Support the Fawcett Society’s campaign.

The (male) Prime Minister and (male) Leader of the Opposition recently debated women in politics, in a House of Commons that is almost 80 per cent male.

Despite the Prime Minister’s pre-election pledge to make a third of his Ministers women, just four women have made it into the 22-strong Cabinet.

Close to 70 per cent of local Councillors are men, almost 90 per cent of local authorities are run by men.

At a European level, just under two thirds of the UK’s MEPs are male.

The UK is slipping down the global league table when it comes to women’s representation in politics: worldwide, we now rank at 58th out of 190 countries; in 2001 we stood in 33rd position.

Ah, you might ask, why does it matter?

Several reasons.

It’s unjust: women have a right to an equal say in how the country is run, remember the slogan ‘no taxation without representation’?

It makes for poor decisions: everybody knows the best decisions are those that consider lots of different points of view.

But one half of the population is not being heard when choices that affect us all – how to tackle the widening pay gap for example – are discussed.

Outdated attitudes are allowed to live on in our political culture: in response to the Lord Rennard case, a number of politicians from a range of parties suggested sexual harassment was ‘just part and parcel of politics’.

It sends the wrong signal: if parliament cuts women out, why should other walks of life bother to include us?

But we could we fix it.

We urgently need to make sure more women get into positions of power to ensure big decisions that affect us all aren’t made with only men in the room.

In the run up to the next election in 2015, the Fawcett Society will be mounting a major campaign to ensure more women get into parliament, and that party policies deliver for women everywhere.

Dragging Westminster into the 21st century means making sure all the parties feel voter pressure so they stop cutting women out of politics.

Fawcett will be trying to get more women into parliament. But we can’t do it alone.

We need your help, and are asking for you to give (us) £5 to make sure women’s voices are listened to.

Every penny you donate will go towards our work to make the UK a fairer and more equal place.

And if you’re not already a member, join us! Follow us on Facebook! Twitter! Buy the T-shirt!

Help us stand up for equal rights for men and women. The more of us there are, the harder we are to ignore.