When I was born in 1985, there was a female prime minister. Margaret Thatcher’s name was like a swear word in our house, and she’s hardly a feminist icon as far as I’m concerned, but the fact remains, I grew up in a world where that was at least a possibility; a woman could achieve the highest political office in the UK. But just 100 years ago, in 1917, women didn’t yet have the right to vote, and it would be another two years before a woman took her seat in the House of Commons.
Progress – both in terms of gender and sexual orientation – has been relatively swift. As I write, there are 191 female MPs in the UK parliament, and with 32 LGB MPs (there are currently no out transgender MPs) it’s been called the gayest parliament in the world. Lesbian, gay and bisexual MPs make up almost 5% of the Commons, representative of the percentage of the UK population estimated to be LGBT. 26% of the House of Lords are women. In Northern Ireland, 28% of the country’s assembly are women, while in Wales it’s a whopping 42%.
And in my native Scotland, one third of MSPs are female. We have a female first minister, leading one of the few gender-balanced cabinets in the world, and the other three main party leaders (Kezia Dugdale, Ruth Davidson and Patrick Harvie) identify as LGB.