United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The UK Gender Sensitive Parliament Audit, published today, finds that steady progress has been made in increasing the representation of women in both Houses of Parliament, but there are still too many barriers to women standing as MPs or putting themselves forward to the House of Lords Appointments Commission.

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A century after Britain’s first election in which women voted and stood for parliament, female activists called on Friday for further reform to achieve equality amid abuse and prejudice.

Despite celebrations to mark 100 years since most women aged over 30 won the right to vote - including unveiling a statue of women’s suffrage activist Emmeline Pankhurst - male lawmakers outnumber women two to one.

Hundreds of women from all walks of life descended on Westminster on Wednesday, to mark the moment women first got the right to stand for parliament 100 years ago.

At the final count, 317 women came to the Houses of Parliament to visit 238 MPs as part of #AskHerToStandDay, and were bombarded with messages of positivity to encourage them to consider a career in politics.

Theresa May told a gathering of female politicians from around the world that “a woman’s place is in elected office” as she urged them to work together to make sure their voices were heard.

The British prime minister admitted that getting the political system to work in a male-dominated environment was “never easy” but warned that less representative parliaments operated with “one hand tied behind their backs”.

A young Bosnian MP who denounced her uncle’s war crimes, a member of the Syrian opposition and a Gambian women’s rights campaigner are among the female parliamentarians who will sit in the House of Commons chamber this week.

A landmark event on Thursday will celebrate the centenary of women’s suffrage in the UK, involving more than 100 female politicians from around the world, from Afghanistan to the Vatican.