The Great Initiative was founded by journalist and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, international lawyer Jason McCue and performer and writer Karen Ruimy in 2009. They set up Great because they recognised that there was a role for an organisation campaigning specifically for gender equality. There are lots of women’s groups doing wonderful work for women’s rights and empowerment, and increasingly ma
ny men’s groups are springing up too, but there was no one who looked at the full picture and considered how women and men could be engaged in the movement for gender equality. We have strong networks and we aim to use our voice to campaign for change. GREAT’s vision is a world where men and women have an equal chance to thrive. Our unique approach is founded on our belief that the best route to equality is through working with both men and women. We are a catalyst for change – encouraging debate, influencing policy and challenging established attitudes. Over the years The Gender Rights and Equalities Action Trust – GREAT – has built a reputation for tackling gender inequality in innovative ways and for bringing the issue to the many people who think it ‘doesn’t apply to them’. Our Great Men Value Women campaign, for example, works with teenage boys to give them space to discuss what they want masculinity to mean and the tools to challenge those stereotypes they are often required to conform to. "Why is so much of the current agenda about women as victims and men as perpetrators, about playing a blame game instead of building a global movement of women and men fighting together? The GREAT Initiative was set up to be the catalyst for change. We want to be a trigger, a movement that pushes forward the gender equality debate. The time is running out for millions of people across the globe and we have to act now."
- Mariella Frostrup
