Women Making Waves
Kemi Badenoch MP
I have never had any doubt in my mind that I was a Conservative. I joined the party in 2005 and like everyone, the journey to becoming an MP had its ups and downs, but the support from the Conservative family helped me get to where I am today. Six months after I was elected as the MP for Saffron Walden, I was appointed Conservative Vice Chair for Candidates for the Conservative party, and worked hard to diversify the candidate pool for the party even further. During this time we increased the number of ethnic minority candidates from 42 to 74 by 2019 and following on from the election that year we now have 22 ethnic minority MPs. I am proud of our party's record. We have 5 ethnic minorities in the cabinet and many others like myself in senior positions in government. I’m glad that I’ve also been able to continue this work beyond the party candidates process, and into my government role as a Treasury and Equalities Minister. The Conservative Party and this government remains focused on levelling up and creating better opportunities for everyone, regardless of their background.
Baroness Verma
Baroness Verma has been a peer since 2006. She became a member of the Conservative Party in 1999, after her interest in the Conservative Party was inspired by her father. He always encouraged her to form her own opinions in politics rather than follow the status quo as many believed that the Conservative Party was not supposed to be the party of choice for anyone of colour. Baroness Verma decided not to follow this expectation of her as a BAME woman and preferred Conservative values. As a woman from an ethnic minority with a family background in business, she believed that being a Conservative would better benefit her own community and family because the Party encouraged enterprise and promoted opportunities to progress economically. She thinks this is one of the key principles that only the Conservatives offer and can greatly benefit ethnic minority communities in the UK.
Rushi Millns
After university, I stumbled into working for an ISP when very few people knew what the Internet industry was. So, by the time the Internet really took off I had over two years of experience working in the sector. The Dot Com boom was a phenomenal time to work in this industry. Not just because we were all twenty somethings making national decisions and influencing the international stage within our companies, but the technology we were working on was constantly emerging and we had to flex and move with it. We used to laugh and call it bleeding edge; cutting edge just was not raw enough. That was a long time ago now, in fact, I now talk about it as history in my lessons after retraining as a teacher in Computer Science.
Mara Makunura
Throughout my time volunteering, I saw that there were always a lot of issues that people were facing that needed addressing. That is when I started to think about getting involved in local politics as I wanted to do more for others and be their voice on the local political stage. Even though that I now have 11 children, I felt that I could still get involved and work around my family whilst also continuing to get them involved. Since being elected in 2018, I have been able to help with many issues and have the joy of seeing many smiles on people’s faces.
Celebrating Women Making Waves
We decided one day is not enough, we have dedicated the whole week to celebrating International Women’s Day 2021… Here is a sneaky peak of all the women we are going to feature.
Click to scroll to the right.
Scroll to the right.