Barriers for women in standing for Parliament

Debate initiated by Mims Davies MP on the motion “That this House has considered barriers for women in standing for Parliament.” The debate will take place in Westminster Hall on Wednesday 13 September 2017 at 2.30pm.

It is now nearly one hundred years since women could be elected to sit in the House of Commons. In that time a total of 489 women have elected to the House. In January 2017 the Women and Equalities published a report on representation of women in the House and noted that:

If the Commons is serious about being truly representative of the people it seeks to represent, it must rise to the challenge of being a world leader on women’s parliamentary representation.

In recent years several reports have examined issues relating to increasing the number of women in Parliament. This debate pack briefly highlights those recent reports and some of the themes that have been raised.