MP gives thumbs up for 100 years of women Councillors.

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the first women Councillors being elected in the country. Following the Qualification of Women Act, female candidates were allowed to stand in the elections of 1st November 1907 for the first time. Those elected began taking office at the first meetings of the new councils, 100 years ago this week. Chesterfield MP Paul Holmes joined local female Councillors to celebrate the anniversary.

The 1907 elections set the foundations for major alterations to the political system. The first woman mayor, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, was elected in 1909. A pioneer of her time, she was also the first woman to qualify as a doctor in the UK. Despite the successes of 1907 and 1909 it took another 21 years before women got the same voting rights as men, a change that finally took place in 1928.

Paul Holmes MP said '100 years ago these brave women pioneered a change in the electoral system that we should all be grateful for. Not only did they pave the way for women to be given the vote but they enabled local Government to be more representative of the community as a whole. Without them we would not have the wealth of female talent we now have in local Government, demonstrated ably by the female Councillors on Chesterfield Borough Council.'

'We have two of the youngest female Councillors in the Country in Helen Walsh and Eleanor Holmes, and a third of all Councillors in Chesterfield are women. I am proud to say that Chesterfield is more representative then many other Council groups and we strive in every election to have equal numbers of male and female candidates and people from different backgrounds, races and belief systems. '

Our gratitude goes out to those women who enabled us to be representative of the whole community in what has always been a male-dominated environment.