I am joining a round table discussion today in London about the lack of involvement from women in legislative decision making on policies that affect our every day lives.

It follows research conducted by the Centre for Women and Democracy who received funding from the Feminist Review Trust to examine the representation of women on public decision making or scrutiny bodies.

The CFWD looked at eight pieces of legislation and one White Paper, including the Health and Social Care Bill and the House of Lords Reform Bill. Director Nan Sloane reports: “Only very rarely was a gender audit done to establish whether these changes would increase or decrease the presence of women in decision making, and even where one was carried out, it concluded there would be no effect.”

It is feared that over the next few years, there will be “an imperceptible but steady withdrawal of women from the public sphere, resulting in a net reversal of the gains of recent decades and damaging the quality of both the decision making process and representative government itself.”

I will report back on their recommendations.