Let's hope it doesn't take another hundred years for Parliament to become gender-equal

Nancy Astor became the first woman MP in Parliament in 1919. Since then 489 women have been elected, that's fewer than the current number of MPs

It was perhaps symbolic that women won the right to vote exactly 100 years ago after legislation was introduced in Parliament to remedy an injustice to men. Members of the armed forces who went to fight in the First World War lost their right to vote because the law disenfranchised those away from home for more than a year.

Fortunately, the 1918 change came while women were still playing a vital role in the war effort by keeping essential industries and munitions factories going. So 86 years after Mary Smith, a wealthy Yorkshirewoman, began the campaign for votes for women – followed by the suffragists and then the more militant suffragettes – their arguments could no longer be resisted. It was not the end of the story. Only women aged 30 and over with certain property qualifications were enfranchised; all women over 21 did not win the vote until 1928.

As a statue of a woman – Millicent Fawcett, leader of the non-violent National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies – is unveiled in Parliament Square for the first time, it is a good time to celebrate the huge advances of the past 100 years. After another world war, we saw more women in the workplace rather than the home (or, more often, juggling both); the landmark 1970 Equal Pay Act; the (largely symbolic) 1975 Sex Discrimination Act; statutory maternity pay and leave; abortion rights; the pill; campaigns against domestic violence, rape and modern slavery; state help with childcare costs; publication of gender pay gap figures by companies with 250 or more workers and now the watershed moment of #MeToo.

That it has taken so long for it to become unacceptable for men to abuse positions of power to sexually harass women is a reminder that there is still a lot more to do. So were the disgusting scenes at the men-only charity dinner staged by the now thankfully defunct Presidents Club at The Dorchester hotel last month. And the BBC’s woeful handling of the pay gap between the corporation’s male and female staff.

The internet has been a liberating force for all, but its dark side affects women more than men, as we can see from the abuse, intimidation and misogyny on social media. The danger is that this will deter women from entering public life when we need more of them to do so.

There is also more to be done, at both home and school, to tackle in childhood a culture which still belittles girls, and perpetuates a society in which one in three women suffers domestic abuse and one in five is sexually assaulted. That is shameful in the 21st century.

Also in 1918, a separate law allowing women to stand for Parliament came in; in the following year, Nancy Astor became the first woman to take her seat. Progress has been slow, however. Only 489 women have been elected, fewer than the current number of MPs (650). Before 1987, women had never held more than 5 per cent of seats in the Commons.

A “record” 208 women were elected last June, but still make up only 32 per cent of the total. (The 210 women peers comprise 26 per cent of the House of Lords). We have had two female prime ministers in Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May, both Conservatives. Although Labour, partly thanks to all-women shortlists, has seen its proportion of female MPs rise to 45 per cent, the Tories lag behind with just 21 per cent. To Labour’s shame, two women have served briefly as acting party leader – Margaret Beckett and Harriet Harman – but it has never elected a female leader. Rightly, there is growing pressure inside the party to put that right next time.

Parliament will be a much better and wiser place, more in touch with the real world, when 50 per cent of its members are women. We can only hope we do not have to wait another 100 years to see it happen.