During the spin-fest that was the G20 Summit last week I was really bowled over by one event. This was the speech that Michelle Obama gave to pupils and staff at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington. Her advice to her mostly female audience was basically that it is ‘cool to be smart’, to work hard, not to skip classes. If you do this, she implied, you too could become the First Lady! (or even perhaps the first President of the USA).
You can hear some of the speech if you click on the link below:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/business/2009/g20/7980476.stm
Michelle Obama concluded part of her speech by saying that once you have followed her advice, worked hard and done well then you should:-
‘Reach back and help someone just like you to do the same thing’.
This really resonated with me because so often women do not help one another to get on in life, and I find this disappointing. Actually when I worked in the City we were so few that it wasn’t really an issue. Women there seemed to understand the old saying from Tobago that ‘Blowing out the other person’s candle will not make yours shine brighter’. However, the world of politics is something different. Women have seemed adept at extinguishing other women’s hopes.
The Conservative Party in this country has a reputation of being the home of a cadre of formidable ‘blue rinses’ in the shires who regularly fail to select women as candidates. The number of women MP’s in the Conservative ranks is disgracefully low. At Babergh District Council there are only seven women out of 43 councillors (and it shows!).
However things are changing, at least at the national level. David Cameron has worked hard to make sure that a good proportion of women candidates are elected. Vicky Ford, number three on the list of MEP candidates, was actually selected in the number 4 position. You may not think that this was right, but she was actively promoted because of the need to field some women who had some chance of becoming Members of the European Parliament.
I think some people are aware that I am the Chairman of the South Suffolk Conservative Women’s Organisation. On Thursday of last week we had our AGM and we were lucky enough to be addressed by the Chairman of the National Organisation, Pauline Lucas. She gave an inspirational speech too, telling us how the Conservative Party in general, and the Women’s Organisation in particular, is encouraging women to participate in political life.
It would be really nice to find some women out there who would like to put themselves forward for public office. Of course, if you are a Conservative that would be even better.
Do give it some thought.
