International Women’s Day took place earlier this month and it was a chance for me to join with my female MP colleagues to celebrate the journey we have travelled and continue to travel towards equality.
I am actually only the 510th woman to have been sworn-in to the House of Commons and the first for Hertford and Stortford. This means that there are still not enough women elected to parliament in its history to fill the 650-MP chamber we have today.
And only 34% of MPs are female when we represent 51% of the population. A lack of rights has meant we came late to Parliament – only being given the vote and the right to be an MP through the 1918 Representation of the People Act.
The intervening 103 years has seen much progress. We have had two women Prime Ministers and two of the four present great offices of state are held by women. Liz Truss is Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary is Priti Patel. However, there remains much to do. We need more women in public life and more representing us if our voices and our views are to be heard and acted on. We need to make further progress on the gender pay gap and we need to end violence towards women and girls.
I continue to take part in a packed schedule of visits around the constituency and it was a pleasure to visit Hertford Hockey Club recently to watch a match and pop in to the new clubhouse bar.
I also met up with local councillor Bob Deering during the visit. I learnt the club has one of the strongest junior sections in the county with more than 250 involved.
It is a big part of the Hertford community and it does great work with encouraging younger players in the county to take up the sport. Thank you to Nik Bentley for inviting me and I hope to visit again soon.
Another highlight was going to Hertford Regional College’s Ware campus to celebrate its Ofsted ‘Good’ rating, meet students and talk to staff.
I am delighted that the hard work of the principal Tony Medhurst and his staff has led to this achievement as well as the hard work of students.
I visited Games Design and Visual Merchandise departments, I toured the Millbrook Centre and I saw the fantastic facilities for learning while speaking to students.
Other educational visits also happened. I went to the wonderful Wheatcroft Primary School in Hertford and spoke to pupils during their assembly about the role of a local MP and answered some of their questions.
Then for World Book Day I read one of Maple Class’s favourite books to them at welcoming Avanti Meadows Primary School in Bishop’s Stortford.
I also held a surgery for constituents to discuss their casework issues.
I remain available to help anyone who has a problem or issue. The Ukrainian situation has led to work as we support constituents with help and advice.