A Woman's Work (Non-Fiction) by Harriet Harman

Hardback:  Why does the political representation of women matter?  And which hurdles - personal, political and societal - have been faced, fought and sometimes overcome in the past thirty years?

From campaigning with small children to increasing the number of women in Parliament, bringing women's issues to the heart of the Labour Party and tackling a parliamentary culture with no consideration for family life, this frank, inspiring and politically charged book is a crucial account of the progress (and occasional setbacks) made in fighting to change the Labour Party, UK politics and the way the country has been governed since the 1970s.

When Harriet Harman started her career, men-only job adverts and a 'women's rate' of pay were the norm, while female MPs were a tiny minority - a woman could not even sign for a mortgage.  But, she argues, we should never just be grateful that things are better now.  There is still more to do.

"Women were thoroughly constrained, told what we could and, more often, couldn't do.  You can't expect the same pay as a man, you can't expect to be treated equally at work, you can't expect men to play their part at home, you can't object if your husband beats you, you can't expect to be taken seriously intellectually, you can't expect to be valued if you're not young and pretty.  And I, along with many young women back then, had an equally strong corresponding conviction that we were not going to put up with it," wrote Harriet Harman.

In A Woman's Work (2017), Harriet, Britain's longest-serving female MP, looks at her own life to see how far we have come, and where we should go next.  This is an inspiring and refreshingly honest account of the part she played (and the setbacks long the way) in the movement that transformed politics and women's lives - from helping striking female factory workers to standing for election while pregnant, from her memories of her own mother to her success in reforming the law on maternity rights, childcare and domestic violence and getting more women into parliament.

But it is also a call for all of us to get together and continue the fight for equality today.

If we don't, it won't happen.

About the author:  Harriet Harman was elected as Labour MP for Peckham in 1982.  Joining a House of Commons which was 97 per cent male, she had three children while in Parliament.  She has been politics' most prominent champion for women's rights, introducing the National Childcare Strategy and the Equality Act, changing the law on domestic violence and increasing female representation;  she was also the first woman Labour politician to answer Prime Minister's Questions.