Welcome to WLGS's unique on-line database of women councillors in England and Wales. Here you can search for stories of past elected women from your area, read about their achievements and experiences, and submit stories of your own for entry.
The database is still in its early days and needs YOU to bring it to life. If you are or were an elected woman councillor, you can submit your own experiences and stories for other women to learn from and enjoy. Don't be shy! Too often women hold back from talking up their achievements - this is the place where you can tell all!
We want current and future women to be inspired by your past and present to seek election to represent their communities and bring about change for the better.
If you would like to become a site user in order to submit your or someone else's story, please contact the administrator: admin@womeninlocalgovernment.org.uk with your name, address, email address and telephone number and we will add you to the database's users. You do not need to become a user in order to search the database of stories already posted.
At WLGS events since we re-formed the society, women have spoken up about their experiences as women candidates and elected representatives. These are the kinds of stories we want to collect during this centenary year - to celebrate the struggle women have faced (and continue to face) to represent their communities. Here are a few - please add to them by getting in touch using the email above and telling us yours.
"I was asked to stand for the local council because I was good at jumble sales."
Baroness Sally Hamwee
Rose Hacker, 101 years old, spoke about her experiences with other women in the 1960s and 1970s, demanding their right to work alongside men to secure a better world. She was a member of the London County Council and later elected to the Greater London Council and proposed another woman to become an alderman, who became the first woman to bring a carrycot with her new baby in to meetings at County Hall.
"At a West Midlands regional meeting in the 1980s, I was the only woman in the room and was handed a cup by a male councillor and asked if I would bring him another cup of tea."
Theresa Stewart, first woman leader of Birmingham City Council
"I was the first woman to stand for the Court of the Common Council in the City of London. I tied with the sitting member and the Lord Mayor cast his vote against me."
Belle Harris, Tower Hamlets
Frances Dove was born in 1847,the daughter of a Lincolnshire clergyman. With some difficulty she acquired an education and went to Girton College, Cambridge. Her first appointment was as Assistant Mistress at Ladies Cheltenham College. From there she went to St Leonards, St Andrews where she was headmistress. In 1896 she became the founder headmistress of Wycombe Abbey School and retired in 1910.
She worked all her life to promote education for girls and fought for the right of women to play a full part in the life of the community at all levels. She was a suffragette and supported the campaign. As headmistress of Wycombe Abbey, the parents and girls were fully informed of all her political activities and community work. Several of her old pupils were to become prominent in the fight for women's civil rights and one was to become one of the first women MPs (including Mary Pickford).
She was elected as a councillor in November 1907 in High Wycombe and balmost became Mayor the following year. See her entry in the database for more details.
Frances Dove died in 1942.