I am honoured to be appointed to the Black, Asian And Minority Ethnic Women Councillors Taskforce and I believe as a Green Party member with its strong history of gender equality I have a lot to contribute.
This is a cross-party taskforce comprised of key local councillors to seek to empower other women to get involved in local politics as well as to take this message of positive action and empowerment out to Councils and political parties
Women in the UK are under-represented in Councils and at Westminster. Women councillors currently only make up 29.3% of councillors. Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Women are particularly under-presented.
They make up 5.4% of the population but their share of local councillors is only 0.9% only around one sixth of that figure, a mere 168 out of 20,000 councillors. A significant increase is needed across the UK if women and especially ethnic minority women are to be properly represented in our local democracies.
Local councils make many decisions that have a huge impact on all of us – from housing policy, the environment and education and also nurseries, after-school clubs and youth services.
Women can’t afford to leave all these decisions to men – it is vital if all interests are to be properly taken into account and good decisions made that women play a full part in local politics. Councils of course are also a stepping stone towards entry into parliament where women remain woefully under-represented. We are yet to have an Asian woman MP in the UK and have just to ethnic minority women MPs!
I’m intending to work with my fellow councillors, whatever their background, to seek to empower women, ethnic minorities in particular, and bring this wealth of talent and experience into the formal structure of the Council as well as the informal structures such as the network of liaison groups and our area forums.
Key to this will be seeking to ensure greater involvement of all parts of our community – across class, gender and ethnic groups - in these structures and for good role models and mentors to step forward. I’d also like to take some of the successes of Camden where since early 2008 we have had 3 ethnic minority women councillors to other parts of the UK.
I hope to work on this project in particular with my colleagues Geethika Jayatilaka and Nancy Jirira who are both effective and well-respected councillors and I am glad to have received a strong message of support from the Leader of the Council Keith Moffitt.”
