On Friday, Jo Swinson spoke at a training day for women run by Omnicom UK, which Media Week reported. She gave a bit of an insight into how you get a ministerial job in, at least, our party. I have to say I was surprised:

It took Swinson a long time to realise that she had to ask to become a minister. “I thought I’d do a good job and then I’d get promoted,” she said. “It took me a while to realise I had to go and make the case.”

I’d like to know a bit more about this one. You wouldn’t expect things to be any different for the men in this party, but did Mike Moore, Ed Davey, Vince Cable, Danny Alexander, Norman Lamb and co actually have to go to Nick and say: “I’m here, this is what I can do, pick me.” Nick is generally very good on issues relating to equality. He’s championed shared parental leave for years, he’s expanded childcare, he’s spoken out on violence against women and girls. What he hasn’t done is put a woman in the Cabinet, despite the fact that some of the best performers in the government have been people like Lynne Featherstone and Jo herself.

We’ve seen recently from the appalling commentary on Rachel Reeves’ pregnancy that highly sexist attitudes exist in the media and amongst the people who make our laws. Jo said that such coverage makes her furious.

She was asked how she felt about the way the media covered her pregnancy two years ago, and also about the stories questioning the ability of the pregnant MP Rachel Reeves to do her job. “I’m furious,” she said. “How in 2015 are we still having a discussion about whether pregnant women can do their jobs properly?”

Even if the media is not being directly, consciously sexist, the way they portray pregnant women, as a bump with an irrelevant human attached, is ridiculous, as I wrote a few years ago:

Pregnancy takes around 40 weeks. During that time, you pretty much carry on as normal. You go to work, you go shopping, you go to the gym, you go out to parties. Harriet Harman fought and won a parliamentary by-election in 1982 during her pregnancy. Angela Constance, now the Scottish Government’s youth employment minister won her Livingston constituency from Labour while in the early stages of her pregnancy with son Cyrus. I’m sure that neither of them thought for a second that they were showing off their bump as they headed off to the next stop on their campaign trail.

You can’t exactly leave your bump at home when your pregnant, but it shouldn’t define everything about you. Pregnant women don’t stop being nurses, lawyers, government ministers or whatever.

Jo also spoke about the combination of ageism and sexism which marked her early years in politics:

She added: “I had the dual issue of being a woman and being young. I think I experienced ageism more than sexism. I used to get mistaken for a researcher all the time because people looked at me and didn’t see an MP.”

Swinson told a story about canvassing for support at people’s front doors when she was 23 and trying to get elected. On one occasion, she did it without wearing make-up and people’s first reaction was to remark how young she was. So she made sure she wore make-up the next time.

She also spent her early twenties trying to look like she was in her thirties: “I always wore a suit. I didn’t want people to question whether I could do the job.”

On International Women’s Day, we should reflect on what a long way we have to go for women to get the respect and equal treatment they deserve.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social