Despite 51% of the UK’s population being women, this proportion is not reflected within the British legislature. Only 1 in 4 members of the House of Commons is female. Therefore I decided to seek my local MP’s – Dame Tessa Jowell, former Minister for Women - experience of government and her opinion on the underrepresentation of women in politics.
After university, Dame Tessa Jowell began work as a child care officer in Brixton, and subsequently pursued a career as a social worker at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell.
Of her early career, she said,
"I was always very positive about the work I felt I could do as a social worker and how, in small but effective ways, I was able to help change the pattern of behaviour of my clients. I have always been very interested in the power of intended and unintended human behaviour and had planned to continue to explore this field in social work and research”.
She then explained how these early experiences led her to address the central issues from a different angle, thereby having impact beyond the individual clients with whom she worked.
"…I also felt that the big solutions to the life of someone like one of my clients back then are the solutions that politics brings, and that it is within the realm of politics that you can help bring about significant change to improve the lives of so many people."
As Dame Tessa had also been a local councillor in Camden for 15 years with cross-London responsibilities, the move to stand for election as a Member of Parliament must have seemed like a natural progression.
Since 1992, when Dame Tessa was elected to parliament, she has held various positions: Minister for Public Health, Minister for Employment, Minister for Women, Minister for London, and Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General. Her illustrious career includes implementing the Sure Start Programme, which has supported children in communities in Britain and in developing countries. Dame Tessa was also integral to the success of the London 2012 Olympic Games, with Lord Sebastian Coe - a former Conservative MP and Minister for Sport - being unstinting in his praise and admiration for someone whose political leanings are different from his own. Lord Coe believes that Dame Tessa was the “political driving force” behind the bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, and said that she was an “inseparable part of their ultimate success”. Dame Tessa announced last year that she would be standing down as an MP in 2015, which resulted in a further torrent of praise of her work as a politician, including Ed Miliband describing Dame Tessa as a “unique politician” of warmth, spirit, loyalty and generosity.
As I wanted to focus on politics at a local level, I asked Dame Tessa about the changes that she had seen her constituency of Dulwich and West Norwood go through during the twenty two years that she has represented it. Impact on education, health and policing all feature in her response:
"I do feel proud of what has been achieved to improve the lives of local people. Together, through community campaigns and improved funding, we have seen King’s College Hospital overhauled and mostly rebuilt; we have more primary school places and four new secondary schools. The development of neighbourhood policing was key in bringing down crime, and the successful campaign to save Gipsy Hill Police Station will be crucial in maintaining confidence in local policing. A new health and leisure centre is now open in West Norwood leading the way in integrated health and wellbeing improvements. The big outstanding challenge is to see this matched with a new community health centre on the Dulwich Hospital site with, I hope, a secondary school for local children and I am doing a lot of work on this at the moment."
She was characteristically robust in her response to my question regarding the gender imbalance still present in British politics. As feminism is a subject close to my heart, I asked her how we can combat the underrepresentation of women in politics. Her answer?
"When I was elected in 1992, there were more MPs named John or Jonathan than there were women in parliament. I’ve written and spoken about this a lot – on the tone and style of politics, and on practical measures. The Labour Party has introduced all women shortlists until such a time that there is equality of gender representation in the House of Commons and this is something I have supported."
Dame Tessa was extremely generous in agreeing to answer my questions and providing me with such a breadth of information, including additional links to her previous interviews. Ultimately, my research into her career, alongside her detailed answers, has left me with the same impression of her that Tony Blair succinctly described when he said that Dame Tessa is “immensely able, tough minded and determined. But at the same time and with the same people, she is kind, decent and loyal in a way I have seldom seen in politics.”
Evie Richards, Sydenham High School
