It’s been another successful year for Bristol Women’s Voice, once in which we have continued to campaign, connect and celebrate with women in Bristol, calling for change to support greater equity.
Our 2024/25 Annual Report captures our key achievements, overall performance and plans for the future.
Campaigning
Between April 2024 and March 2025, Bristol Women’s Voice delivered transformative work across multiple campaigns and projects, reaching hundreds of women across the city’s diverse communities.
Our flagship Value the Caring Economy Campaign amplified the voices of unpaid carers through 16 workshops delivered in partnership with the Caring Economy Alliance.
From October 2024, we collaborated with LampLighter Arts CIC to deliver 10 citywide lantern-making workshops, enabling over 200 women to express their experiences as carers through art.
We partnered with Carers Support to address food inequality, hosting joint Food Equality sessions that supported 201 people over nine weeks.
The Younger Women’s Forum grew as a creative, action-focused space for women aged 18-30, delivering 23 workshops and engaging 52 young women across the year. Through craftivism sessions, participants created banners and messages displayed publicly in Queen Square. The collaborative project “In Our Image” explored young women’s safety in Bristol, exhibiting at City Hall during International Women’s Day.
We also delivered creative workshops, “If Mothers Told the Stories” and “Feminist Leadership in Practice for Over-55s”, hosted two political hustings, connecting women to decision-makers, and participated in key forums, including the Cost of Living Coordination Group, Employers’ subgroup of the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategic Group and the Police Women’s Independent Advisory Group.
Connecting
Our commitment to fostering connection and dialogue continued through diverse member events and initiatives.
In June 2024, our Summer Members Event in Queen Square brought together women of all ages for meaningful conversations about feminist resistance. The event debuted our “Feminist Line of Resistance,” where participants shared small acts of everyday resistance in fabric pouches. This powerful installation evolved throughout the year, appearing at Bristol Pride and community festivals as the “Feminist Tree of Resistance.”
By the end of 2024, we had collected hundreds of contributions, culminating in a collaborative mural with Bristol artist Imogen Donegan at People’s Republic of Stokes Croft for International Women’s Day.
Our Winter Members’ Event in December facilitated intergenerational dialogue through World Café-style discussions, exploring pressing issues facing women in Bristol and identifying opportunities for future action. These events consistently demonstrated high impact, with 91% of summer participants reporting increased awareness of their rights.
Celebrating
Our International Women’s Day celebration on 8 March 2025 was our largest and most powerful event to date, welcoming 1,557 people through the doors of City Hall. Visitors were welcomed with a striking display of red dresses created by the Red Dress Crafters adorning the ramps to City Hall, serving as a powerful reminder of male violence against women and girls.
Our training and consultancy also work continued with Avon Fire and Rescue Service, First Bus, NHS, and Mulberry Bush, while Quartet Resilience funding enabled development of online training and popular gender allyship cards.
Looking Forward
Going into 2025-2026, we want to deepen our relationship with women in diverse communities and will co-create a community engagement strategy with our members to explore how we can go about this.
Much of our current funding ends in 2025/2026 and so we have the opportunity to take stock, examine what’s working and where we want to grow as we develop our next three-to-five-year strategy for working with for great equity in Bristol.
We will continue to use creative and craftivist methodologies to amplify women’s voices, and to focus on intergenerational storytelling and connections to share wisdom and support the growth of united movements for change.