Post-elections the time for decisions

It is extraordinary that Canterbury’s Conservative councillors should be using our money to produce plans for major strategic changes so close to an election [‘Serco binned’, Gazette, March 7].

Replacing Serco would be a major

achieve a 50:50 split in the House of Commons. Perhaps if you know a woman who would make a great local councillor, why not ask them to stand? Sometimes, all it takes is a conversation or a little nudge to give someone the confidence to do so.

While gender inequality exists around the world and takes many forms; it’s also right on our doorstep: Fantastic local homelessness charity Porchlight recently published research on how homelessness is affecting women in Kent. They found that Kent has one of the highest percentages of women rough sleepers in the country, and that homelessness affects them in very specific and worrying ways. Many are homeless because they are escaping domestic violence or abusive relationships, making their journey out of homeless extremely challenging.

I’m grateful to Porchlight for shining a light on this issue, and for recently meeting with me again to share their findings. I’m keen to continue working with them as they begin to implement their strategy for tackling this issue and will help as much as I can in raising the matter beyond our area.

Also doing excellent work for women in Kent are domestic abuse charity Rising Sun. In Kent, 14,000 domestic abuse arrests were made in the year 2016-17. And the headline also emerged recently that in the UK, a woman dies from domestic abuse every three days. These are really shocking numbers and further evidence of the progress that’s desperately needed.

So while the journey to women’s equality has a way to go, it’s encouraging that we have these brilliant local groups providing support to the vulnerable women in our communities.

But we’ve all got to play our part – let’s use International Women’s Day as an opportunity to educate others and ourselves.

Because while it’s true that gender disparity is preventing women from advancing in society, it’s also preventing our society from truly advancing as a whole.