WHO amongst us is not surprised that Brighton and Hove voted to stay inside the EU?

I'm so thankful that this great city saw sense and understands the threat to our democracy and human rights that this exit holds. Moreover, the threat to gender equality is enormous and should be a concern for all of us.

"Maternity leave and work protections during pregnancy plus harassment and unequal treatment at work" were just some of the issues that MP Caroline Lucas warned us about back in March. Britain signed the Istanbul Convention (which seeks to protect women from sexual violence) as part of the EU but has yet to ratify it. This is a huge worry. With an increasingly right wing government in power, the likelihood of us ratifying the convention seems to be decreasing rapidly.

This is partly due to the policy of austerity that the Tories are behind, supported by Ukip. Domestic violence services have been cut which would make it impossible to honour one of the policies which gives women the formal right to counselling after suffering domestic violence or abuse. That is just one aspect that would potentially be unfulfilled. The irony is that violence against women costs millions of pounds in lost wages and burden on the NHS. So even from an economic point of view, it makes no sense to cut those services and to not ratify the Istanbul Convention. Bearing in mind the attitude Farage and so by definition, Ukip, have about women working, where does this leave our future?

  • Jess Woodfall is a feminist and activist for the No More Page 3 campaign. She helped found Cut It Out UK which campaigns against sexism.