The first elected female MP to take up her seat in the Westminster Parliament was Nancy Astor in 1919. Margaret Bondfield was the first female member of the cabinet in 1929. Almost a century on they would likely be surprised at how few women have followed in their footsteps.
The 2010 general election saw the highest ever number of women (143) elected to Parliament — but that represents just 22% of the House of Commons, relative to 51% of the population. As Figure 1 shows, the big leap in the number of female MPs — adoubling to 120 — came in 1997 with ‘Blair’s babes’. The largest numbers of female MPs are still representatives of the Labour Party, although there was an increase in Conservative female MPs in 2010. Of those Labour MPs elected in 2010, almost 34% were female, as opposed to just less than 16% of Conservative MPs and only 12% of Liberal Democrat MPs.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
