Black & Beech a feminist fashion business

The protesters will be demonstrating about expensive childcare and poor paternity benefits, which is part of a situation they say is leading too many women of childbearing age to drop out of the workforce.

Affordable

Protesters will be calling for reform on the key issues they believe are pushing mothers out of the workforce and into poverty.

They are calling for increased funding for the childcare sector so that affordable and high-quality care is available for all children.

Maternity and paternity leave should be ring-fenced and properly paid and all jobs should be flexible by default, they will say.

Joeli Brearley, founder and chief executive of Pregnant Then Screwed, said mothers will be coming together all over the UK to protest because “enough is enough” and they are fed up with an “unaffordable, inaccessible, dysfunctional childcare sector”.

Ms Brearley said: “We want urgent progress on women’s rights. It’s the 21st century, yet 54,000 mothers are being pushed out of the workforce every year for simply daring to procreate.”

She added: “The childcare sector is in a mess. Thousands of nurseries have collapsed this year alone. We have had enough.”

Details of the march and the route can be found here