It’s “the end of the party, but not the movement,” said Catherine Mayer, co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party, after members voted to close the organization.

Speaking to the BBC’s Woman’s Hour, Mayer said the party was closing partly because of financial pressures, but also because the party’s approach “didn’t work in a polarized world.”

Co-founder Sandi Toksvig said they would now try to implement change through activism rather than spending money to field candidates in elections.

She also denied that the party’s demise was linked to its stance on transgender issues, saying the decline in membership was due to women struggling to pay their members’ dues during the cost crisis. the life.

The party was launched in 2015, following conversations between Mayer and Toksvig in which they shared their “impatience with the slow pace of change” on women’s issues.

Mayer said they wanted to emulate the success of the UK Independence Party, which managed to change the Conservative Party’s position on the European Union by winning votes in its traditional heartland in the election.

“Basically we had a few beers that ended up being really expensive,” Mayer said.

The party – initially led by journalist Sophie Walker – campaigned to reduce the gender pay gap, make childcare more affordable and increase the rate of prosecutions for domestic violence.

In 2016, Walker came sixth in the London mayoral election, winning 2% of the vote.

However, the party failed to increase its vote share and in the general election earlier this year it fielded four candidates and won only 1,275 votes.

He has also faced criticism over his stance on transgender rights.

Journalist Suzanne Moore participated in the creation of the party in 2015, but in a recent article on Substack, said party leaders had ignored the views of their own members, “70 percent of whom did not support self-identification.”

A self-identification system would allow someone to change their legal gender without a medical diagnosis.

Currently, UK adults can obtain a gender recognition certificate if they meet certain criteria including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

Defending his approach, Mayer said the party had been “very clear” and “supported people’s right to determine their own gender from the beginning”.

“We also tried very, very hard to make room for all areas of opinion on this.”

Toksvig said: “I couldn’t be more inclusive of trans people, but I didn’t want to yell at people.

“I don’t want a polarized debate… what I wanted was a space where we could continue to discuss.”

When asked if the party’s stance on transgender rights had led to a decline in membership, Mayer responded that the party had lost some members but had also gained members and that overall the party was “neutral, even slightly positive”.

Toksvig said the cost of living crisis following the pandemic had led to an overall drop in funding.

Last month, the party leadership recommended to its members that they should vote to close the party and over the weekend, members voted 78% to support the proposal.

Toksvig said, “If we bring attention to incredible issues – for example women’s health care, affordable child care – if it happens through activism rather than trying to run candidates that we can’t really afford in elections, so that’s going to be the way to go.

In 2024 the party raised £9,000. In comparison, Reform UK brought in £4.3m and the Liberal Democrats raised around £12m.

“What we have is a movement and what we’re looking at now is how to turn it into more reforms and more effective activism,” Mayer said.

“It’s the end of the party, but not the end of the movement.”

They said they would continue to support the party’s four local councilors in Basingstoke, Cheshire and Dorset.

“We will support them,” Toksvig said, adding: “What we won’t worry about is keeping the lights on.”