Today is International Women’s Day 2018, and Gosport Conservatives have had great success when it comes to being at the forefront of female representation in Councils and Parliament. Gosport’s first female MP - arguably the best MP we’ve ever had, Caroline Dinenage is Conservative. On Gosport Borough Council Conservatives have more women councillors than Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined, and with the forthcoming Council elections, we’ll be fielding more female candidates than any other party.
But it didn’t start there for women in politics in Gosport. Gosport’s first female councillor was a woman called Charlotte Luckraft. Born in 1857, Councillor Luckraft was elected to represent Alverstoke in 1920. She became Gosport’s first female Magistrate in 1921, and is described as being ‘a single lady of her own means’. Cllr Luckraft is also said to have been ‘…a woman of considerable experience in many spheres of work’, much like some of today’s female councillors. She was also incredibly active in the Girl Guide Association, Cllr Luckraft was a school governor, sat on the board of the War Memorial Hospital, and represented the Alverstoke Parochial Church, much like today’s women Gosport Conservatives.
Gosport Conservatives are proud of the women in our party and the excellent work they do for Gosport, Lee-on-the-Solent, Stubbington, and Hill Head. We’d like to thank them.
They are, in no particular order, Cllr Maggie Morgan, CCllr Pal Hayre, Cllr Zoe Huggins, Cllr Lynn Hook, Caroline Dinenage MP, Cllr Linda Batty The Mayor of Gosport, Cllr Kathleen Jones, Cllr Diane Furlong, and Cllr Inge Forder. We also have a thriving party membership of women in Gosport Conservatives, as well as an unsung hero in our team who many Gosport residents may have spoken to when calling into the office, Lesley Heather.
In this year where we commemorate the centenary of women’s suffrage, and some women having got the vote in 1918, and looking forward to 2020 and the centenary of Charlotte Luckraft being voted onto Gosport Borough Council, there is always more that can be done to promote women in Gosport, and female participation in politics. Perhaps you’d like to be the next Charlotte Luckraft, the next female county councillor or borough councillor, or become an MP?
Get involved and make Gosport a better place here.