More than twice as many men as women are standing in Herefordshire county elections in two weeks’ time – despite a recent campaign to get more women to stand.
Herefordshire Women’s Equality Group (WEG), which has run a series of events to try to address the imbalance in the county, has found that of the 192 candidates standing in Herefordshire’s 53 council wards, just 59, or 31 per cent, are women.
The gender balance of the county’s current councillors is closer, with 23 women and 30 men.
“We are dismayed to see that the ratio of women candidates to men is considerably lower than we had hoped or expected, given the strong representation of women in the current council,” the group said.
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“We can only hope that the success rate of the women candidates is higher than that of the male candidates!”
WEG is asking the people of Herefordshire “to use their votes wisely on May 4 to make sure women’s voices play their proper part in local decision making for the next four years”.
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