Women in Politics: Part 2

The all female shortlist

The all female shortlist is something that is sometimes criticised for giving women an 'unfair' advantage. I don't think it is giving an advantage in a negative sense, I think it is helping to redress the balance and beginning to get more women into politics, if it also makes the fact that few women make their way into cabinet and government a focus then that is also not a bad thing. If it forces people to discuss the poor representation that women have, with a view to trying to change it, then that is also a positive step. The Guardian highlights today that Labour have decided to use all women shortlists for 52 parliamentary candidates. This is because the party found that men dominated the list for new candidates in target seats for the 2015 election, when the lists had been open to both genders. The open lists have seen 17 men selected from 18 contests. This suggests that women only lists are needed to ensure that those who have the power to select the next candidates for constituencies are ensuring there is equal representation. This has led to 22 women only shortlists being drawn up for target areas for the next election, which has resulted in 23 female candidates being selected so far. However, this is from a total of 40 seat contests, meaning when the lists have been open to men and women only one was won by a female candidate. The paper raises an interesting question about the lack of women selected when the list was open, they ask whether this is because the 'stronger' female candidates found themselves on female only shortlists to ensure they were selected. Or whether the 1 in 18 when the lists were open was a backlash in response to knowing their were women only lists elsewhere, and so they felt they did not 'need' to select a woman.

A spokesman for Labour is quoted in the paper as saying that this is the only way to ensure female candidates. This begins to feel quite patronising. I blogged at the start of March about women in power and discussed the often sexist 'boys' club' environment that seemed to have been created in politics. I think this is perhaps more influential in keeping women out of politics and needing to rely on women only lists. If women do not feel confident about their ability then they may not feel confident enough to put themselves forward. Women are just as capable as men, in every aspect of life. However, the use of women only shortlists ensure that women at least begin to get some representation and way in to what can be seen as a male dominated female-unfriendly environment.

Women in power

I've blogged and tweeted about this before but an Observer report based on the report called Sex and power 2013: Who runs Britain? which was published by Counting Women in found that the number of women in high positions of power is falling. The suggestion was that over the last ten years the level of representation has reversed.

The problem with the lack of women and poor representation of women in roles such as:

• The police: as commissioners (14.6%), chief constables (13.7%) etc
• News and the Media: as national editors (5.0%) etc
• The Armed Forces: where there are no women in the highest three ranks
• Politics: Only 22% of the House of Commons is female*

Is that without an adequate female representation, women lack a voice. They lack a voice in the decision-making processes in this country, in the reporting of events and actions, in the upholding and responding to the law and in the shaping of the next generation. Last year there was an interesting piece in the Guardian about why women's representation was poor, it attempted to cover some of the possible reasons for this lack of representation.

Perhaps the biggest problem behind the lack of equal representation is the system itself. With women so poorly represented in many key fields such as politics, economics and policing their needs go largely unheard or voted out. Without the voice of half the population properly represented it becomes difficult to make the changes that would enable women to be involved or accepted in these positions. If women are not well represented who hears their needs, demands and desires? If these needs, demands and desires are not met, how are the women expected to take part in the political, social, economic systems of this country? The problem of the culture that sometimes can develop within industries that lack equality can be seen to play a part.

This week has seen a number of articles about sexist and inappropriate behaviour within politics. This can create an environment where women do not feel welcome or valued for their contributions, this in turn affects the numbers that will go into those fields and so on in the future. There is then the problem of the attitude from some who are already in 'the business'. Accusations of sexual harassment and the harassment itself are bad enough but when people then respond by reasoning that women need to 'toughen up' this does not help. Jo Philips, a former Lib Dem press secretary, was reported to have said this in response to the claims of sexual harassment that have been in the media this week. This response does not help, women should not have to 'toughen up' in the work place to succeed, they should be able to go to work and be free from harassment, sexual or otherwise. I would hope that no-one would respond to the victim of harassment by telling them to toughen up, so why should someone expect to have to do it at work? Sheila Gunn, John Major's former press secretary (from the same article) agreed with Philips and reasoned that women going into environments that are dominated by men should know what to expect. This view highlights two of the flaws that keep large numbers of women out of industries like politics:

• They are boys' clubs and women are not particularly welcome.
• That women should expect bad and unprofessional behaviour from men and have to deal with it, that this is part of the job.

I was going to say this is simply not true, however, a more appropriate response would be; this is simply not acceptable.

There is also then the problem of pay, as the Fawcett Society found that women are on average still paid 14.9% less than men, why would those within the current system want to change it? It may also lead us to wonder why women would want to go into jobs and endure the boys' club atmosphere when there is a strong possibility they may be paid less.


*All stats have come from the Observer report: here, also published in print on 24/02/2013.

Women in politics

In looking at the Arab Spring and articles discussing the involvement of women I came across a piece in the Guardian about the involvement of women in recent Egyptian elections. It painted a depressing image about the options open to women. With no female presidential candidates and representation in the newly elected house standing at only 2.4% where is the female voice?

The spokeswoman for one of the leading parties, Dr Hassan, said that she saw no problem with low female involvement. Arguing that it should be left to the men to protest for their rights on behalf of the women. How can Egyptian women and female bloggers there, hope to improve their position in society if one of their key representatives does not see a problem with low involvement from half of the population?

The article also states that the UN average for the percentage of women within political bodies (houses/senates etc) within countries stands at 19%. Considerably less than 50%.
This Unicef link provides a good point of comparison. The figures are based on data from 1994. The IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) link shows current 2012 figures. This shows that Rwanda is top of the 'league' table with women constituting over 50% of the seats in Parliament. There are however, several nations at the bottom of the table with 0% representation for women. These not surprisingly include nations where women can not currently vote such as Saudi Arabia. The UK shares joint 54th with Malawi with just over 22% of MPs being female. Again, still considerably under 50%.

How can we hope to improve women's lives and their position within society if they do not have close to equal representation within their political systems? The next question must surely be, how can we boost and encourage greater involvement from and for women?


*The IPU link is excellent for seeing exactly where and how much representation women have in politics across the world. It provides some shocking examples that can not be ignored.