Nine Women Elected were Inspired by 50:50!
At least nine of the women elected have been directly inspired by our work!
50:50 Congratulate the 220 women who have won seats in this election!
50:50 also say a big thank you to all those inspirational women who were prepared to stand. More than 50 were inspired by 50:50 they are leading the way!
Women have been signing up to stand via the 50:50 website in record numbers, we now have over 1000 women registered who want to stand!
Please JOIN 50:50 here (it is free to participate!)
Massive congratulations to nine women who have been inspired by 50:50's work and gone on to win seats in the Commons:
Rosie Duffield, Gillian Keegan, Virginia Crosie, Theo Clarke, Angela Richardson, Siobhan Baille, Claire Coutinho, Wendy Chamberlain and Joy Morrissey.
2 are returning and 7 are new to the corridors of power. Thanks to all of them for attending 50:50 events and supporting our campaign either as mentors or Ambassadors!
It is FANTASTIC that 220 women are now MPs. However, with only twelve more women gaining seats than in 2017 it will take decades to for women to have equal seats and an equal say in running the country and planning the future. So our work to build a better democracy continues.
Representation shapes policy and 50:50 want a Parliament that draws upon the widest possible pool of talent and experience, including that of the 32 million UK women.
A total of 1121 women were selected to stand in this election, an all time high, up by 168 on 2017. More than 50 of these women had been inspired by 50:50. This is a testament to the importance of our inspirational #AskHerToStand and #SignUpToStand programmes.
It is disappointing that only 20% of all the women who stood in this election won seats. It is clear that women need to be given more opportunities to contest winnable seats.
Labour have been leading the way in recruiting women to Westminster. It is fantastic that there are 104 women in the Parliamentary Labour Party, accounting for 51% of their MPs. This reflects true gender equality of representation! The SNP have 16 women MPs, 33% of their total and 7 of the 11 Lib Dem MPs are women.
On the government benches women are outnumbered 3:1. The Conservatives have 87 women, up 20 on 2017 but still only 24% of their MPs. Boris Johnson has announced the “biggest drive” to recruit female Tory activists, members and candidates and pledged to make 50% of future Tory candidates women, recognising that “talent and brilliance is equally distributed, but opportunity is not”.
Clearly much more work needs to be done.
Help us build a better democracy!
50:50 urges everyone to use our website to ask women to stand so that we can inspire them and support them along the path to Parliament.
Record numbers of women have been going on to #SignUpToStand via the 50:50 website during this election, we now have over 1000 women registered. 50:50 are setting up the New Girls Network, a system of buddies to mentor and monitor these women’s progress along the path to Parliament. We are creating personal profiles and providing guidance to each of them.
50:50 Parliament will continue our work to encourage and inspire women to stand with our #AskHerToStand and #SignUpToStand campaigns. We will work with all the political parties to empower women into politics. Our #NewGirlsNetwork will support women to elected office so that women get better representation at the next election.
Read Wendy Chamberlain's Story here:
Wendy Chamberlain MP - Inspired by 50:50
Thanks everyone who has signed up to the 50:50 Petition!
Together we are creating change!!