Japan’s ruling party has its first female secretary-general of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly.

Hideko Murakami is the first woman to hold the post since the Tokyo Liberal Democratic Party was founded in 1955.

The Tokyo Assembly drew worldwide attention in June when male party members hurled sexist taunts at a female lawmaker.

As Ayaka Shiomura was giving a speech on government help for pregnant women and mothers, the Liberal Democratic Party’s Akihiro Suzuki shouted, “Why don’t you get married?”

Murakami announced her commitment to creating an assembly free from such incidents.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has also put empowering women at the heart of his so-called Abenomics policies.