Equality Starts at Home was set up by four women (Founding Sisters see below) from the UK and the US following a speech at the Aspire Re-imagination Conference in June 2020.
It is early days and we aim to build a movement for change. We believe that equality at home will enable women to fulfil their potential and will ultimately create a better society for all. We also believe in diversity, inclusion and anti-discrimination in all its forms.
Who we are
Equality Starts at Home was set up by four women (Our Co-Founders) from the UK and the US following a speech at the Aspire Re-imagination Conference in June 2020.
We aim to build a movement for change. We believe that equality at home will enable women to fulfil their potential and will ultimately create a better society for all. We also believe in diversity, inclusion and anti-discrimination in all its forms.
Trustees
Clare Twelvetrees: Chair & Co-Founder
Clare is a leader in the international development sector and currently Director of Strategy and Performance at Brooke. Equality Starts at Home was formed after giving her speech about equality post COVID-19 at the Aspire Re-imagination conference in June 2020. Clare has worked on a range of issues including women’s empowerment specifically as Interim CEO at the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. She is also Trustee for Age International. She is passionate about equality at home and believes it has helped her and her partner challenge stereotypes, achieve their potential and be positive role models to their children.
Jackie Carter: Co-Founder
Jackie Carter is a professor of statistical literacy at the University of Manchester. She is also a National Teaching Fellow and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Jackie is driven by her desire to open educational opportunities to all, and to open doors to the workplace for those from less advantaged and under represented groups. She has spent over a quarter of a century teaching school children to corporates how to become statistically literate. In a world awash with data her mission is to enable citizens to critically evaluate the numbers they encounter. Jackie’s recent work has taken her to Latin America. She is working with schools, colleges and universities as well as civil society in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil to help train those who both produce and consume statistical data. All of her recent work is framed by the SDGs.
Frances Goodrum: Special Advisor - Campaigns
Frances Goodrum is a senior campaigns professional in the charity sector. She currently leads External Affairs at Brooke Action for Working Horses and Donkeys, her previous roles include Head of Campaigns at Dogs Trust and Campaign Manager at World Animal Protection where she coordinated global One Health rabies and dog population management campaigns.
Jago Brown: Special Advisor - Men's role in the Home
Jago works in international education as Commercial Director of UKLC, a business organising English language travel opportunities to under 18’s. He is a board trustee of the national association for language travel, English UK. He’s a father of 3, working parent, dad advocate and has been a stay-at-home parent. He has a passion for normalising the role men have in childcare, unpaid work and emotional labour in the home. He is currently working with Lead5050, an organisation promoting equality in leadership, leading their ‘Men 4 Equality’ campaign to get more men to join the conversation about gender equality.
Catherine McArthur: Special Advisor & Thirdshift Founder
Catherine McArthur is a leader in the tech for good sector and currently Chief Product Officer at Worker Feedback Club. Coming from a background working in politics, public policy and building B2B SaaS software businesses, Catherine Founded ThirdShift in 2020 to address gender inequality at a household level by developing practical tools to help households better share unpaid household and care work. Catherine created many of the tools for households that makeup the ESAH Resource Hub and continues to work to find better solutions to gender inequality at home, at work and systemically.
Rita Kakati-Shah: Strategic Adviser
Rita is a sought-after global speaker and thought leader in gender equality, diversity and inclusion, which stemmed from her life’s experiences and journey as a mother. She is the Founder and CEO of Uma, a strategic diversity and inclusion coaching, consultancy and training platform, that empowers confidence, leadership and resilience in women and minorities around the world. Rita is also a Distinguished Alumna of King’s College London, serves on the Advisory Council of King’s Business School, and has won many international awards in recognition of her work as a business leader, entrepreneur and pioneer in empowering women and girls, youth development and diversity and inclusion. Rita started her career on the equities trading floor of Goldman Sachs in London where she spent a decade before transitioning into the CNS clinical trials and drug development industry. She is also a frequent media contributor, author, and advisor to Fortune 500 companies, serving on multiple boards and committees around the world.
Advisers & Co-Founders
Lesley Macniven: Co-Founder
Organisational Development, Diversity & Inclusion consultant and mum of two Lesley underwent a mid-life revamp in 2015. As a writer, coach and campaigner, her non-fiction work-in-progress ‘This Woman’s Work’ exploring equality of opportunity at work and equality in the home, was long-listed in the 2020 Myriad Editions First Graphic Novel Competition. After contracting Covid19, Lesley joined the LongCovid.Org UK team campaigning for for recognition, research and rehab for the now 28,000 strong patient support group, before co-founding Long Covid Scotland. Interviewed on Radio 4’s Women’s Hour, Lesley discussed the disproportionate impact of Covid19 on women. As more women experience prolonged symptoms than men, are their role as carers impacting their ability to recover?
Venise Vinegar: Co-Founder
Venise went from job loss to South Africa in 2017, which led her to a career pivot from the entertainment industry into the field of education to find ways to give back to underserved and economically challenged communities utilizing her knowledge and work/life experience. It is her belief that lack of quality education is the number one underlying cause of systemic racism and inequality in the world; and that finding our gifts, talents and expertise at the earliest age possible will break that cycle. Venise is working on a self-help career development book of curated best practices for finding passion, purpose and dream jobs. She is first-time co-author on the newly released book anthology: WOMEN INSPIRING NATIONS - I’m Still Standing,” a #1 Best Seller in Motivational Self-Help on Amazon (January 2021). Her favorite catch phrase is "when we know better we do better." She believes quality education is what will bring about the change that is needed in the world to make it a better place, and that change starts at home.
Niamh McGarry: Strategic Adviser
Having studied and worked in cities across Europe, Niamh has taken the opportunity to move home to the West of Ireland now that her work can mostly be done remotely. Niamh has worked in health & social sciences research for over 10 years and is passionate about giving a voice to those who are often excluded or ignored. As Director of Research at Clearview Research, Niamh oversees a number of projects that affect marginalised communities both in the UK and more widely. She is an advocate of co-production, where decisions about public policy or services are made in collaboration with the people these decisions will ultimately impact. She strongly believes in the power of people coming together to create positive change and is very excited about the difference we can all make as part of Equality Starts at Home.
Helen Unwin: Strategic Adviser
Helen left the corporate world in 2019 to set up her Life & Confidence Coaching business. n her earlier career Helen worked in major organisations simplifying their digital and customer experience. She is a passionate advocate for equality at work and home, as all too often she sees main carer roles taken on by women, pushing them to take on too much, causing stress, frustration and mental health issues. in 2021 Helen was introduced to the world of ADHD through a family diagnosis and now offers ADHD Coaching to support those with Executive Functioning difficulties in leading a less stressful and overwhelmed life.
Rachel Akiboye: Director
With over ten years of experience in the charity sector and creative industries, Rachel currently works in Business Development for a London-based film production company.
Rachel’s unwavering passion for diversity and equality has seen her become a mentor for young adults currently looking for employment and she is also a trustee for a medical racial equality charity. Utilising her background in digital marketing and account management, Rachel enjoys helping organisations grow and reach their full potential.
Alle Bloom: Social Media Coordinator
Alle is a Research Associate at the University of Manchester where she works with the UK Data Service to provide support and training to researchers who want to understand,access and utilise social science data. She is passionate about the power statistics have to highlight gendered inequalities and the stories they can lead us to tell. Outside of work, she has spent over 10 years volunteering with Girlguiding UK, working to inspire and empower young women to find their voice and become confident members of their communities. She is excited to be assisting with such an important project.
Catreya Mably: Events and Stakeholder Coordinator
Catreya is a trained facilitator and final-year Liberal Arts student at the University of Bristol, where her research focuses on women in the public sphere. As the chair of Women4Resources, a Swansea-based charity, Catreya has worked with women in Wales and Africa to offer the right resources to those who need them. This work has included hosting an international group of girls aged 11-22, placing young people at the forefront of discussions about equality. Her main objective is to bring conversations around equality in the home to Gen-Z’s attention, rewiring pre-existing expectations of their future home dynamics and offering a framework by which to plan out an equal home/work relationship.
We believe inequality in the home is holding women back from achieving their full potential
Help needed!
We are currently recruiting two volunteer positions to help us shape the next phase in our development - a Digital Officer and Fundraising Governance and Impact Officer.
Anyone interested with a few hours a week to spare - please drop us a line at:
