MP Mhairi stars in special exhibition
A Paisley politician is featuring in a landmark exhibition that tells the story of women’s fight for equal votes.
Voice and Vote: Women’s Place in Parliament includes a video by Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP Mhairi Black, who talks about being a woman in the political arena.
She says:“I became a Member of Parliament by accident to be honest.
“I started campaigning during the 2014 Independence Referendum and obviously we lost that, but when we did, I thought to myself ‘ I haven’t given up two years of my life campaigning and trying to fight for a better society just to be told to get back in the box and for nothing to change in Westminster.’
“So I was encouraged to put my name forward and I did…and the rest is history, as they say!”
Ms Black says she was very conscious of being a female candidate.
“I mean, I know it’s already well documented, the number of sexist misogynistic abuse that I receive and other female members receive, and it’s purely for the fact that we’re women – a woman with an opinion,”she adds.
“It’s quite astounding, but the flip side of that is the positive, is that at least we’re exposing it and at least we’re making people aware that that is not the norm.
“That the norm is that women are just as capable as anything that a man is.
“My aspiration, or where I think we should all be aiming to get, is where it really doesn’t matter what gender someone is…like it’s not even worth reporting, it is so irrelevant.”
Voice and Vote: Women’s Place in Parliament, which is free in Westminster Hall, runs until Saturday, October 6, 2018. Book tickets on Parliament’s website: https://www.parliament. uk/get-involved/ vote-100/voice-and-vote