Welsh Women MPs: Exploring Their Absence

Abstract

Between 1918 and the end of the 1990s, Wales had only four women members of Parliament. This article concentrates largely on that period, exploring who these women were, and why there were so few of them. It analyses the backgrounds and careers of Megan Lloyd George, Eirene White and Dorothy Rees, the first three women to be elected, arguing that two of them were aided into their positions by their exclusive social connections and family backgrounds. These features were seen by their political parties and local associations as important in order to override concerns about their sex. Local associations were important because they always had a significant say over who was selected as a parliamentary candidate. This article will argue that many of these associations, from across the political spectrum, actively sought male candidates to stand for Parliament. Even women, who made up the core of voluntary teams at the local level, held conservative views about who should represent them at Westminster. This was relevant in areas dominated by heavy industry and the masculine culture it engendered, as well as other parts of the nation. This article reflects on the broader, under-studied theme of cultural conservatism in Welsh history. To demonstrate the long-term persistence of this theme, it outlines the mixed reaction from the mid-1980s to Ann Clwyd, the fourth woman to be elected an MP in Wales and the first candidate to ever stand in a south Wales valleys seat. The article then covers how more women slowly entered parliament, mainly via the mechanisms of all-women shortlists after 1997 despite a great deal of resistance to them, again at the local level. Finally, the record of the National Assembly for Wales, and the European Parliament, with its many more women members, are contrasted with the record of Westminster.