London Celebrates A Hundred Years Of Women Councillors
A century after every Londoner was able to go to the polls and vote for women councillors London Councils is continuing to encourage women to stand for election to the capital’s town halls.
The local borough elections in November 1909 were the first time women candidates stood in a full London wide local election.
While London now has the highest proportion of women councillors of any other region, they still only make up less than a third (36 per cent) of the capital’s elected members.
London Councils, the organisation representing all of the capital’s boroughs, is striving to boost this figure even further through its be a councillor campaign – a non-political cross-party initiative which seeks to ensure the capital’s council chambers are more representative of London’s diverse communities.
Since its launch the London be a councillor campaign has seen nearly 11, 000 unique hits on its website www.beacouncillor.org.uk. Due to its success in the capital, be a councillor, which has now been rolled out nationally, has even played a part in developing the storyline in EastEnders where Peggy Mitchell stood for election as a councillor.
London Councils’ lead member for equality, Councillor Anjana Patel, said, “Having women stand in full borough elections 100 years ago was a momentous achievement, and one that should rightly be celebrated.
“Women have made huge contributions in helping shape policies and running services in town halls across London. However, there is still more we need to do more to encourage greater numbers of women into our council chambers.
“The be a councillor campaign has played key role in achieving this, and I hope to see women councillors going from strength to strength over the next 100 years.”
November 2009 marks the first time women candidates stood for election in a full London-wide election. A woman councillor was elected in December 1907, two years earlier in a by election.
Further information on the be a councillor campaign can be found on www.beacouncillor.org.uk.
The next council elections in London are in 2010
Topics: Britain, councillors, diverse communities, England, Governance, government, Local Authorities, local elections, London, politics, UK, United Kingdom, Women
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