Find out more about being a woman in politics in virtual talk given by MP
ou don’t have to support a political party to attend an interesting talk by a local MP.
On Thursday, May 13 at 6pm I will be virtually listening to a talk by Gillian Keegan, MP for Chichester, with one or two questions up my sleeve.
Gillian will be talking about her life as an MP, a mum and why more women should become involved in politics.
Women are still underrepresented in politics, parliaments and public life, so it was good to see so many standing recently for our local elections.
The fact that women are putting themselves forward for elections more and more to run for office is a positive step.
Youth are a very important part of promoting women in public and political life, so this talk may be of interest to any studying politics.
Women lead social change around the world and so from the suffragettes to modern day feminists, women and men have fought long and hard for women’s right to vote and hold office; the first nation to grant female suffrage was New Zealand in 1893, and the last country was Saudi Arabia in 2015.
Gillian is currently serving as the Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills and is married to Michael ,with two
Ystep-sons. She is not alone in Sussex as we boast two more female MPsin Mims Davies, taking over from Sir Nicholas Soames in 2019 for Mid Sussex, and Nus Ghani, born in 1972 in Pakistan and elected in 2019 to represent Wealden.
Gillian was first elected in June 2017 and re-elected in 2019. Since becoming an MP Gillian has occupied several positions within government. She was elected to the Public Accounts Select Committee in September 2017.
In December 2018, Gillian stepped down from the committee as she was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Her Majesty’s Treasury serving the ministerial portfolio.
Gillian was then later promoted to serve as the principal PPS at the Ministry of Defence serving the Secretary of
State, and several months later she was elevated again to serve as the PPS to the Home Secretary, a position she held until August 2019.
Most recently she served as the PPS to Matt Hancock at the Department for Health and Social Care.
In February 2020, Gillian was elevated to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education where she is the minister responsible for apprenticeships and skills.
Gillian was born in Leigh, Lancashire, and went to primary school in Yorkshire. She started work as an apprentice at Delco Electronics, a subsidiary of General Motors in Kirkby aged 16.
While learning about the manufacturing industry she was sponsored to study a degree in Business Studies at Liverpool John Moores University.
For almost 30 years that followed she worked and lived abroad, working in the manufacturing, banking and IT industries.
She was appointed chief marketing officer for a global company in the travel technology sector, prior to that she was responsible for global customer sales and account management, based in Madrid for eight years.
In 2010, Gillian spent a year studying a Sloan Fellowship master’s degree at London Business School, primarily to update her knowledge on digital technology and to develop her strategy and leadership skills.
A varied background that should make for an interesting and inspiring talk for us all, as you don’t have to have aspirations to become a politician to influence change for the better and to benefit future generations.
Contact office@ horshamconservatives.com to attend.