Tuesday 25 March 2025, at 5:15 pm
To be checked against delivery Target 1089 words = 8 minutes
Your Royal Highness,
Mr President,
Distinguished Members
Thank you for the invitation to be with you today.
Violence against women in politics
Being here to discuss this extremely important, and timely topic, is an incredible experience!
As I look around the room, I see people who are active politicians, both male and female.
I see people who want the best for their communities, want the best for those they represent.
I also see those who will have encountered the violence against women in politics.
Just think about that for a moment: violence against women in politics.
Harassment, intimidation, bullying, threatening behaviour, violent acts have become part of our political way of life. As women active in politics, elected, whether at national or local level, we experience it.
But, let me start at the beginning!
My involvement with politics began with my grandmother - Nanny. She told me how important having a vote was and how women should be involved in politics.
In 1951, when I was 4 years old, she took me with her to vote. She got her ballot paper and gave me her pencil, telling me where to put the cross. ‘Never forget’ she said, ‘You have voted for Mr Churchill!’
She taught me that women died so we could have a basic human right.
My political life began there at the age of 4, as did my political education!
Being a councillor is a role very much set at a personal level and in the community. That can make a representative subject to abusive behaviours by constituents, those we represent, and others.
In my own political career I have experienced such behaviours, both in Liverpool and Cheltenham, two very different areas.
In Liverpool in the 1980s we had a period where councillors were living in fear, with members, threatened and coerced by an organised group, bullied, barracked and belittled.
During that time, a councillor, Rosie Cooper, and I were great friends. She was a fighter and often the target for bullying. Whatever the threats, she fought on. After some 17 years as a councillor, she became a member of Parliament.
Then something incredible happened.
A neo-Nazi group member, Jack Renshaw, decided, in 2017, that he was going to kill her and a female police officer.
Rosie was lucky. Someone heard what he said and reported it. The trial took place in 2019. But, until he was arrested, and the trial happened, she had to live with the knowledge that she could be murdered at any time.
Why was Rosie the target? She was a woman and his MP.
Life in politics has changed. Mass media, a lack of understanding of what free speech is and the grooming of young people, particularly boys, have made political activity difficult.
Big money is stealing the hearts and minds so many of our young people and implanting in them mistrust, misogyny and the belief in a particular kind of male dominance. The Netflix series ‘Adolescence’ shows how social media is affecting our young people.
Research is showing that social and other media, political party organisation and men becoming concerned that women are becoming more active, is discouraging women from standing for office.
So, what about the local level? How can we encourage, help and protect people?
The English Local Government Association has produced really good, pertinent advice and training packs, available to councils across England and which, in Cheltenham, we use. All councillors receive training, advice and assistance.
Cheltenham Council meetings are open to the public and broadcast online. We had occasions recently when organised groups, came to meetings and were disruptive and harassing, even threatening, to Councillors.
Members of the public who wish to attend, now have to register their attendance before the meeting and security officers are on duty at those meetings.
What has become obvious is the lack of women who want to go into politics through fear and misgivings. In Cheltenham we have taken the decision to do something about it.
A survey of young women - Your Voice – a project, was launched to enable young people, women and girls to have their say.
Through that we have discovered that fear is a significant factor in daily life.
As a result of this, action is happening.
We are also working with our schools to ensure that boys and girls are encouraged to see each other as equal.
Our schools, colleges and parents have become active participants in the work that we do.
Boys need to be educated so they no longer think that they are the big stuff and girls are nothing.
But change needs action:
Governments must ensure that the safety of women and girls is not simply pushed to the rear because other things come first;
Second: is to ensure that girls living in our areas feel that they do have a voice, that they can speak and, by so doing, that they will be listened to and action will follow. By so doing, they can learn there is a role for them in politics.
The Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy integrated all of the issues and committed to change the way the way things are.
CEMR report ‘ Women in Politics: Local and European Trends’ shows that some 32% of women in politics have experienced violence, with a growing concern about cyber violence.
If politics is only for men, it is meaningless as more than 50% of the population are female. Women must have a voice and a safe space in politics.
Understanding the situation is extremely important.
Action following understanding is even more important.
So, my challenge to all of us! The Council, Congress, Council of European Municipalities and Regions, European Union and all of us at this assembly, can make a real and lasting difference, by coming together to change the landscape.
How?
Let's work together; let's fight together; let's create the changes in social media and other areas that are needed to enable women to play a full part, in safety, without fear of violence or intimidation in the political life of each of our countries, cities and regions and on the international scene.
Thank you for your attention.