A guest post by Daisy Sore on the Political Women project
End Sexism in Schools has been invited to take part in an exciting and important project – Political Women – that will commemorate the 100 year anniversary of women in the UK gaining the right to vote on equal terms with men.
The project is being coordinated by Centenary Action which campaigns to address and dismantle the barriers that hinder women’s participation, selection, and retention in politics. Centenary Action also acts as the Secretariat for the Women in Parliament All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) a cross-party group of parliamentarians working to increase and support the representation of women in parliament.
The goal of the Political Women project is to produce research on at least 10 ‘political women’ from every constituency in the UK in order to highlight their contributions to politics and to build momentum for equal representation.
The Political Women project
The project will provide each MP with details of the 10 political women in their constituency as well as creating a record of these women for public use. With 650 constituencies in the UK that means researching more than 6,500 women and Centenary Action is looking for volunteers to help with this important research.
For the purposes of the project, a political woman is defined as one that has “worked with one of the parliaments, within councils, campaigned on political representation issues, been involved in trade unions and/or in community and civic leadership.”
Highlighting the contributions of political women in the UK
With End Sexism in Schools’ own research finding that four named women dominate those who are taught in KS3 History lessons – Elizabeth I, Mary I, Emmeline Pankhurst, and Emily Davison – and that 59% of KS3 History lessons feature no women at all, this project creates a welcome opportunity to shine a light on some of the amazing contributions made to UK politics by women throughout history. Who knows, some of those women could end up on the History curriculum one day!
As well as creating more awareness of the political women who have received less recognition than their male counterparts, the project aims to engage young women in politics and also provides opportunities to do so.
All researchers are invited to join a monthly Zoom call with Centenary Action to share updates about their research and ask any questions they might have about the project. This also gives an opportunity to attend events held in Westminster by Centenary Action and the APPG for Women in Parliament. Getting involved with the project is also excellent experience for young women and girls thinking about studying Politics or History at A Level or as a degree and could also help with UCAS applications.
How to get involved with the Political Women project
Everyone is welcome to take part in the research. Perhaps you are interested in doing the research yourself, or you work with a group of young people who would be keen to participate? Centenary Action has produced a research template for guidance. The data collected will include the names of 10 political women, photos, short bios, significant dates and locations around the constituency, institutions they were involved with, and sources of the data. Once you’ve done your research, it will be forwarded to Centenary Action, to be verified and added to their database.
If you’d like to join us, or know of young people who might like to get involved with the project, please contact us at advocacy@endsexisminschools.org.uk indicating which constituency you might be interested in researching.
