Feminise Politics Now! (FPN) is a movement infrastructure collective. We create networks and co-produce projects, research, strategies, resources and events with a feminist lens, intervening in moments of ‘fracture’ or growth in progressive organisations.
We exist to strengthen the democratic and organising capacity of the labour and social movement, using tried-and-tested models of care, cooperation, participation, democracy, and cadre building (or, the ability to cultivate skilled cohorts of leaders) as central practices. We are not consultants ‘above the movement’ but activists embedded deeply within it.
We believe this is not ‘a nice thing to do’; it is essential, and strategic, rebuilding the wide layer of working class leaders we need to organise the fightback in our communities and workplaces.
What is feminising politics?
if feminism is the belief in equal rights of people of all genders, and a set of movements oriented towards the liberation of all groups subordinated by the patriarchy, feminising politics is a strategy concerned with embedding ‘feminist’ modes of organising – e.g. care, cooperation, participation, democracy, anti-oppression, and collective leadership – into movement building. We believe it is ultimately more effective, building resilient cultures, processes and organising practices for tackling the crises we face.
What have we achieved?
- Run three movement-wide, eight-week courses
- Worked with over 50 organisations
- Run 10 events, including an organising weekend, as well as standalone workshops and festival sessions
- Built a network of over 400 members, supporting each other to implement ongoing change in their organisations
- Produced a collectively written resource
- UPCOMING: organised a year-long targeted proect with eight trade unions
Our Origins and Values
We are inspired by different movements geared towards longer-term movement sustainability and transformative change, including the European Municipalist ‘Fearless Cities’ movement, and Feminise Politics Now! booklet (from where we take our name!), Emergent Strategy, and work dismantling White Supremacy Culture. We:
- Are committed to power-sharing – we believe that power needs to be built and held accountable by a diverse array of groups for our movements to be at their most powerful
- Are pre-figurative – where we are going cannot be divorced from how we get there – we believe in the need to emulate the culture we are trying to create
- Are contradictory – we recognise we are part of and reproduce the systems and processes we are trying to change
- Are not afraid of conflict (it’s an opportunity, not a threat!)
- Believe everyone has something to contribute – we need to grow our movements and build wider layers of leaders – so we need to find ways to practise radical accessibility and make our organising regenerative
- Believe we are part of a ‘Movement Ecology’ – we are not solo agents but part of a wider eco-system
- Are collaborative and iterative – we are at our most powerful when we work together, and we learn best from the lessons of our peers. No one is the expert but we each contain small pieces of the puzzle
- Want to achieve our organisational goals! Committing to the above isn’t a ‘nice thing to do’ – it’s a more sustainable strategic way to organise. We need to rethink how we see success and acknowledge there are no quick fixes.
“A transformative course – it completely changed how we operate. We were losing activists and losing our purpose. This course taught us to slow down, and our projects are now intentionally creating more capacity in our organisation, as per our strategy”
Grassroots organisation from 2022 course
“We’ve just gone through a big restructure. Having time to come together as a team to reflect on that experience, and about our hopes and challenges in this new world is incredibly healthy. I’ve got a clear picture about a plan of action for how we can play to everyone’s strengths and build everyone’s skills and resilience. We really appreciated the session and the work that is ahead of us.”
Save the Children, strategy project, 2025
Feminise Politics Now! 