Bethan Jenkins AC/AM Blog

I SPOKE at three very inspiring International Women’s Day events yesterday. The first was for Chwarae Teg in Bridgend with co-speakers Charlotte Williams, Tessa Sanderson, Denise and Janet Hay, and Hayley Parsons from Go Compare.com. I spoke at a Bevan Foundation event in Merthyr Tydfil on a panel with other women in public life, and in Cwmafan as part of the YWCA’s celebrations.

Of course, all of these women are brilliant at what they do. I was in awe at their words, their successes, their drive and I was privileged to have been asked to speak at the events, and to seek to inspire others to be political and to push themselves forward in politics.

Nonetheless, driving back from the last event, I thought I’d reserve some personal thoughts for this blog, and why perhaps we still have a long way to go. Yes, International Women’s Day is important, but what’s more vital is that women feel supported and enthused every day of the year.

Being in politics at an early age and being a woman at that has been quite a roller coaster journey for me. Being elected by party members to stand as an AM was something to celebrate,  but it made life quite difficult as it was all change, and the spotlight  from the press and political commentators alike was on new candidates, new faces.

Many young women can offer something different to a different audience- an audience that are starting to get inspired. Slowly but surely, we are realising that young women can make a difference, and stand for election.

Looking back, standing for election was a challenging time, but I truly think that my confidence has grown since then. I still think that political parties need to recognise that young people, especially women are an asset to them. We can encourage people to join that would never have even blinked at a politician in the street, let alone talked to one. I hear on the grapevine that some other parties look to Plaid, and feel they should be emulating us in encouraging young politicians to become an AM. Yes, that is good, but when we join, when we become active, there must be an assurance that there are networks of people there to support us. It’s not like we are sparkly toys to put on show.

This is not to say that this is what happens all the time to all young female politicians, yet sometimes I truly believe that grassroots organisations, lobby groups and women outside politics can see our benefits a little bit more than party machines.

I often feel that because I am passionate and idealistic, it is seen as a flaw- I hear them think ‘ well, she’ll grow out of it’. However, today’s speeches and words of wisdom made me realise that this is often about the status quo trying to fit young politicians into neat boxes which are just not our shape or size. Energising young women to become politicians is not about creating a cardboard cut out, a yes person, a smiley face for TV. It’s about offering something new, unique, creative that wasn’t there before. Scratch the surface and young women have a lot to offer- when you don’t scratch the surface, they start to wonder how they can make a difference.

Women politicians need to look at themselves, and realise their self worth. We should, for example, encourage representatives of all political parties to come together more often, share ideas and feelings, so that we can realise that we are not alone and that we all have the same hurdles and problems as other women in society.

So yes, today was a great day to celebrate women. But we should mark it to raise awareness of what is not so perfect in our world, too. And yes – change it for the better!