A St Clement’s High School student’s project benefited from a voice of experience, when she interviewed a former Leader of the House of Lords about women in politics.

Leah Barton, who is in Year 10 at the school, spoke to Conservative Life Peer Baroness Evans of Bowes Park as part of her GCSE Citizenship project in which she was investigating the unequal representation of women in politics.

“The focus of the interview was to understand more about unequal representation of women in politics and how it can affect women wanting to get into politics or standing as a candidate in an election,” she explained. “I asked Baroness Evans about her personal opinion and perspective of unequal representation, and what she thinks could be done to improve the divide from a young age.

“She said that social media plays a big part in this, due to abuse targeted at women and pressures from the public; however, she did say that attitudes and stereotypes have improved. She thinks that schools should create more opportunities for young girls to become more politically engaged, through bringing MPs into school and having more discussions about politics.

“Overall, women in politics are very under-represented, where stereotypes and criticism are a high influence on women, and if support was given to women when starting, it can give them more confidence to have as they go through the process of being a candidate, and encourage them to believe they can win and become a councillor or MP at some point, if they have the true courage.”

Baroness Evans was made a Life Peer in 2014, and served as Leader of the House of Lords from 2016 to 2022. Her husband, James Wild, is the Member of Parliament for North West Norfolk.

Due to a last-minute commitment, the interview was conducted over the phone, where St Clement’s Head of Citizenship, Abigail Morton, was on hand to facilitate proceedings.

“Leah’s target in particular was to gain specific insight into the perspectives of women currently involved in politics, as to whether women are under-represented, whether they are elected representatives themselves, women working within political parties, or female candidates in local elections,” she said.

“Her aim is to gather a wide range of ideas, views, and opinions, through both primary and secondary research, in order to write a report to show her findings. Her findings will conclude whether or not there is inequality in politics based on gender.”

Other Citizenship projects at St Clement’s, which is a member of the West Norfolk Academies Trust, have seen students take part in fundraising, campaign on issues affecting the area, and volunteer within the community.

Mrs Morton continued: “Year 10 GCSE Citizenship students are all currently working on their Active Citizenship Investigations at the moment. This is an independent project which is 15 per cent of their total grade. They have to choose a topic of interest and either carry out an investigation into an issue, or carry out a form of advocacy to make a difference in the community or in wider society.

“We have students raising money for various charities, we have students raising awareness of the impact of potholes on young people in the community, students volunteering to visit the residents at Terrington Lodge Care Home, and this is just some of the outstanding action being taken by our Year 10 students at the moment.”

She added: “Leah is the first student at St Clement’s to interview a member of the House of Lords as part of their Active Citizenship project. We are very proud of Leah for showing initiative and reaching out to various people in aid of her project.

“We are very excited that Baroness Evans was able to be of such a great deal of help to Leah in reaching a conclusion in her GCSE work.”