Women in Westminster: In Conversation with Joeli Brearley
After being unfairly dismissed from her job while pregnant Joeli Brearley channelled her anger into action and founded the campaigning organisation Pregnant then Screwed. As part of our Women in Westminster series, PoliticsHome sat down with Brearley, to learn more about why she believes her campaigning has struck a chord with working mothers across the nation
At the start of our sit down conversation, Joeli Brearley tells PoliticsHome that she was “never particularly interested in politics” as a young woman. She certainly did not set out to be a high-profile political campaigner. Instead, she says, she regarded the world of Westminster as “distant and remote” – as having little to do with the daily realities of her professional life.
However, all of that changed when Brearley told her then boss that she was pregnant and was unfairly dismissed from her job. The fury and anger generated in that moment spurred her into action. In 2015 Brearley founded Pregnant then Screwed with an ambition to end the “motherhood penalty” and provide a voice for working mothers across the UK.
Since 2015, much has changed. The organisation has grown from a one-woman campaign into both a larger charity and a wider movement. However, what has stayed consistent is the very real sense of anger and injustice that led to its initial creation.
Brearley believes that the organic way that the organisation was founded and has subsequently grown is a core part of what has made it so successful.
“I didn't go into Pregnant then Screwed with a plan or a strategy,” she recalls to PoliticsHome. “I just felt so angry and felt like these stories needed to be exposed and told. All I had was a name and the need to tell my story and other women's stories. I built it from there.”
What Brearley has built is truly impressive. Pregnant then Screwed has achieved an impact that may be the envy of many bigger and better-resourced campaigning organisations. In 2023, the charity provided tailored support to over 83,000 women, and their work was mentioned in Parliament every 12 days.
As she recollects those early days, it is clear that Brearley views the organic development of the campaign as a strength rather than a weakness. Rather than coming to the role with a background in political campaigning, Brearley instead leveraged a wealth of experience from other sectors.
In particular, Brearley brought a fearlessness of approach, something that she believes stemmed in part from her professional background in a tech sector that encourages risk-taking. That courage to try different things has been a hallmark of the Pregnant then Screwed approach since day one.
Brearley also explains that there was another key lesson that she borrowed from the world of tech - the importance of maintaining a relentless focus on the people she was trying to help.
“In technology, remembering the end user is an important part of the process,” she tells us. “That is what I went into Pregnant then Screwed with. It was always all about the women who had experienced those issues. Building something for them was the priority, not simply building something.”
That focus on the end-user has been the cornerstone of Pregnant then Screwed’s campaigning success. Brearley has managed to tap into the anger experienced by millions of UK women and given them a voice. It is the reason that the organisation has achieved such “cut through” with politicians and the public alike.
It is striking that, throughout our conversation, Brearley rarely talks about the “organisation” she founded and still heads. Instead, she speaks much more about the “community” of women that she works for and speaks on behalf of.
“Our primary focus was always on building that community,” she explains. “That has enabled us to create a movement which is actually incredibly rare and really hard to do.”
Ready and rapid access to that community means that Pregnant then Screwed has the enviable ability to mobilise a vast number of ordinary women very quickly. That mass engagement has made the changes that Pregnant then Screwed campaigns for almost impossible for politicians to ignore. Brearley gives the example of the 2023 “March of the Mummies,” which saw 15,000 angry mothers on the street demanding action.
“There was so much anger and hurt and joy in all of the faces,” she says as she remembers the pride she felt on that day. “It was a wonderful outlet for people who had felt so much fury about being ignored.”
The March of the Mummies was far more than an expression of anger, however. It also had real impact on policy. Shortly after the march took place, the government announced £5.2bn of new investment in childcare, a lobbying win that Pregnant then Screwed certainly helped to achieve.
Brearley sees a clear thread that connects a mobilised community to political action and ultimately to impact. It is people power in action, and it seems to be working – with discussions of childcare featuring prominently in debates leading up to the recent election.
“Politicians listen to you because you have this community of hundreds of thousands of parents at your fingertips,” she says. “When they see 15,000 angry mothers with their babies strapped to their fronts, coming out on the street, demanding some sort of change, then that is undoubtedly going to cut through to the corridors of Westminster.”
The progress that Pregnant then Screwed has made in a short time in placing the voices of working mothers at the heart of policy discussions is remarkable. However, Brearley has no intention of stopping pushing for further much-needed change.
It is a challenge she clearly relishes and a battle she believes she can help win.
“You can't do this work without being optimistic,” she says. “Change is messy and complicated. Things never go from a horrendous mess to perfect. There's got to be steps along the way. I'm very comfortable with the mess and the chaos in between. As long as we're constantly moving forward.”
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