It's gone 11:00 at night, and Jo did a valiant job of leading the debate on body image in a chamber empty save for a tiny number of men. (Jo's speech echoed the work she has already started by launching the Real Women policy paper.)
So it was disappointing to see the chamber so empty - yet entirely understandable at this time of night.
Today's also the day that the Speaker's Conference on Parliamentary Representation published its final report.
From the news pages of www.parliament.uk:
"The Conference recognises the inflexibility of Parliament's working practices together with the heavy workloads of constituency demands combine to create a lifestyle which is detrimental to Members with caring responsibilities, both for children and other dependents.
It would like to see sitting times for the main chamber brought in line with what is considered normal business hours. However it recognises there would be considerable difficulties in achieving this because of the many duties MPs have both within and outside the House. Therefore it recommends a substantial further development of deferred voting to enable a more family friendly approach to sitting arrangements and unscheduled votes."
There are many more reasons why women, parents, carers - in fact anyone breaking the stereotypical "middle-aged man in a suit" mould - don't seek to be MPs, or candidates for that matter.
Barriers to entry and selection, cultural barriers, physical access difficulties, career and financial costs are just some of the issues which need to be addressed and solutions found.
If women's representation in Parliament is not increased in 2010, then the debate on all-women shortlists will be reopened. Me: I'm not keen on them, but as the Parliament website reports:
"If the political parties fail to make significant progress on women's representation at the 2010 general elections, Parliament should consider the introduction of prescriptive quotas, ensuring that all political parties adopt some form of equality guarantee in time for the following general election.
The Conference fully supports the proposed extension of the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 to enable the use of all women shortlists until 2030."
Changing the unsociable working hours could be a declarative step in making Parliament more accessible to a wider range of people, although of course only the beginning.
We need more Real Women in Parliament. Flexible and family-friendly sitting hours would be a good place to start.
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