Conservative Women's Organisation

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Conservative Women's Organisation
Full nameConservative Women's Organisation
Short nameCWO
PresidentEve Burt MBE
Chairman Pamela Hall OBE
DeputyRushi Millns
DeputyNeeti Gupta
DeputyAphra Brandreth
Founded1919
Headquarters Conservative Campaign HQ
4 Matthew Parker Street,London, SW1H 9HQ ,England
Groups CWO Forums
CWO Development
Conservative Young Women
Ideology Conservatism (British)
British unionism
Political position Centre-right to right-wing
National affiliation Conservative Party
European affiliation European Union of Women [1]
International affiliation International Women's Democrat Union
Website
conservativewomen.uk

The Conservative Women's Organisation (CWO) represents the female members of the Conservative Party in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Contents

The Scottish Conservative Women's Council is the autonomous sister organisation of the CWO in Scotland. The Chairman of the British Section of the European Union of Women also sits on the CWO National Executive.

The youth wing of Conservative Women's Organisation is called Conservative Young Women.

As with all political parties, membership has declined and the CWO had about 5,000 active members in 2012 (although all the women members of the party are actually members). Attendance at the CWO Annual Conference has been between 300 and 750 in the past five years.

It also sends delegates to the National Conservative Convention, the parliament of the party's voluntary wing (Voluntary Party).

History

CWO Supplementary Logo for the organisation's centenary in 2019 CWO 100 Logo.svg
CWO Supplementary Logo for the organisation's centenary in 2019

The National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations' Central Women's Advisory Committee (CWAC) was formed in 1908 and officially founded in 1919, although not affiliated to the Conservative Party until 1928. Its roots go back to the Grand Ladies Council of the Primrose League of 1885. It changed its name to the Women's National Advisory Committee (WNAC) in 1951 and again to the Conservative Women's National Committee (CWNC) in April 1982. [2] It changed to its current title in April 2007.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the CWO had more than a quarter of a million members and became the largest women's political organisation in the Western world. For several decades, the women's organisation's annual conference was regularly held in the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The CWO celebrated its centenary in 2019 at its conference at Methodist Hall in London on 9 March 2019. The organisation created a supplementary centenary logo, which includes a primrose, in reference to its roots in the Primrose League – and uses the suffragette colours of purple, white and green.

Purpose

According to its website, the CWO is:

Organisation

National Executive

  1. "European Union of Women (UK)".
  2. "Conservative Party Archive". bodley.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  3. "Meet the Team".
  4. 1 2 "Forums and Policy".
  5. "CWO Forum – Human Trafficking". ACT London Forum.
  6. "CWO Development".
  7. "Conservative Women's Organisation". Conservatives Women's Organisation.
Conservative Women's Organisation
National Chairman
Assumed office
March 2022
Party political offices
Preceded by
Julie Iles, Chairman
Fleur Butler, Chairman
2019 – present
Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by
Niki Molnar MBE, President
Julie Iles, President
2019 – present
Incumbent