1997 was a watershed moment for women in Labour, but there is more to do

Labour did badly in the 1987 general election. The only crumb of comfort was the increase in the number of Labour women elected to the House of Commons. Up by 110% from ten to 21. Now, that was something to celebrate, and we did – until the former Labour cabinet minister Barbara Castle put things into perspective by remarking, witheringly: “21? My dear, that’s how many we had in 1945!”

She was right, of course. For four decades, Labour women had made no progress whatsoever in securing parliamentary seats. In fact, in the eleven general elections held between 1950 and 1983, their numbers had stayed consistently low, never getting above 19. Clearly something had to be done and quickly. But, what? Labour in the 1980s was a difficult and divided movement.

Women’s representation, although acknowledged to be a good thing, was not high on its members’ list of priorities. Its candidate selection procedures were dominated by trade union and local council interests, which were almost entirely male. Whilst these undoubtedly empowered many working-class men, they did little to promote women of any class at all. This denied Labour women access to the training and networks that would have allowed them to gain the political experience and financial backing necessary to fight a selection.

The only possible answer to a ‘what’s to be done?’ question is for the people asking it to get organised. This is exactly what the late Jean Black and Barbara Roche alongside ourselves did when we set up Labour Women’s Network (LWN) in 1988. Over the next four years, this entirely voluntary organisation, devotedly administered by the late Val Price, did everything it could to help Labour women overcome what it saw as the three main barriers to their selection as parliamentary candidates: the predominantly male culture of the party; women’s lack of confidence within this culture; and women’s disproportionately high caring responsibilities.

The most vital tool was information. LWN’s booklet, Uphill All the Way – a step-by-step guide for women to the labyrinthine process of applying for public office – was, we later found, used by quite a few men too. Training, mentoring and getting help with childcare were also important. These, plus innumerable encouraging phone calls and the work done by the Parliamentary Women’s Committee and other organisations made a real difference. Although Labour did not win the 1992 general election, once again the number of Labour women on the green benches rose. This time from 21 to 37 – a 76% increase.

In 1993, the drive to select a record number of Labour women to fight the next general election was helped by the party’s adoption, under John Smith’s leadership, of all-women shortlists in half of its key marginal seats. Even though these were declared illegal by an industrial tribunal three years later, the party managed to select women in 50% of its marginal seats and in a significant minority of seats where the sitting MP was retiring.

All this hard work came together early on the morning of May 2nd, 1997, when we and most of the country watched the political and gender composition of parliament change before our eyes. Of the 418 Labour MPs elected on May 1st, 1997, a record 101 of them were women. By contrast, only 13 of the Conservatives’ 165 MPs were women. It was a watershed moment for women’s parliamentary representation in the UK and, for the first time ever, just under a quarter or 24% of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) was female.

25 years and six general elections later that figure has risen to just over half, or 52% of the PLP. This huge achievement, which owed much to LWN, brought with it a new challenge because it fulfilled one of the conditions of sunset clause built into legislation passed in 2002, which allowed the re-introduction of all-women shortlists. This stipulated that once women accounted for over half of Labour’s parliamentary representation, positive action should no longer be used.

One barrier, the shortage of female role models in parliament had been removed for Labour women but others remained and with the first round of selections due to start in the late spring of 2022, LWN redoubled its efforts to get the process made shorter and put a cap on candidate’s expenditure. This campaign has, thankfully, been successful. The process remains costly in terms of time and resources for a lot of would-be candidates, however.

Labour is the leading party in terms of women’s representation. This is at least partly due to LWN’s continuing support for women candidates. As Dame Diana Johnson DBE MP, now chair of the home affairs select committee, recalled: “1997 was a sea change moment. Progress had been at snail’s pace; this was a giant leap. Without Labour Women’s Network’s support, many of us wouldn’t have been there. The training sharpened our chances of selection, and the sense of sisterhood kept us going through to our election and beyond.”

Over the years, the diversity of Labour women MPs has increased and, although there is still much to be done, the visual difference between the 101 elected in 1997 and the 104 elected in 2019 is striking. This has been achieved, not only by positive action, but also by LWN’s continued training and support. Over a third of Labour’s current female MPs have benefited from this, including Thangam Debbonaire, MP for Bristol West and now Shadow Leader of the House, who said: “On a Labour Women’s Network residential weekend ten years ago I was inspired, challenged, trained and energised. They continued to encourage me beyond that, and I doubt I’d be where I am now without this. I wholeheartedly recommend LWN for all women considering standing for any elected office.”

There have been other, less welcome, changes since 1997. Aggression and abuse have become features of public life. The advent of social media has given what we used to call ‘the green ink brigade’ a huge audience and contributed to the hostility exhibited towards women in politics especially those from ethnic minority communities. Abena Oppong-Asare MP, Chair of LWN and shadow exchequer secretary said: “Being an MP is a huge privilege, and I’ve been thrilled to make a difference on issues like Black maternal mortality, and domestic violence service provision for Black women and girls and other protected characteristics. However, being a Black woman MP also a means daily dose of micro aggressions which can be deeply wearing.”

Deeply wearing is a good phrase. Especially when used to describe the long struggle to make the legislatures of our country more representative of its wonderfully diverse population. Deeply moving is another phrase that comes to mind as we mark the 25th anniversary of that miraculously fine May morning when we realised that centuries of wrong were, at last, on the way to being righted. We remember the many women, and the men, who helped us along the way. Some, like Jean Black and Val Price we lost to disease; some like Jo Richardson, to age and one, our chair, Jo Cox, to violence. They and many others made a real difference. We must continue their work. There is still so much to do. Onwards.