Fawcett host the first ever meeting to establish a UK Parliament Women’s Caucus.

30th September 2024 

On Monday 9 September Fawcett hosted the first ever meeting to establish a UK Parliament Women’s Caucus in the House of Commons. We were thrilled to welcome approximately 64 women MPs with representation from 4 different political parties.

At our meeting MPs agreed to establish the first Women’s Caucus in UK Parliament, focussing on issues affecting women across the UK and within Parliament, and finding cross party solutions to these problems.

Until now there has never been a Women’s Caucus in the UK Parliament (Westminster).Fawcett are delighted that the UK will be joinng our devolved nations; The Scottish Parliament (Holyrood), Welsh Senedd (Welsh Parliament), and Northern Ireland Assembly  who all have Women’s Caucuses.   

We discussed many issues from the importance of cross-party participation in the Caucus, leadership, the importance of formal recognition of the caucus within UK Parliament, to themes and issues that could be explored by the Caucus (both internal to Westminster and affecting women across the UK more broadly), to the need to champion and improve the experiences of women from diverse backgrounds and characteristics, to hearing about lessons learnt from other Parliaments around the world who have set up their own Women’s Caucus’s. 

We would like to thank our partners who contributed to making the event a success, including Young Women’s Trust, The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Elect Her, Centenary Action and the Institute for Government. 

 
Jemima Olchawski, CEO of the Fawcett Society, said:

“Thanks to the hard work of organisations working to change the culture of politics, there are more women in the House of Commons than ever before. But this won’t mean anything unless they deliver real change for women across the country.

We need women to come together across parties to deliver reform that makes a tangible difference. With women still taking home £574 less than men per month, sexual harassment rife in our workplaces and so much harm done to women by public services, the need has never been more urgent. Fawcett are delighted to facilitate this cross-party working by convening women MPs to organise the caucus.”

Women, in all our diversity, must be represented. 

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