Rachel Reeves Labour Member of Parliament for Leeds West
Harriet Harman visited Lee
ds on Thursday 25th January to deliver the inaugural University of Leeds Alice Bacon Lecture, commemorating the 100th anniversary of women first winning the right to vote.
Harriet has been an incredible advocate for women during her many years of service in parliament. She was able to share her thoughts on the progress we have made in the last 100 years – and the work we still need to do.
No MP has done more for women than Harriet, so it was a privilege to welcome her to the University of Leeds to deliver the inaugural Alice Bacon Memorial Lecture. It was wonderful to listen to one trailblazing Labour woman pay tribute to the life and work of another. When Harriet visited Leeds, she recalled being told that there were no female MPs in Yorkshire because women simply didn’t want to be MPs. Now, some of Labour’s most talented young women MPs are from Yorkshire. Harriet’s speech was an important part of the work to re-write forgotten women like Alice Bacon back into history.
You can read below how Harriet describes the progress of female Yorkshire politicians over recent decades.