Record Number Of Women Running For Election

A record one in four candidates standing for Parliament are women, in a sign that May's election could change the face of Parliament.

Currently just over one in five MPs are female.

The Labour party is leading the way in terms of female representation, selecting 53% female candidates in target seats.

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Launching Labour's women's manifesto at a nursery, deputy leader Harriet Harman told Sky News that having more female MPs can have a legislative impact.

She said: "All women are different but there are some commons themes. One of them is that women still have a disproportionate responsibility for caring for children, also unequal pay is an issue.

"Above all, we need to make sure women understand that politics and democracy is for women as well as men.

"Too often women feel politics is just a group of men shouting at each other, who don't understand their lives.

"More women MPs don't just change the face of parliament, but it changes the agenda too."

One in four Conservative candidates are female in their target seats, while 26% of Lib Dem parliamentary candidates are female.

Just 12% of UKIP's candidates are women. It is the only one of the major parties to be more male than in 2010, with only 77 women standing compared with 83.

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Professor Jennifer Hudson, of University College London, said: "In 2010 there were 143 women MPs elected, and that was 22% of the total make-up of Parliament.

"Now the electoral reform society has suggested that we will get to 30% women MPs - that's a significant increase.

"But I think we ought to be mindful that that is still just 30% and women are 52% of the population. So I think we need to be careful (to remember) that historically we're coming from very low numbers of women MPs and whilst we're making good progress, I think there's still a long way to go."