Could You Be An MP?

Justine Greening

MP for Putney

There’s been a lot of debate in recent years about whether parliament is male-dominated environment and whether you feel out of place as a woman. My experience so far has been that I haven’t found it an issue at all.

There are already an increasing number of women MPs across all parties, but also what’s never reported is how many Lady Peers we have, so seeing a women wandering around Parliament is no longer unusual – but seeing a Conservative women MP is still, and that’s what we should try to tackle.

Before I became an MP back in May I did wonder what it would be like, whether I would have to overcome any barriers as a women MP, but there were none. In fact, it’s not an issue to the extent that when someone asked me two or three weeks after becoming an MP whether Parliament was full of male testosterone and patronising blokes, I remember saying, it hadn’t even crossed my mind because you see women around Parliament all the time, so that must be a good sign.

My advice is that if you believe in representing your local community and giving them a voice, and helping to move our country in the right direction for the long term then get involved and go for it. Once you’ve made it into Parliament you’ll realise that you really can make a difference.