Female activists in the Tory party are outnumbered more than three to one by their male counterparts, and there are significantly fewer women than men in all the main parties. The lack of women in grassroots politics is revealed in research by academics investigating the future of UK political parties. The analysis of party membership in 2017, by Dr Monica Poletti of the ESRC-funded Party Membership Project based at Queen Mary University of London and Sussex University, draws a bleak picture of activists in all parties as an ageing and unrepresentative breed.More ยปAlso featured in Society Now (pdf available on request)Professor Tim Bale wrote about the same research piece for the Huffington Post