SPECIAL EDITION 2013 www.todaymag.co.uk £2.00 FIRST LADY - SECOND TERM Michelle Obama SPECIAL EDITION CELEBRATING LEADING WOMEN OF COLOUR IN POLITICS Todadiversity news Special Edition 2013 Publisher: Contents Keith Seville 4 Diane Abbott 15 Yasmin Qureshi First Black Woman MP One of first three Muslim Women MPs Associate Editor: Shirley Anstis 6 Oona King 16 Valerie Vaz Features Editor: Second Black Woman MP BME Woman MP in the UK (2010) Mehrunissa Khan 7 Dawn Butler 17 Seema Malhotra Graphic Designer: Third Black Woman MP BME Woman MP in the UK (2011) Jovana Perzic 8 Rushanara Ali 18 Sayeeda Warsi Design Consultant: One of first three Muslim Women MPs First Muslim Woman to serve Raj KC in the UK Cabinet Marketing Assistant: 9 Helen Grant O’shane Clarke First Black Woman Conservative MP 19 Sanchia Alasia Labour Party Candidate for Research Assistant: 10 Shabana Mahmood European Elections 2014 Shanice Medford One of first three Muslim Women MPs 20 First Lady Michelle Obama Today Magazine 11 Lisa Nandy First Black Woman in the USA Abbey House One of six Asian Women MPs as a First Lady Arlington Business Park Reading Berkshire 12 Chi Onwurah 24 First Lady Winnie Mandela RG7 4SA Newcastle’s first Black MP First Lady of South Africa (1994 - 1996) Tel: +44 (0) 870 414 5252 14 Priti Patel 26 Porta Simpson-Miller Fax: +44 (0) 870 414 5353 First Woman Asian Conservative MP First Jamaican Woman to serve [email protected] and first Hindu Woman MP as a Prime Minister www.todaymag.co.uk Follow Us: www.facebook.com/ Editors Note todaymag Welcome to our special edition Africa who played a crucial role in the of Today Magazine profiling political transformation of her country and women of colour who are making their Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson www.twitter.com/ mark in the world and are passionate who was again elected in 2012. Today_Magazine about their opportunity to serve. Many I will end with an extract from First of the women have been first at what Lady Michelle Obama’s speech to the they do including MP’s in the UK, such as Democratic National Convention in Today Magazine is owned and Dianne Abbott MP. Each leader uses her September 2012: “ Barack and I were both published by Today Publishing Limited. role to inspire others to make a positive raised by families who didn’t have much in Views expressed in Today Magazine difference in our world. the way of money or material possessions are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily in any way Our cover features the talented but who had given us something far more reflect those of Today Publishing American First Lady Michelle Obama. valuable – their unconditional love, their Limited. The publishers cannot accept She campaigned alongside her husband unflinching legal responsibility for any errors or to present their family to the electorate. sacrifice, and omissions, nor can they accept responsibility for the standing of As a highly successful attorney and the chance to go advertisers or editorial contributions. campaigner she is as qualified to be places they had All prices and credits are accurate at President and has found many ways never imagined time of going to press but are subject to serve her country. She is passionate for themselves.” to change. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission about health and fitness, equipping We hope is strictly prohibited. Today Publishing people to eat better, exercise more and you enjoy and Limited cannot be held responsible access better health advice. take inspiration for any unsolicited material. We have included two other from this issue – © Copyright 2013 Today Publishing international political women, namely please do let Limited. All Rights Reserved. the iconic Winnie Mandela of South us know! Diane Abbott First Black Woman MP in the UK (1987) Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, when she became the first black woman Abbott’s career in politics began to be elected to the House of Commons. in 1982 when she was elected to In 2010, Abbott became Shadow Public Westminster City Council serving until Health Minister after unsuccessfully 1986. In 1987 she was elected to the standing for election as leader of the House of Commons, replacing the Labour Party. deselected serving Labour MP Ernest Abbott was born to Jamaican Roberts as MP for Hackney North & also served on the Treasury Select parents in London in 1953. Her father Stoke Newington. Along with Keith Vaz, Committee of the House of Commons. was a welder and her mother a nurse. Bernie Grant and Paul Boateng she She went on to serve on the Foreign She attended Harrow County Grammar became part of the first black and Affairs Select Committee. Abbott chairs School for Girls, and then Newnham Asian intake in Parliament for the All-Party Parliamentary British- College, Cambridge, where she read almost 100 years. Caribbean Group and the All-Party history. At Cambridge, she was Abbott has a record of disagreeing Sickle Cell and Thalassemia Group. tutored by historian Simon Schama. with some party policies, voting against Abbott is founder of the London Schools After university she became an the Iraq war, opposing ID cards and and the Black Child initiative, which administration trainee at the Home campaigning against the renewal of aims to raise educational achievement Office (1976 to 1978), and then a Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons. levels amongst black children. Race Relations Officer at the National She has been seen as a “maverick, In May 2010, she was re-elected Council for Civil Liberties (1978 to 1980). a free-thinker, willing to rebel against in her constituency of Hackney North Abbott was a researcher and reporter the party machine”. and Stoke Newington, with a doubled at Thames Television from 1980 to 1983 Abbott’s speech on civil liberties, majority on an increased turn-out. and then a researcher and reporter in the debate on the Counter-Terrorism She was given a score of 79% by at the breakfast television company Bill 2008 won The Spectator magazine’s Stonewall based on how she voted TV-am from 1983 to 1985. Abbott was “Parliamentary Speech of the Year” on all gay equality legislation before a press officer at the Greater London award and further recognition at the Parliament between 2005 and 2010. On Council under Ken Livingstone from 2008 Human Rights awards. Abbott has 5 February 2013 MP Diane Abbott voted 1985 to 1986 and Head of Press and served on a number of parliamentary in favour in the House of Commons Public Relations at Lambeth Council committees on social and international Second Reading vote on marriage from 1986 to 1987. issues. For most of the 1990s she equality in Britain. 4 Today Magazine|Special Edition Special Edition | Today Magazine 5 Dawn Butler Oona King Third Black Woman MP in the UK (2005) The House of Commons, held up as a beacon of democracy, has a ‘dirty little secret’, according to black MPs - Second Black Woman MP its racism. Dawn Butler, only the third black woman ever to have become a Labour All Women Shortlist but was an MP, said she faced such frequent unsuccessful Butler put herself forward in the UK (1997) racism from politicians of all parties that for selection for West-Ham but was not she had to ‘pick her battles’ to avoid selected. Following the retirement of Born Oona Tamsyn King on October being constantly in conflict with her Paul Boateng to become British High became Prime Minister, on 27 June 22, 1967, in Great Britain; daughter colleagues. Disillusioned by what she Commissioner to South Africa she was 2007, Butler was made one of the of Hazel King, a teacher, and Preston has found, she is calling for a dedicated selected as the Labour candidate in Labour Party’s six Vice Chairs, with King, a professor; married Tiberio complaints department with the power Brent South and won the subsequent particular responsibility for Youth issues. Santomarco, 1994. (London) Times. As a Labour MP, King to suspend politicians and send them on election with a majority of 11,326. She She was appointed to the Select Education: York University, BA with was branded one of the “Blair Babes,” awareness training courses. Butler’s first is the third black woman to become Committee on the Modernisation of honours in politics, 1990; studied at the media’s nickname for the young attempt at entering Parliament was in a British MP, the others being Diane the House of Commons shortly after University of California-Berkeley. women MPs who came to power along United States because of a Hackney South where she featured on Abbott and Oona King. her election, and has also served on Memberships: Oxfam; Campaign with Prime Minister Tony Blair. She has trumped-up charge of draft dodging. Butler made her standing committees (notably on the for Pension Fund Democracy; Amnesty also had to deal with reporters that He would not be able to return to his maiden speech on 24 Violent Crime Reduction Bill 2006). In International; Jewish Council for Racial express more interest in her fashion native country until 2000, when his May 2005 in which November 2007 she was appointed Equality (J-Core); One World. choices than in her viewpoints. daughter’s efforts on his behalf earned she described her to the Children & Families Select Career: Political assistant to Glyn “People still tell her she’s the him a presidential pardon.