Latest thinking
Celebrating Women MPs: Lydia’s Speech
Girlguiding Advocate Lydia, 16, gave this speech at our Celebrating Women MPs event in Parliament in June 2023. My name is Lydia, and I am a sixteen-year-old Girlguiding...
Celebrating Women MPs: Niamah’s speech
Girlguiding Advocate Niamah, 17, gave this speech at our Celebrating Women MPs event in Parliament in June 2023. My name is Niamah, I'm seventeen, and I'm an advocate for...
Thelma Cazalet-Keir: An early pioneer for equal pay who took on Churchill and won
Barbara Castle has long been hailed as the politician who delivered equal pay for women but she was not the first to bring it about. In 1944 Conservative MP, Thelma...
Jacqui Smith: Celebrating the first woman Home Secretary
Natasa Pantelic works for a Labour MP and founded the Labour Women’s Parliamentary Staff Network. She reflects on the achievements of Jacqui Smith, the first woman Home...
How playing for the parliamentary women’s football team helps get stuff done: Thoughts on being a woman MP by Wendy Chamberlain MP
We spoke to Wendy Chamberlain MP to get an insight into what life is like as a woman MP. Wendy Chamberlain is the Liberal Democrat MP for North East Fife and she currently...
The woman MP who inspires me: Shirley Williams MP
In this blog Girlguiding advocate Katie, 17, shares the woman MP who inspires her. A woman MP who inspires me is the late Baroness Shirley Williams, who, among many other...
The women MPs who inspire me: Barbara Castle MP and Anum Qaisar MP
In this blog Girlguiding advocate Megan, 21, shares the MPs who have inspired her. Representation within politics is an important issue. A diverse range of policymakers with...
The women MPs who inspire me: Claire Hanna MP and Nadia Whittome MP
In this blog Girlguiding Advocate Eibhlinn, 17, shares which women MPs have inspired her. There are so many inspirational women MPs today, from across the political spectrum and...
Women chairs of select committees; inspiring others to lead
In this blog Natasa Pantelic, Founder of the Labour Women's Parliamentary Staff Network, shares insights about the important work women are doing leading House of Commons Select...
Showing girls that politics is for them too: challenging gender stereotyping, in and through education
Telling girls from a young age that politics is for them and showing them role models is vital to getting more women into public life. We're delighted that Caren Gestetner, Chief...
‘Stand up, speak up and make your mark’ Why we need more voices from women of colour in our public life
Getting more women into parliament, and public life in general, is our key mission. But we also want to be sure that women in all their diversity are properly represented. We...
Putting aside party politics to deliver results – how women MPs collaborate to make change happen
We know that having more women MPs brings real benefits to Parliament - the way it functions, the issues it discusses and the resulting legislation that gets passed with its...
Celebrating women MPs – some of the history makers
As we approach the 95th anniversary of The Representation of the People Act, which gave women the right to vote on the same terms as men, we are #celebratingwomenMPs and all they...
Getting there – bottoms on green benches
In this blog Rachel Palma Randle, CEO of Scottish Liberal Democrats, reflects on the work being done in her party to increase the numbers of women candidates and what more needs to be done to get more women elected.
Women Count in Local and Regional Politics Too
In this blog Jessie Joe Jacobs reflects on women’s representation in local and regional politics. Jessie Joe Jacobs is the Director of the Democracy Network and ran to be Tees Valley Mayor in 2021.
Tackling the abuse of politicians with the Jo Cox Civility Commission
In this blog Su Moore, CEO of the Jo Cox Foundation, shares the work being done to tackle the abuse of politicians by the Jo Cox Civility Commission.
A House for Everyone: A Case for Modernising Parliament
In this blog Lizzie Ville, Senior Policy and Research Officer at the Fawcett Society, shares insights from her recent research project on the experiences of women MPs and what...
Making Herstory – Transforming women’s representation in the Scottish Greens
In this blog Laura Moodie, Co-Convener of the National Council of Scottish Greens, outlines the work done to transform women’s representation in the Scottish Green party.
Disabled women need better representation in parliament
Following publication of the Centenary Action's report, Overcoming the barriers to disabled women’s involvement in politics, Dr. Sarabajaya Kumar, Centenary Action Steering Group...
Mum’s the word
In this blog Dr Sarah Crook explores how the decision to ban babies from parliament is symbolic of a wider failure to support parents.
A version of this article first appeared in the Autumn 2022 edition of the Fabian Review.
A hand that gives: representation of women of colour in politics
In this blog Hannah Francis, Unbound Trainee at the Runnymede Trust, looks at the history of political representation for women of colour and considers what still needs to change.
Why now – more than ever – we must ask women to stand for parliament
Dolly Theis is the co-founder of 50:50 Parliament's #AskHerToStand Campaign. In this article for Conservative Home she explains why now, more than ever, we must ask women to...
What can we learn from the 2019 general election about female representation?
In this blog Dr Sofia Collignon analyses the data from 2019 and shares her conclusions. When the General Election was called in November 2019 around 20 women from different...
Why legally binding gender quotas are essential
In this blog Evelyn James, a campaigner for Diverse 5050 at Women’s Equality Network (WEN) Wales, which pushes for equal and diverse representation for women in leadership in...