As the last election proved, women are increasingly feeling the lure of a political life. JAMES KILNER speaks to three women who are casting their hats into the election ring for June 7

THE joys of being a prospective Parliamentarian. Pounding the election campaign trail until the twilight hours. Running the gauntlet of protesters just itching to berate you and lob the odd rotten egg. All this for Westminster which, in the eyes of the outside world, is often little more than shouting and jeering amid the green leather seats.

There's more to it than that, of course, as shown by the influx of women MPs in the last election. If we are to believe Tony Blair, this will be an abiding theme as the balance between the genders is evened up in a Parliament more suited to modern times.

The Prime Minister holds dear a dream to have an equal number of men and women MPs in the Labour party. Nagging rumours hold that all-women selection lists for certain seats could arrive to redress the balance of the sexes in the Commons.

In North and East Yorkshire, women are beating the campaign drum, fortunately without the egg-chucking crowds experienced by high-ranking members of their parties.

Labour candidate Tracey Simpson-Laing, 34, is managing to cover the bases in the East Yorkshire constituency while bringing up her nine-month-old daughter Niamh Aisha.

"I spend every evening with her," says Tracey, from York - adding that when she is not around, her husband Iain is able to spend quality time with his daughter.

She is already a City of York councillor, and this is her first attempt at running for Parliament. She is already aware of the sacrifices.

She says: "When you are canvassing for four weeks like this, you do have to give up your life. Particularly with a constituency like East Yorkshire.

"Travelling time from one side to the other is over an hour. It's very different for Hugh York MP Hugh Bayley."

Yet when she considers what she has given up, she says that only inconsequential things bite the dust, such as television.

Tracey Simpson-Laing first became interested in politics at Mill Mount School, in York, and followed the political turbulence of the early 1980s, which decided her political leanings.

On the issue of all-women shortlists for certain seats, she says that it would depend on the exact details of such a plan if it were to become a reality.

"But I would have to say there could be a backlash. There is the problem of positive discrimination. It really should be the best person for the seat."

Anne McIntosh, who is standing again as the Conservative candidate for the Vale of York, is a seasoned electoral campaigner. She was an MEP representing Essex and Suffolk for ten years and became the Vale of York's first MP in 1997. To Anne, who is 46 and lives near Thirsk with husband John Harvey, the ratio of men to women in the Commons is still "poor", with 14 women and 150 men on the Conservative benches during the last parliament. But she says she stands strongly for equal opportunities.

"I think it would be a very bad message to put out if some MPs are selected on the basis that they are female.

"I would not feel happy if I were taken on as a special case because I am a woman. I believe in equal opportunities for men and women. Women have got to prove themselves in what is a tough world."

She says that John Prescott's tussle last week with an egg-wielding protester in Wales showed just how tough it could get.

Though she does not have children herself, Anne says that being a mother should be no bar to going into politics. "If you are wanting someone truly representative, then mothers can be strong candidates indeed," she says - adding that she is "full of admiration" for people who could combine the two.

Despite the recent influx of women MPs, particularly in the Labour ranks, Anne McIntosh says that Parliament is still "heavily loaded" towards men. But she believes her training as a lawyer (she no longer practises) was a great preparation for the Commons, as the legal world was also a male-dominated arena.

Liberal democrat Mary-Rose Hardy, 54, who is also an East Riding of Yorkshire councillor, is contesting the East Yorkshire seat. She came "a valiant third" in the last election when up for the seat of Brigg and Goole and has been in local politics since 1990.

Mary-Rose has grown-up children and decided to get involved in politics when they were at secondary school. "I thought it was about time I looked at my own life," she says.

But private life is bound to suffer. She says: "It is nothing to have six or seven calls on an evening and you go from one call to another."

Yet she concurs that it is the more mundane things in life that end up taking a back seat when you head into politics. "It's the ordinary things, like doing the laundry," she laughs.

Mary-Rose admits she too would be unhappy if women were being chosen for selection as MPs simply because of their gender.

She says: "I would always assume that I was deemed to be the person required at the time. What we have got to do is make things easier so that 30-year-olds of both genders can start in politics."

Updated: 10:02 Tuesday, May 22, 2001