'This is International Women's Day!'

Our president, Lorely Burt MP, introduced the meeting. She is convinced that there will be many more women among the ranks of LibDem members after the next election, due to the work of WLD and the Campaign for Gender Balance. But she emphasised that WLD is concerned, not just with Westminster, but with getting women elected at all levels of Government and also within the Party. We are also concerned with all the many issues of concern to women, such as those to be discussed at this meeting.

Lorely paid tribute to the work done by our Baronesses, of whom there are 21, 31% of the total number of LibDem Lords. They are an extremely conscientious and hard-working group of distinguished women, whose achievements are of immense value to the Party and the country.

WLD needs to raise its profile and increase membership. Lorely stressed that she is eager for us to 'use' her in any way we wish, emailing her with concerns, inviting her to speak at meetings etc.

Flo Clucas

Flo is a former regional party chair and is currently an executive member for European Affairs on Liverpool City Council and Chair of the NW Region European Affairs committee. Firstly, she gave us a warm welcome to Liverpool and hoped that we would return when we have more time to experience what the city has to offer.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the march by garment workers through Manhattan to demand better conditions and wages - and voting rights!

The first International Women's Day was held in 1911, and a million people took part in it.

Flo spoke about developments in Liverpool to improve the situation of women, including Blackburn House, the beautiful Grade II listed building, in the centre of Liverpool which provides 1,000 full and part time learning opportunities for women, a school for 'social entrepreneurs', a women's health suite, excellent conference facilities and a 30 place nursery.

Another important development was 'Enabling Choices' - a group started by Flo three years ago to ensure that the gender Equality Duty is recognised in all policy documents and activities that Merseyside councils undertake. It has the active support of the Chief Executives and is also now reflected in the new European programmes, where for ESF, she is the Regional Champion for Equality.

Flo has also been involved with the In Genero Project, a research project looking at the Role of Women in Politics in partnership with other EU organisations in Spain, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Austria, Finland and Sweden. The findings for UK are stark. We have less representation for women now than in 1979! Only 19.6% of our MPs are women.

In the European Parliament, Flo was invited to present their work to the ALDE seminar in Brussels in November, where she asked MEPs to take up the recommendations in the document: mentoring; tax breaks to encourage women's representation; EU funding training for potential candidates etc.

To finish, Flo returned to the work planned in Liverpool - the establishment of an International Centre for Women's Enterprise in the city. Its role will be: Start ups; training; childcare; financial advice and help; hot desking; networking and links; incentives and grants.

When Flo joined the 300 group 24 years ago, she believed that we were on our way. There is still work to do, and a hill to climb. She and her colleagues in Liverpool, are determined to make a difference.

Merlene Toh Emerson

British colony, she came to England with a 'post colonial' view of the world. After 25 years she felt she had the right to become British and join a political party.

She was a founder-member of the Chinese Liberal Democrats which was launched in September 2006, to convey the message that LD policies are relevant to the Chinese community - such as our support of small businesses, civil liberties, managed migration and our opposition to ID cards.

Merlene paid tribute to several international women politicians who have inspired her.

First and foremost was Aung Sang Su Qi. She pursued her mission despite the assassination of her father and the need to leave her English husband and two sons behind when she returned to her 'motherland'. Her husband later died of cancer. Before that she had published her seminal book 'Freedom from Fear' a potent and succinct expression of the necessity of freedom from the fear of persecution ….which surely must be our most basic human right.

The second woman was Anna Lo - she was the first ethnic minority person elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in March last year. The CLDs invited her to visit London with a group of elderly Chinese who were absolutely delighted to visit Westminster. Anna has the most delightful broad Irish accent and she explained that during the troubles, when MacDonalds and KFC stayed away, only the reckless or desperate Chinese migrants were brave enough to set up businesses in Belfast.

She also urged on the Chinese, who are shy of involvement in politics, the importance of exercising their right to vote and be heard..

This brought Merlene back to her own motivation for entering politics - for the sake of the next generation of immigrant children who have much to give back to society and contribute to the building of a more cohesive community. Merlene is now the GLA candidate in Westminster.

Susan Kramer

International Development was three portfolios back for Susan, but is still close to her heart. She summed up the experience of many women across the world as being one of 'Poverty and Powerlessness'. Two thirds of the poor are women and three-quarters of the illiterate. There are some notable successes - in Ruanda, 48% of parliamentary representatives are women and in Costa Rica it is 38%, In India 50% of primary school pupils are girls, and in Uganda it is 49%. But the drop-out rate at secondary level is still high, partly due to early marriage and pregnancy.

There is a Millenium Development goal to reduce death in childbirth by three quarters, but nothing is being done about this. One reason is, again, early marriage and pregnancy, leading to vaginal fistula - a dreadful affliction which affects an estimated two million women, but which is almost never talked about. Improvement in women's health depends as much on improved education as it does on direct health services.

In regions of conflict, such as Darfur, the people at the peace talks, if any, are the men with guns, not the women who are at least as badly affected by war. There is a generation of girls growing up with no future as wives and with no alternative future either. Women are now the main victims of HIV/Aids, but programmes which aim at treating the children of these women amazingly ignore the women themselves.

Finally Susan paid tribute to Hilary Clinton - she is worthy of support from women around the world.

A lively discussion followed the speeches, including various ways in which we can learn from women overseas as well as reaching out to them. One member pointed out that the Chinese community is a good role model for the balance we need to find between difference and integration. Another asked whether having more women in a political body really does make a difference - two men, who serve on local councils who have a majority of women, reported that it does. A Welsh Parliamentarian raised a problem with LibDem conference procedures - which is that members attending for one day only cannot vote. It was agreed that this particularly affects women and WLD will take it up.