Only Conservative woman MEP retires with call for more women to come forward for Europe
Posted, February 26, 2007 @ 16:00
Brussels, 26 February 2007 -- The Conservative's only female MEP, Caroline Jackson, confirming this week that she will be retiring at the next European elections in June 2009, called for her replacement to be a woman.
Dr Jackson said: "I’m not a militant feminist but I do think that we need to have a delegation in Strasbourg and Brussels that better reflects the make-up of our society. The Conservative record in getting women elected to the European Parliament is not good. Currently I am the only woman out of 27 Conservative MEPs. If I'm not there they can't have a group photo taken because it looks like something from the 1930s, when most politicians were men."
“I am sure that under David Cameron the Conservatives will soon be actively looking for women Euro-candidates. I hope that my retirement creates an opportunity for them to put women candidates in positions on the SW Regional list to ensure they get elected.”
Dr Jackson has been an MEP since 1984. She represented Wiltshire North and Bath until 1999 and when the voting system changed in 1999 she became one of the South West's three Conservative MEPs. She was chairman of the Parliament's Environment Committee for 5 years and has just published "Britain's Waste: the lessons we can learn from Europe."
The United Kingdom has one of the lowest percentages of women MEPs in the European Parliament. There are 20 women out of 78 British MEPs (25.6%). This is way behind Sweden with 9 women out of 19 MEPs (47%) and Holland with 12 out of 27 (44.4%). The British Conservative delegation contains one woman out of 27 MEPs.