BLACK, ASIAN AND MINORITY ETHNIC WOMEN COUNCILLORS TASKFORCE

Your Local Council Needs You!

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women are scandalously under-represented in the democratic life of this country. 

Only two women MPs come from minority ethnic communities and BAME women account for less than one per cent of England 20,000 local councillors while they make up more than 5 per cent of the population.

To create a more representative picture the number of BAME women councillors needs to increase more than five-fold – from just 168 to nearer a thousand.

The cross party BAME Women Councillors Taskforce has been set up to help make local councils more representative of the community. Members are women from a wide range of backgrounds and experience from every region in England and from Scotland and Wales.

Under the leadership of Baroness Uddin of Bethnal Green – the first Bengali woman councillor to be elected to a local council in the UK and the first woman Muslim member of the House of Lords – the taskforce will explore and develop practical ways to encourage BAME women to become councillors and champions of their communities.   It will work closely with a number of partners including the political parties to deliver success. 

The taskforce plans to hold a series of events around the country to attract and engage women.  The first of these events took place in Tower Hamlets in East London on 23 July 2008.

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