Hear her: what it’s like to champion gender-based issues as a new female MP

Olivia Blake didn’t plan to talk publicly about her miscarriage. In November 2020, the MP for Sheffield Hallam was waiting to speak during a Westminster Hall debate on baby loss when she began to rewrite her speech, scribbling down changes in the room.

When it was her turn, Blake stood up and told her colleagues how she had lost her baby in the summer and found out the news while her partner waited in the hospital cark park due to coronavirus restrictions. “I really wanted ministers to hear it first-hand, because I didn’t think I could do it justice telling someone else’s story,” she says now.

Blake’s bravery at sharing her personal experience was compounded by the fact that she was a new kid on the block: the 30-year-old Labour MP was elected in the 2019 December general election.

Around 40 per cent of the 140 MPs elected for the first time that year were female – that’s 57 women new to Parliament. Many of these women have begun to make a name for themselves campaigning on gender-based issues and championing women’s rights. How does it feel to be a new face giving voice to these issues so early in your political career? Do these MPs fear being pigeonholed by their peers?

It was late May when Blake first began hearing from her constituents about problems with maternity services during the Covid-19 pandemic. In June, she wrote to health secretary Matt Hancock but received no response. Blake says the November debate was a “turning point” when people finally started to pay attention. “It had been an afterthought, which is not unusual when it comes to issues that affect women in our health services.”

Blake’s interest in the issue was not always personal: “Little did I know that I would experience a miscarriage in August and would have to go through some of the issues that my constituents had raised with me,” she said through tears at the debate. “I would have given a speech in that session regardless,” she says now – she is passionate about healthcare and wants to “keep an eye” on issues around cervical screenings, LGBT healthcare, and mental health pre and post-pregnancy. Although speaking about her own experiences was difficult and emotional, she feels breaking down taboos is the best way to raise awareness and improve services.

I don’t want to be the woman just doing stuff that’s around women

In December, NHS rules changed so that pregnant women are now able to have one person with them during maternity appointments – meaning experiences like Blake’s can now be avoided. She says she is delighted and relieved by the result.

Laura Farris, the 42-year-old Conservative MP for Newbury, also saw a similar early career success. In June 2020, the government promised to ban the so-called “rough sex defence” which allowed individuals who had killed their sexual partners to claim the death occurred because of consensual activities. Farris played a big part in the cross-party campaign group which pushed for the Domestic Abuse Bill to outlaw the defence.

“I read about the Natalie Connolly case about a year before I became an MP,” Farris says – the 26-year-old was killed by her partner who claimed he hurt her “within the boundaries of her masochistic desires”. “I can remember seething at my kitchen table about it,” Farris adds. In her very first week as an MP, Farris approached Harriet Harman and said she wanted to join her campaign. In June, Farris challenged Boris Johnson directly about the issue during PMQs.

“I said to my husband it was the first time I really felt the power you can have as a Member of Parliament, because you go from feeling a strong sense of injustice about something that’s happening in the world, but not being able to do anything about it apart from tweet, to being able to actually do something about it,” Farris says.

Like Blake, Farris wanted to break down taboos surrounding women’s issues, but she admits that when speaking in front of the Prime Minister, “I really hesitated because the words ‘rough sex defence’ are a bit embarrassing to say.” Farris says she only had the confidence to push the issue as a new MP because of the support of Harman, who encouraged her to email the Prime Minister directly. “She’s fought so many feminist campaigns in her career,” Farris says. “There was also a strength in it being cross-party, because not very much in Parliament truly is.”

Yet despite the outpouring of support – and her future plans to campaign for justice for Yazidi women victimised by Isis –  Farris admits she has worried about being pigeonholed. “One of the things that happened in the immediate aftermath [of the rough sex campaign] was other female campaigns that weren’t really related would contact me like, ‘Can you come and support this?’” Farris says she was “tempted” by these offers but “made a conscious decision” not to lead on women’s issue campaigns just because they were offered to her. “I might support the sentiment, but I don’t necessarily always want to go really heavy on these things.”

Farris’ decision is partly informed by Labour politician Rachel Reeves’ 2019 book, Women of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics. “It’s really interesting reading her account of the experiences of women who were elected 100 years ago. They were basically expected to say nothing except talk about women’s issues,” Farris says. “I didn’t jump on all these other ‘women’ campaigns because I thought there may be other things [I could do]. I don’t want to be the woman just doing stuff that’s around women.”

Farris is currently campaigning for flexible working for all genders and believes the campaign will also help retain women in the workplace. “It has a female slant, but it’s not the only reason why I’m campaigning for it.”

Alex Davies-Jones, the 31-year-old Welsh Labour MP for Pontypridd, is similarly campaigning in a way she hopes will benefit all genders. In July, she launched the first ever inquiry into British professional wrestling after reading tweets from female wrestlers about misogyny and abuse in the industry under the hashtag #SpeakingOut.

“I thought, this is awful, what can I do about this?” Davies-Jones recalls, describing how she approached other MPs who were wrestling fans to form her all-party group. “Anything of this magnitude – misogyny, abuse, all these issues – they’re not party political. They’re issues that affect everybody.” As well as cracking down on abuse, Davies-Jones hopes to help regulate health and safety and “boost the profile” of the industry. “And I want women to see wrestling as something that they can do.”

If I can use my own experiences, I feel it’s my duty to highlight these issues and try to make a difference”

Unlike Farris, Davies-Jones doesn’t fear being pigeonholed as a new MP because, she says, “I’ve got quite an eclectic range of interests”. Yet she goes on to add, “There’s no shying away from it, I’m a young mum, I’m a woman.” In January 2020, Davies-Jones made headlines after being given permission to breastfeed in the Commons. “I didn’t expect there to be such a big outpouring of support and for it to be such a big thing. For me, it was simply just wanting to be able to feed my child.” As with Blake’s example, the incident demonstrates the power of the personal entwining with the political.

“If I can use my own experiences, then I feel that it’s my duty to raise my voice to highlight these issues and to challenge them and try to make a difference,” Davies-Jones says. Blake concurs. “Quite a lot of politics in the UK depersonalises and dehumanises politicians. We’re very much seen as ‘other,’” she says. “By sharing my experience, I’ve shown that, actually, I get it.

“If you’re prepared to stand up and say ‘this isn’t right’, then things can change. And that’s something powerful for us all to know and learn.”

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