Dear Supporter
As the Epstein files continue to dominate the news, we hear politicians and commentators repeat the mantra “We must remember the victims”.
But were they remembered before these files came to light? Did these institutions prioritise women and girls when the powerful men involved still provided influence to those institutions? Victims don’t need our thoughts and our platitudes. They needed the people who knew what was happening to take action - decades ago.
Whenever stories of abuse emerge, they are quickly weaponised. But abuse is not confined to one community or place, whether the streets of Rotherham or the apartments of Manhattan, the common denominator is men. Not all men, but nearly always men. Despite decades of progress, some men still believe we exist to serve them.
I feel angry. I know many of you will too. Because while the lives of the men named in these files may feel distant, the experiences do not. Women know what it is like to be afraid of a man - real fear. I know that feeling. We all do.
So what do we do? Whenever we write emails like this, we get that question. We can’t be in a continual state of despair.
First, we must end the institutional cover-up of abuse: across the military, policing, politics, the media, and the monarchy. Men are not just protected; they are promoted. People often know about this behaviour for decades before it becomes public. And still, institutions prioritise power, contacts and reputation over integrity and safety.
There must be real consequences for allowing abuse to go unchallenged. Not the loss of a title or a gold plated pension, but legal accountability. Abuse is too often downgraded to “sleaze” or “reputational risk”. That language diminishes the reality of what women and girls endure. It is not “risky”. It is immoral.
Many of the perpetrators will continue to live lives of extraordinary privilege, just with fewer party invitations. We will never make real progress if we focus only on scandals, rather than the systems that put such men in positions of power.
This is the work I am determined Fawcett must keep doing: tackling structural misogyny and naming how it continues to shape women’s lives. As the world pushes back against so-called “woke” and equality work, the truth remains: institutions continue to enable or ignore the abuse of women and girls. The fight is far from over.
We stand in solidarity with women and girls.
