'Digital campaigns on women's rights are most likely to win'

Petitions on women’s rights are the most successful UK campaigns, according to Change.org, which has five million users in the UK.

The global campaigning website has found that more than a quarter of its UK users who have signed a petition, which has gone on to achieve its aim, focussed on women's rights.

Some of the most successful campaigns include the Women On Banknotes push, championed by Caroline Criado-Perez, which has seen the Bank of England confirm that Jane Austen will be pictured on a banknote.

_{Jennifer Dulski and Emma Barnett, Telegraph Women's editor, speaking at the event}

Jennifer Dulski, president and chief operating officer of Change.org, spoke last night in London at an event co-hosted by Telegraph Wonder Women and the campaigns site. She said: “We do win lots of petitions on lots of causes and here in the UK we see many of them on women’s rights.”

Other popular issues in the UK include animals, human rights, education, health, economic justice, the environment, LGBT equality, food and criminal justice.

She explained that here in the UK petitions about women are more likely to succeed than they are globally.

On top of that, campaigns that get a backing of more than 1,000 people are mostly started by women.

“Women are less likely to start a petition, but more likely to win,” said Dulski. “I think there are three reasons why women are so effective.

“First of all, they’re really good storytellers, they’re a little bit more willing to share their own personal story. Two, they’re really good mobilisers. They have good networks that are willing to help them. And they’re just persistent.”

_{Jennifer Dulski}

But she explained that even though women are more successful campaigners than men on the site, their confidence levels are not as high.

“At the beginning when you ask them the likelihood of whether they’ll win, they’ll say they’re not sure,” she said.

“But the thing about women is they just don’t give up. Once they start, they are in it for the long haul. We see them just continuing to go and to try, that’s why they win.”

More than 70 per cent of the signatures across the UK site come from women, and Dulski explained that women campaign on every issue that matters to them, from education to children-related concerns.

“The other thing we see is they inspire many, many other petition starters,” she said.

“People look at them and say, well if that person can do it - this person is a teenage girl who is an immigrant or comes from a background that traditionally wouldn’t have a lot of power – if she could win then so could I.”

Change.org defines a victory as when the decision maker to whom a petition is addresses agrees to make the change asked for.

Globally, 25 million people have signed winning petitions and 40 per cent of those petitions have been won with less than 200 signatures.

Would you start a campaign? What would it be on? Tell us @telewonderwomen

*Storify created by Caitlin McDonald