Are women being under-represented in politics and what can help redress the in balance - Ronit Wolfson investigates.
Looking around the audience at the Progress annual conference this weekend I was struck, as I often am at these type of events, at how few female faces I saw. From what I can gather, the Fabian Society conference the week before wasn’t much better. The question we need to ask ourselves is not can Progress (or the Fabians) do more – events like Progress’ recent women’s only selection training are just one example of the support women on the left can expect from the organisation.
The real question is at a conference which is self-selecting, why were less than a third of attendees women? Stephen Twigg MP commented that at the foreign policy break out session, at which he was speaking, there was a distinct lack of women both on the panel and in the audience (six women compared with 33 men). I don’t think that these numbers would have changed much had the panel included Harriet Harman or Jen Gerber.
The Tory-led government is not standing up for women, is not speaking for women and is not representing women. While Ken Clarke’s comments could be read as a bit of an own goal from an experienced politician, regressive views about women still appear to be prevalent among Tories – recent comments by Nadine Dorries and Roger Helmer MEP are but two examples.
Sexist dinosaurs aside, women are being disproportionately affected by the cuts. I do not believe that only women can speak for women, but any party that claims to do so must be representative.
There are not enough women in politics – at all levels. The fact that are only three women in the Scottish shadow cabinet is an embarrassment and undermines our feminist credentials. Yes, we need more support and more visible role models but to some extent, sisters need to do it for themselves.
Liv Bailey stood up this weekend and asked Ed Miliband if Labour was a feminist party. I believe we are, and that the values of feminism are, for most of us, at the heart of what we stand for. So as we rebuild and regroup in opposition we must seek to rectify the massive under representation of women in our movement. But it starts with us.
They say that decisions are made by those who turn up, and I hope that at the next Progress annual conference more of us decide to do so.
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26 Responses to “Where are all the women?”
Ronit Wolfson
RT @leftfootfwd Where are all the women? http://t.co/zSkvVZA by @RonitWolfson #PAC11 > as stated by @livbailey lab must be feminist party
Mr. Sensible
Dave Citizen, I support the use of positive descrimination to a point. There is no doubt that the use of All-women Shortlists has lead to a significant increase in female MPs, particularly on the Labour benches; I think Labour still have more women MPs than the Coalition parties despite having fewer seats overall.
The problem is, however, that I think overuse of such a method could in fact prove counterproductive. You refer to what’s going on in parts os Scandinavia, but as I pointed out in response to a similar discussion on here in February, a Guardian Editorial at the time suggested that the number of women directors in Norway has actually fallen by around 10% because “quotas have led to personally damaging appointments. Some women Labour MPs might sympathise with the nightmarish consequences of being propelled into high-visibility, high-risk roles with inadequate preparation and a noisy mob willing you to fail.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/21/women-management-report?CMP=EMCGT_210211&
Like I say, such measures have their uses, but overuse of them could prove counterproductive.
Red Bek
I agree, this is a huge issue. However, I think women are masters at putting obstacles in their own way, let alone having to get round those put there by society. You can’t generalise or stereotype women, but I do think that many of us lack the assertiveness and confidence to make inroads into what is seen as a male domain (and yes, that is how politics is perceived by many – look at the government front bench. No, don’t, it’s a horrible sight!). When someone suggested to me that I stood as a candidate in the local elections, I immediately thought of all the reasons why I couldn’t, and just didn’t understand why anyone had even bothered asking me. And yet I’m well educated, have a responsible professional job, run a household, care strongly about politics, God, I even attend Fabian conferences! Somewhere there is a missing link and I don’t know what it is other than a lack of self belief that holds a lot of us back. I wonder whether there would be more of a female uptake for Fabian/Progress etc events if they were regularly held around the country rather than London – at a time when incomes are squeezed, the train fare from the north for example is an obstacle to some women who might attend a more local event.
And of course, there is the need for politicians to make politics relevant to people’s lives (men and women), and I don’t think they do that very well. They need to move beyond the broadsheets and late night or early Sunday political programmes and get their messages across via a wider range of means, but I think many of them see that as inappropriate. Therefore they remain pretty anonymous and don’t hook women in. Many of my friends couldn’t give a toss about politics unless there is a general election looming, they think I am a bit odd for having an interest in it. I’m not odd, I just see the things I care about being threatened and I want to help stop it happening where I can. I guess more of us need to take a deep breath and go for it, then encourage more of our sisters to join us.
Rob Stickler
RT @leftfootfwd: Where are all the women? http://bit.ly/l19WU1 by @RonitWolfson #PAC11
Mr. Sensible
Red Bek I guess it would help if Theresa May started asserting herself more within the Coalition as Minister for Women and Equalities; she’s obviously not having much effect within her own cabinet, is she.