Get ready for 'misogyny and abuse' women MPs warned

Record number of females elected into 'biggest boys' club'

- MAYA OPPENHEIM

Women entering parliament for the first time following the election should be prepared for “misogyny and abuse” as they join the country’s “biggest boys’ club”, female MPs have warned.

A record number of women were elected on 4 July, with 264 female members of parliament set to take up their seats under a Labour government. This represents 40.6 per cent of all MPs and is a significant improvement on the 34.2 per cent in 2019.

But experienced female MPs say they still face “sexism, patriarchal and archaic power structures”. The Pestminster scandal in 2017 saw a series of claims of sexual harassment in Westminster and the dying days of the last Tory government were dogged by further allegations.

Labour’s Dawn Butler, who has been re-elected having been an MP in west London since 2015, said new female MPs should be prepared to “endure a lot of misogyny and abuse”, adding: “You get critiqued on how you sound, how you look and what you wear.”

While entering parliament is an exciting time, new female MPs “should expect to be bamboozled with a whole load of rules – some of which are archaic or make no practical sense whatsoever”.