Why it’s time the Labour Party elected a woman leader

If you’re reading this, the chances are you’re proud to be a member of the Labour Party. I am too. I’m proud of our values and our record in successive governments. But while I’m hesitant to criticise the party that I love, there is one thing which I’m not remotely proud of: we have never elected a woman as our leader.

Despite leading the fight for gender equality for the past century, we’ve never actually bestowed our trust in a woman to lead our party. Harriet Harman and Margaret Beckett have both done the job on an interim basis, but a woman has never won a leadership contest or even come close. The election unfolding before our eyes is starkly different than others gone before. Three out of four declared candidates are women – it’s suddenly conceivable that we could welcome a woman as leader at our conference later this year.

There’s no doubt that the Labour Party is the party of equality. We have always stood up for marginalised groups and we’ve done more than any other party to make Parliament more representative of the people it serves. There’s been a lot of debate over the past couple of weeks about the direction we should take (and there’s plenty more to come!) but one thing I’m sure we can all agree on is that we need to do politics differently.

In recent years, women in the UK have become less likely to vote than men. We are less likely to describe ourselves as being interested in politics or claim to know anything about the subject. A woman as Labour leader would help us demonstrate to voters that we take women seriously and help win back the support of those who have little reason to think that modern politicians speak for them.

Whether we like it or not, UK elections are becoming increasingly presidential. Voters are looking at the party leaders far more than their local candidates. While Labour Party members know full well how good our record is on getting talented women MPs elected and promoted, the message still doesn’t get through to everyone.

When the faces the public see over and over again are predominately those of male party leaders, it’s unsurprising that many women feel distant from politics. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels uneasy when the Tories site Thatcher’s rise to power as a victory for women in politics. While Labour Party leaders and Prime Ministers have done more to champion women than Thatcher ever did, the facts remain clear: the Tories elected a woman to lead their party in 1975 and, in the forty years since, we have failed to do the same.

Our party has an incredible record on women’s rights. We played a pivotal role in giving women the vote and passing The Equal Pay Act and The Abortion Act and our implementation of all women shortlists has meant there are now more women MPs in the House of Commons than ever before. Surely it’s time we took the final leap and gave a woman a crack at the top job.