Greens aiming for 50% women candidates at 2016 elections

Green Party deputy leader Amelia Helen Womack has said her party will aim for women to make up at least 50 per cent of its candidates at next year’s London Assembly, Welsh Assembly and local council elections. Her comments came in response to Sex and Power, a report from the ‘Counting Women In’ coalition that showed 37 per cent of Green Party candidates at this year’s general election were women – more than any other political party. [1] Sarah Cope, a Green Party member who launched a legal challenge in August against a ban on MPs job-sharing, added that the disproportionate impact of government cuts on women means that

“if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu”

. Amelia said:

"I am immensely proud that the Green Party had more women candidates at the general election than any other party, and that we have always had women in leadership positions, but it is clear that even we have further to go to ensure women are represented. "At next year's London, Welsh and local elections we will encourage more women to stand, with the aim of them making up at least 50 per cent of our candidates. "I would urge other parties to make concerted efforts to achieve the same. As things stand the concerns of women, who are often hardest hit by government spending cuts, are too easily brushed aside by the men in power."

 

  I am backing Maria for Barnet & Camden, said Ben, on his blog. The seat was previously contested by Poppy, who was disappointed to lose her deposit in the General Election and decided not to stand again, giving someone new the chance to build on her whopping double-figures result from 2012.