Senedd Member for Mid and West Wales, Jane Dodds is currently the only female party leader in Wales. Only two others, her predecessor Kirsty Williams and former Plaid Cymru Leader Leanne Wood have held party leadership positions.

After 20 years of devolution Wales has still not seen a female First Minister and neither of Wales’ largest political parties, Labour or the Conservatives has ever had a female leader in Wales.

Women are underrepresented at all levels of politics in Wales - 43 per cent of Members elected to the Sixth Senedd are women compared to 2003 when 50 per cent of members were women.

The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats said that the situation is “even more dire” within local government. After the 2017 local elections, just 28 per cent of councillors in Wales are women.

Ms Dodds said: “We urgently need our councils and politics to be more representative of communities they serve. If local governments are so unrepresentative of the population they serve, they cannot possibly hope to deliver for that community effectively.

“So this May I want to see more women from different backgrounds, different classes and different ethnicities standing for election. All political parties have a duty to encourage this. And if you are someone in a position of power of influence then make sure you ask them to stand.

“It may seem obvious, but my own political career wouldn’t have started had someone not asked me to stand for council elections. At the time, I had the same view of local Government that many women do, a club for white men over a certain age. I hadn’t thought of entering politics before because I hadn’t believed my voice would be listened to.

“However, we also need structural issues to be resolved. Introducing more flexible schedules for council meetings should be the top priority. Council meetings are often too long and involve unworkable and unsociable hours for those with family, caring and work commitments.

“Society works better when those making decisions are representative of the communities they serve and this International Women’s Day we must remind ourselves of what needs to be done to reach that.”