"Harriet Harman"

Article here. Excerpt:

'Few politicians attract as much vitriol as Harman, 60. From commentator Rod Liddle's column asking "So – Harriet Harman, then. Would you? I mean after a few beers obviously," to the Daily Mail mocking her as Harriet Harperson for her perceived political correctness, the verbal attacks can, at times, look like a warning to women not to enter politics.

Yet, in spite of this, she has not just stood her ground but continued to push feminist policies, and ceaselessly worked to encourage more women to follow in her footsteps. Entering parliament when 97% of the members were men (and she was seven months pregnant) in 1982, her first question to Margaret Thatcher was to ask why there were no after-school clubs in the school holidays. And from then on her determination to push pro-women policies has not wavered. She set up the first parliamentary Labour party women's group, and fought for women-only shortlists, while during her time as the country's first female solicitor general she made tackling domestic violence a priority. During a brief spell in charge of the country in 2009, while Gordon Brown was on holiday, she suggested reviewing rape laws to improve conviction rates and teaching children about domestic violence. And last year, she demanded that half the shadow cabinet be made up of women. Her explicit support of feminism and equality ("That's what I'm in politics for: to champion the cause of fairness, of social justice, and of women") has always caused derision in the rightwing press (the Daily Mail called it an anti-male blitzkrieg).'