The North Devon Conservative Association has recently been given approval to set up a North Devon branch of the Conservative Women’s Organisation (CWO) and would like to invite you to join our inaugural meeting.
The CWO is the oldest politically affiliated female organisation in the world. Set up in 1919 to engage more women and encourage greater participation in politics, it provides training, mentoring and speaking opportunities and supports women who wish to become involved at all levels of public life or in their local communities: From School Governors to Councillors and MPs. The CWO is there to support them all the way.
CWO aims to:
- To represent women in The Conservative Party.
- To present candidates for selection in election campaigns.
- To support women into elected office through training, mentoring, campaigning and networking.
- To offer focus, beliefs and values that are in line with today’s Conservative Party.
- To establish contacts and learn the viewpoints that influence future discussions which will form Conservative Policies.
Across the UK in the 2017 and 2019 General Elections the Conservative Party lost the support of women under 50. We need to attract younger, female voters, and at present only 33% of members are women.
In the South West, 7 out of 48 Conservative MPs are women, including our very own here in North Devon. 1 out of the 4 South West PCCs is female, and 29% of Conservative Councillors across the region are also women.
North Devon Council has 17 of 42 Councillors that are female, 3 of which are Conservative. We have 2 female Conservative Devon County Councillors from North Devon and there are 6 members of the CWO here of which 3 are male.
It is in everyone’s best interests to take responsibility for the recruitment of women into politics. We want to increase Conservative leadership and membership across the whole of North Devon. Offering opportunities to promote our voices and be heard by organising and taking part in events from small group gatherings to big countywide shows.
As such, we would like to invite you to an online event via Zoom on Thursday 2nd September at 7pm. At this event you will be introduced to current members and have the opportunity to meet our North Devon MP Selaine Saxby and our Police & Crime Commissioner for Devon & Cornwall, Alison Hernandez. This should be an exciting event where you will also get the chance to voice your own opinions about what matters to you.
If are not able to make it to the event, but are still interested in getting involved, not to worry, we are also arranging an in-person get together in the next couple of months, which may suit some of our members better. If you are interested in possibly attending, please get in touch with either one of us and we can provide you with event details when things are confirmed.
If anyone has a special interest in a role as Chair, Deputy Chair, Treasurer, Membership & Fundraising or Secretary please let us know and we can gather nominations too.
We expect a lot of interest for this so please sign up early by contacting either of us with an e-mail address so that we can send you the Zoom link for the event. You can contact the NDCA office at office@northdevonconservatives.org.uk.
We look forward to seeing you at this momentous meeting to establish the North Devon Branch of CWO.
Yours sincerely,
Natasha Vukic & Cllr Pru Maskell