I definitely would not have put ‘being in the former Green Party leader’s accommodation’ in my bingo card for 2025, but she did tell me that one of her rules for life was that “you never know what’s coming”. In her room in Queen’s College, I sit down with to Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Greens from 2012-2016, who was made a life peer in Theresa May’s resignation honours. After finding a suitable space to sit down and chat, Bennett estimates that she has visited Cambridge more than 20 times since 2012. This time, it was to participate in the ‘Women in Geopolitics and Governance’ panel at Queens’ for International Women’s Day.

Getting more women into politics is no easy task. “Politics is usually defined as voting, elections, standing for MP,” but Bennett’s definition is much broader than that. For her, it could mean “getting together with your friends, your neighbours, your classmates […] and working to improve something”. For example, “organizing a litter pick on the street is doing politics”. She emphasises that “we need everybody, particularly women, who are, on average, more frequently denied the chance to flourish”. We need everyone “to solve the crises we’re facing”.

Bennett’s political philosophy, highlighted in her 2024 book Change Everything, starts from the understanding that there are “enough resources on this planet for everyone to have a decent life, for us to look after climate and nature, if we share those resources out fairly”. This is the foundation of Green philosophy: “it’s about flourishing”.

Advocating for this is also no easy task. What is perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of being a woman in politics is the treatment from the media. A specific example she recalls was during the 2015 election period. The Sun had an infamous cartoon where Bennett, Leanne Wood (former leader of Plaid Cymru), and Nicola Sturgeon (former leader of the Scottish National Party) were drawn as Bond girls in revealing dresses “lap dancing around Ed Miliband.”

“There are enough resources on this planet for everyone to have a decent life”

Along with Jenny Jones, Bennett is one of two Green peers in the Lords. This means they need to constantly present the Green cause in their parliamentary work and in as many places as possible. In fact, Bennett has made more than 1,000 spoken contributions in the Lords. She laughs that although she proposes a four day working week, she does see the irony in her lack of work-life balance.

Currently, only 30% of those in the House of Lords are women. The House of Commons fares slightly better, with 40% of MPs being female. “There are real problems in Parliament, and if those voices aren’t heard, then that skews what comes out.” When asked about the dynamic between male and female peers in the Lords, Bennett begins with the positives. There is great cross-party work between the women, “who work together on specifically women’s issues”.

Recently, they collaborated on the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill. An amendment which Bennett put to the vote was to regulate period products, because “there is more regulation about what goes into the scented candle you have in your bathroom than what goes into your period products.” The amendment proposed “that the government must, within 12 months’ time, introduce regulation for the safety of period products,” receiving cross-party support.

“We need everyone to ‘solve the crises we’re facing’”

She acknowledges that within the Lords, formally, everyone is equal, which “at some levels […] is true”. However, gender differences do play out. This is particularly the case “when we have oral questions, which are the first thing most days”. Peers get to speak by crouching down on their knees. She notes that she is at an advantage, “because my 59 year old knees are younger than the average knees in the House of Lords”. Once you are crouching, “you leap to your feet and yell loudly, ‘my lords, my lords, my lords’” with “possibly two or three other people who are doing the same thing at the same time.” This only ends with one peer being able to speak, who will likely be the loudest person “and will disproportionately be male”.

Of course, it is not only men who can do this, but “you need to be assertive to the point of kind of taking someone else on.” She knows that for many women, “they just won’t do oral questions, because getting up and yelling is just not their thing.”

However, Bennett does note that since becoming a peer, she has been able to expand her strategy as an environmentalist by standing up in chambers and particularly, “looking the minister in the eye”. “It is very satisfying when you see the minister thinking oh hell, oh hell, what am I going to say,” she adds. 

Bennett’s ability to create change is an example of why it is important to get more women, and in fact everyone, involved with politics. More importantly, as she would assert, we need everyone to do politics.

Want to share your thoughts on this article? Send us a letter to letters@varsity.co.uk or by using this form.