Support our campaign this #IWD!

Here at LWN, we are keen to celebrate our brilliant work on Parliamentary selections. When LWN was founded in 1988, fewer than 10% of Labour MPs were women; as of this month, that figure stands at its 53%. We have many LWN graduate MPs including Angela Rayner, Rachel Reeves, Thangam Debbonaire, Anneliese Dodds, Emily Thornberry, Seema Malhotra, Tulip Siddiq, Jess Phillips... all breaking down biases, achieving change, and championing other women. And, despite not being able to use All Women Shortlists this time, with 45% of Labour parliamentary candidates selected so far being women, including in winnable seats, LWN is about to make history once more.

For #IWD2024, we're inviting all Labour Women’s Network members, supporters and allies to join us to to amplify the now inevitable probability that a Labour government (returned by any degree of majority) would mean the most diverse House of Commons ever. On International Women’s Day, we are celebrating the hard work done by Labour and Labour Women’s Network to ensure that a Labour General Election win would mean the highest number of women MPs in history, and the highest ever percentage of women in parliament.

After recent by-elections, currently, 226 out of 650 Members of Parliament are women, which is 34.8%. 45% of Labour candidates selected so far are women, with the Parliamentary Labour Party currently at an all time high of 52.7% women. Whilst selections are ongoing, there is already a sufficient proportion of women selected to contest battleground seats to be sure that any degree of outright win for Labour would mean an increase on that 226 figure. This would mean electing more women MPs than ever before; a historic achievement.

Sadly, the Tories have failed to improve women’s representation in the House. Only 25% of Tory MPs are women, and 26% percent of candidates selected so far.

A Labour government would also mean enhanced diversity in other respects. 15% of Labour candidates define as Black, Asian or another ethnic minority; 22% percent define as LGBT+; and 13% have a disability.

How has Labour Women’s Network contributed?

Labour has a proud record as the party of equality, but being in a position to realise this achievement has not occurred by accident.

1. 65% of the women selected so far in England and Wales are graduates of Labour Women’s Network training, including the Jo Cox Women in Leadership Scheme in partnership with the Party. Over the past two years LWN has trained almost 1000 Labour women through challenging residential weekends, carefully developed online courses and skills-based workshops.
2. LWN also successfully pushed for selection campaigns to be shorter (shrunk from 12 weeks to 6) and cheaper (with a new spending cap) to equalise the playing field for women and reduce the impact of disproportionate caring responsibilities and lower pay as barriers to women’s chances of success.
3. Lastly, given what gets measured, gets done, LWN has kept a watchful eye on Labour’s success on women’s equality through our Selection Tracker, updated and published weekly: Parliamentary Selections Tracker - Labour Women's Network (lwn.org.uk)

Of course, we know selections are still imperfect, and many sisters still have difficult experiences. After the election we'll collate those cases and make fresh recommendations for the future.

But for now, this year's IWD theme is Inspire Inclusion. At LWN we believe we have achieved just that.

So, on Friday 8th March, will you amplify, accelerate, support and get social?!