50 50 Parliament Event

[nameequality]

Anyone else attending the 50 50 Parliament rally & event later at the House of Commons?

I think it is fully booked now.

If you are a MNer please come and let me know.

I thought it might be good to have a thread here about this.

I will now disappear off the thread meant to be at work and pop back in later on my way to London depending on whether the train I choose has working WiFi.

My perspective is that if we had equal representation from women MPs then I would not have had to campaign so much about #MothersOnMarriageCerts and I am certain that there are much more important issues for women that are not being sorted due to a lack of women MPs.

I feel that the current system is pretty much a de-facto quota for men. What do MNers think?

However this campaign's main aim is to ask for a debate in the HoC on this topic and to generate discussion on this topic.

This article from a couple of days ago is about women MPs and is very interesting.

[cailindana]

For the sake of my own nationalism may I state that Nancy Astor was the first woman to take her seat as an MP but the first woman elected to the House of Commons was Constance Markievicz in 1918. She didn't take her seat as she was a member of Sinn Fein and wanted Irish independence. She was part of the first Irish Dail (parliament) and was one of the first women in the world to hold a cabinet position.

[prashad]

If you want a woman MP, then vote them in.

[PuffinsAreFictitious]

I agree Name, it is a de facto quota for men. You hear enough people whining about all women shortlists who just don't realise or care that, for most candidacies there are all male shortlists, but apparently that's ok, because, tradition or some such bollocks.

Have fun at the rally, hope your voice is heard on this as well!