Women’s representation on local councils: the 2026 election in context

Introduction

The 2025 local election results have raised alarm bells for women’s representation, with a lower proportion of women elected than in the years immediately before. If this trend continues then councils, politicians and political parties will need to take serious action to ensure that the last half-century of progress in women’s representation is not reversed.

How many women are elected to local councils?

In 1907 the Qualification of Women Act allowed for women to stand in local county and city council elections for the first time, and the first woman elected to a council was the suffragist Edith Sutton in Reading shortly after the Act was passed. Since this milestone, the road to improved representation of women in local councils has been a long one, and although there has been progress, we are still some way from gender parity. 

The largest change in the proportion of women being selected as candidates, and elected, was in the late 20th century, where the proportion of women in local government seats grew from 16% in 1985 to 28.5% by 2001. Since then there has been a more modest increase, with the proportion of council seats held by women hovering around the low to mid 30s. 

However, as the graph above shows, there are also reasons to be concerned about the rate of progress in recent years. In 2025, for the first time, there was a significant dip in the proportion of women elected relative to those standing. This was beyond the normal variation that might be expected due to the complexities of the local government electoral cycles. Although it is true that county councils tend to have fewer women councillors, as we can clearly see from the results in 2021, this was even more pronounced in 2025. The proportion of women elected to councils definitely dropped more than expected last year. Just over a quarter of candidates elected in 2025 were women (26.5%) the lowest since 2009 (25%). 

What explains these changes?

Why did representation improve?

Attempts have been made to improve women’s representation over the past three decades, and these have been largely successful. All-Women Shortlists were introduced by Labour in the 1990s, and have had a significant impact on representation at a national and local level. 

It is also the case that women were increasingly elected as councillors at the same time as women became generally more integrated into public life, after years of discriminatory employment practices were ended and the culture changed. This included more women in the workplace, appointed to public bodies and the civil service, and, belatedly, more women elected to parliament. Councils represent the society in which they operate, and as discrimination against women was challenged, the proportion of councillors increased. 

More than all of these though, it changed because thousands of women took the important and difficult decision to stand as a councillor, and have represented millions of citizens as a result. 

Why is it still low?

Although we are in a better place than the 1970s, it is still the case that nearly twice as many men are councillors as women. Standing for election is not equally accessible for everyone. Elect Her’s research identifies 55 barriers to women’s participation in local government that bring this fact to light. These range from unconscious cultural biases where the ‘default’ image of a councillor remains male, to the practical reality that women, as the majority of primary carers, often have less time and fewer financial resources to take on a role with no guaranteed income. Survey data shows that half of women councillors between 18 and 44 reported having caring responsibilities, in contrast to only a third of male councillors in this same age range.

Why were fewer women elected in 2025?

These barriers are certainly not new, so what has changed that made representation fall so sharply? The most clear answer to this lies in the 2025 local election results. Statistically, the shift from seats won by parties which fielded fewer women candidates (I.E. the shift in voting patterns from Labour/Conservative to Reform) resulted in fewer women being elected. Labour and the Conservatives had larger proportions of women candidates, and lost many of the seats they were defending to Reform who had fewer women candidates. The net result of this is shown in the charts above.  

Changing political patterns, which will likely continue to occur through 2026 and beyond will likely continue to impact women’s representation in Local Government. Monitoring and analysing this will continue to be vital given that women’s representation in councils has long depended on the relative strength of different parties. 

What does 2026 hold in store?

If 2025 was a bad year for women’s representation on local councils, 2026 looks set to be worse. In 2025 the proportion of women standing for election was relatively similar to previous years, even if the proportion elected was lower. In 2026, the proportion of women standing for election is lower. This analysis by Dr Hannah Bunting at the University of Exeter Elections Centre found that women made up the lowest percentage of total candidates since 2021. 

We will have to wait until the dust has settled in the next few weeks to know for sure how this week’s results impact the full cohort of councillors across the country, but if last year’s trend of fewer women winning elections continues, coupled with the smaller proportion of women candidates, then this year could see the lowest level of women taking up councillor roles for years. Given how large the elections are in 2026, this may also result in the smallest proportion of women councillors across England we have seen for several electoral cycles. Only time will tell. We will be working with experts to publicise the analysis as soon as possible after the election. 

The future of women’s representation on councils

It’s impossible to predict the future, especially in this political environment, but we do know that without sustained effort we are in danger of losing the progress we have made in women’s representation on local councils in England since the 1970s. 

There are trends that are affecting women across all levels of politics, such as increasing hostility faced online. And there are those that particularly affect councillors, like the cost of living crisis reducing opportunities for participating in an unpaid role, regional variation and differences between types of councils. More recently, there have also been concerns raised about the impact that Local Government Reorganisation might have on women’s representation, given the heavier casework, more travel and higher campaign costs faced in unitary councils. 

But there are changes that can and should be made to improve women’s representation in councils. Organisations like Elect Her have useful information on the changes that need to take place and information for women interested in becoming a councillor. There are structural barriers in the way of selection by parties, of being a councillor, and of winning elections, but, as the last 50 years have shown, these can be overcome. 

We have only included data on women’s representation in this analysis, but all forms of social representation are equally important, and a flourishing local democracy should represent its citizens across every social dimension: age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, religion, and the intersections between all of these. Councils are the closest form of politics to communities, and because of that, they are better placed than any other to represent every sector of society. 

If you are interested in becoming a councillor, are standing for election, or are new to the role, LGIU is here to support you.

This article was written using data kindly provided by the Elections Centre at the University of Exeter.