Senedd Women's Caucus

The Senedd Women’s Caucus is a cross-party forum for Members which brings together women parliamentarians across party lines to provide peer support and advance gender equality.

The Caucus is made up of all women Members of the Senedd, chaired by Joyce Watson MS and a Steering Group of representatives from each party.

Vision and Mission

Our vision

A gender equal and fully inclusive Wales, where:

everyone is empowered to engage with politics (as citizens and as elected representatives) regardless of their gender and other protected characteristics, including socio-economic status, and
policies, laws, programmes and budgets are designed to be sensitive to the diverse needs and experiences of the population.

Our mission

To bring together women Members of the Senedd from across the political parties to:

work purposefully, promoting and supporting women’s participation in politics and identifying current barriers within our parliamentary system.
develop and advocate policy and practice initiatives that address issues affecting our women parliamentarians and society.
advance the agreed agenda of the Caucus within political parties and other spheres of Senedd influence.

The Caucus may engage in a wide range of activities in pursuit of the progressive realisation of removing barriers to effective political participation and enhancing equality within the Senedd and in society.

Most recent event

International Women's Day 2024

To mark International Women’s Day 2024, the Senedd hosted a morning of activity for local schools, focussed around the theme of #InspiringInclusion. The programme included:

Panel discussion hosted by Jess Hope Clayton with Jess Davies, Molly Fenton, and Taylor Edmonds
Roundtable event with the Senedd Women’s Caucus
Feedback & networking
Tours of the Senedd and opportunities to observe Plenary

As part of the programme, members of the Women’s Caucus participated in roundtable discussions with students from Fitzalan High School, Cardiff West High School, Ysgol Gwent Is-Coed, Cantonian, Bro Edern, and Ysgol Plasmawr. These discussions drew connections between the importance of gender equality, wider democratic representation and the work of the Senedd, as well as encouraging students to think of ways they can inspire change in their schools and wider communities.

All members of the Senedd were invited to hear feedback from the morning’s activities, and some of those Members involved in the roundtables made reference to the event in their Plenary contributions on 12 March, as part of the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership’s statement on International Women’s Day.