Conservative Women and Parliament

After the 1931 general election, there were 13 Conservative women MPs.

After the 1997 general election, there were 13 Conservative women MPs.

Women on the Conservative benches in the House of Commons still remain woefully under-represented - the 2005 election returned only 17 women MPs - 9% of the Parliamentary Party. The CWO is dedicated to enabling more women to become elected as Members of Parliament.

The Conservative Party has overhauled its selection procedures and made great strides in the selection of women candidates.

The priority A-list was, when announced by David Cameron in 2005, one of a number of interventions that helped to deliver more than 80 women candidates in winnable constituencies and the CWO has been at the forefront of finding, mentoring, training and helping women to stand in public life.

In 2010, if the Conservatives are elected with an overall majority of just one seat, it will have 55 Conservative women MPs, more than a threefold increase over the current number of 18 women MPs.

There have been very real advances made within the party under David Cameron's leadership but there is more to be done to increase female representation at all levels of public life.

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Number of Conservative MPs by Gender

Year	Women	Men	% Women
1918	0	359	0
1922	1	333	0.2
1923	2	246	1
1924	3	397	1
1929	4	246	2
1931	13	446	3
1935	6	370	2
1945	1	188	1
1950	6	282	2
1951	6	306	2
1955	9	326	3
1959	11	342	3
1964	11	281	4
1966	7	235	3
1970	15	315	5
1974 (Feb)	9	287	3
1974 (Oct)	7	269	3
1979	8	331	2
1983	13	384	3
1987	17	358	5
1992	20	310	6
1997	13	152	8
2001	14	152	8
2005	17	180	9

Sources: British Electoral Facts: 1832-1999, Rallings and Thrasher, Parliamentary Research Services, 2000; House of Commons Library