Women in local politics

We're asking Fawcett supporters to help us to encourage local politicians to increase the number of women in power in local government.

In the UK as a whole around 30% of councillors are women and, it is estimated that less than 2% of councillors are ethnic minority women.

Some councils are made up of an equal mix of men and women, but others have as little as 5% of their representatives being women.

Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) woman councillors are especially rare, we think - but we can't even be sure as their numbers are not even being monitored.

Use one of the template letters available for download on the right hand side of this page to challenge your councillors on the under-representation of women in politics at a local level.

Just adapt the letter by changing the bits in red. Then send it off to your local councillor or councillors (most people have more than one local representative) by post or email. If and when you get a response, please also let Fawcett have a copy.

Who are my local councillors?

The DirectGov website (link on the right hand side of this page) to find out what your local council is called and get a link to their website.

Most people live in an area where there is more than one level of local government - for now we're asking you to contact councillors on borough, district, county and metropolitan councils.

Then when you've identified the council you want to target, you will need to check the councillors who represent your local area. This is probably best done by visiting their website (links on DirectGov) or by phoning them.