Election 2022: Welsh politics needs more women, new councillor

Welsh politics still needs more women, according to one newly elected female councillor.

On Friday, the Vale of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire became the first councils in Wales to have an equal split of female and male councillors.

But despite an 8% increase in female councillors compared to 2017, gender parity will take a "long, long time to come" according to one expert.

Following Thursday's elections, 36% of all councillors in Wales are women.

Catherine Fookes was elected as a councillor for Monmouthshire for the first time last week.

She said it was "brilliant" to see so many strong women elected.

"Women make up 50% of the population therefore they really need to be represented," she said, adding that better policies for issues that affect women will only be possible with female representatives.

She added that: "We're definitely not moving fast enough as a society toward gender balanced politics."

Following Thursday's elections, Welsh Labour had the highest proportion of female councillors on 44%.

Of the main political parties, the Conservatives had the lowest ratio with 29%, while 35% of Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats' councillors in Wales are now women.

Across Wales, the proportion of female councillors increased by 8% to 36%.

That means 442 out of 1,274 elected local authority councillors in Wales are women.

The council are with the lowest proportion of female councillors is now Ceredigion with 18%, followed by Pembrokeshire on 22%.

Ms Fookes said the "status quo isn't working it" and that women in politics must now do what they can to achieve gender parity.

"Let's have more council leaders that are women.

"Those of us who are councillors now - let's all encourage more women to stand next time."

She praised the work of Monmouthshire's previous leader, Conservative Richard John, for calling for equal female and male representation on the council.

"What's really important to recognise in Monmouthshire is that a concerted effort was made - a target was set and we reached it," she said.

"It proves without doubt that unless you have positive action, we can't reach gender balance."

Jess Blair, the Director of the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) in Wales, said Monmouthshire's achievement is "absolutely a testament to positive action".

"Monmouthshire set an ambitious target to hit 50% women a few months ago and they've done it.

"The Vale of Glamorgan have done well because they've had more women elected from Labour which has 18 of 24 councillors as women."

"But we're not going to see gender parity at this rate for a long, long time to come."

"There's been a perception of local authorities as pale, male and stale," she said.

Ms Blair believes many voters don't believe the candidates represent them at present.

"Unless we put positive action in place to get more women elected, more people of colour, more disabled candidates, people from the LGBTQ+ community - we're always going to have that disconnect between communities and who actually represents them."

"It's down to positive action, largely by the Labour party, that we have seen an increase this time around, as well as from other parties.

"The Conservatives in Monmouthshire really amped up their efforts to get more female candidates.

"Hopefully we'll learn lessons this time around.

"Positive action and targets have worked. If parties can put those in place now for 2027, hopefully we'll see increased representation."