Radio 4's Woman's Hour is currently running a series on 'Women in Parliament' – and today, 17th December, Heidi Allen, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for South Cambridgeshire, was interviewed on the programme about her experience of becoming a PPC.

Before the 2010 general election, just under a fifth of MPs were women – now, at 23%, it's just over a fifth; according to the United Nations, this puts the UK in sixty-fourth place for gender equality in its index of national parliaments.

As the political parties finish selecting the candidates who will stand for them in every seat across the country, Woman's Hour is looking at how many women have been selected so far, how many could still be selected and how many more women we might realistically expect to see elected to Parliament in May next year.

It's 'examining' the challenges of getting more women elected and the deliberate efforts of the main political parties represented at Westminster to tackle their own levels of representation, the experiences of the women who become prospective parliamentary candidates and what help and advice they get.

Monday was devoted to the Lib Dems, Tuesday to Labour and today to the Conservatives.

Each day, three women have been interviewed – today, in addition to Heidi, Baroness Anne Jenkin (Co-chair Conservative Friends of International Development and Women2Win, the campaign to elect more Conservative women to Parliament) and Chamali Fernando, Conservative PPC for Cambridge City, were also interviewed.

You can hear their thoughts on the BBC's iPlayer.  (And, if you really want to, the Lib-Dem and Labour Party interviews, too.)  NB – these podcasts will expire week commencing 19th January 2015.

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