United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

David Cameron has been accused of running the country like an old boys' network after he turned up to prime minister's questions with an entirely male frontbench.

An initiative to encourage more women to apply for key roles in Welsh public life has been launched at the Senedd.

It will offer mentoring, shadowing and training as part of Presiding Officer Dame Rosemary Butler's women in public life development scheme.

Only around 5% of council leaders and chief executives of companies in Wales are female.

We invite you to read the full article published January 30, 2014

Regardless of the role or industry in question, networking is often an essential part of the modern day-to-day job. We all build up an array of contacts during our professional lives and we learn from the people we meet and work with. As a professional political consultant, I can vouch for this being as true in Westminster as anywhere else; and I believe that building on these networks is the key to making Parliament a more female-friendly workplace.

Two people have pleaded guilty to sending "menacing" tweets to feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez.

Isabella Sorley, 23, of Newcastle, and John Nimmo, 25, of South Shields, admitted at Westminster Magistrates' Court sending the messages over a public communications network.

We invite you to read the full article published January 7, 2014

What would it take to boost the number of women happy to put themselves forward to become MPs? Emma Sinclair, an entrepreneur, believes the controversial salary hike could hel.

At present 147 of the 650 elected MPs are women. Anything that encourages more smart, intelligent women into politics should be applauded. Anything that helps engage more women to contemplate politics as an accessible career and anything that might lure a superwoman to try her hand at becoming a Member of Parliament should be celebrated.

The MPs making obscene gestures at Sarah Champion and other women in the Commons are the backbench nonentities.

As yet another female Tory MP announces she is to stand down, the soul-searching has begun about why women still find life in the Commons so unbearable. Laura Sandys says she is leaving politics because of "family demands". But the impression given is she is part of a growing exodus of recently elected women; "rising stars" forced out tragically early by the macho posturing in parliament.