By Jonathan Isaby
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Wednesday night saw a reception at the Mint Hotel in Westminster to mark the fifth anniversary of Women2Win, the organisation founded by Anne (now Baroness) Jenkin, Brooks Newmark MP and others in 2006 to encourage more women to stand as Conservative parliamentary candidates and enter the House of Commons.
Home Secretary and W2W President, Theresa May, gave a short address at the event in which she paid tribute in particular to Anne Jenkin for her efforts towards ensuring the increase in female representation on the Tory benches in the Commons from 17 to 49 after last year's general election.
She said that a greater diversity of representation in Parliament means a better quality of decisions being made, and observed that the women of the 2010 intake were a "feisty bunch" who were "making their voices heard".
Mrs May was quick to emphasise that W2W was in no way about "squeezing second raters" into the House of Commons but about identifying and then supporting women with something to contribute to public life.
"We made a big step last year, but there is more to do and we need to carry on the process of ensuring greater diversity in the House of Commons," she concluded.
