Update: Diane Abbot has this morning declared her candidacy for the Labour Leadership. We’re delighted to see a woman throw her hat into the ring. But in a contest, where there is one woman out of a field of six, where are the others? There’s still time to ask talented women politicians to stand up and be counted. Ask them to run today.
Have you seen them? The women? They’ve been disappearing.
In the last few days the voices of women being lost. We’ve seen a government enter office with only 4 women in Cabinet of 29. We’ve seen women ruling themselves out of the Labour party leadership race. Now we face the possibility of the contest being fought out between three or maybe four men.
Where are the women?
If, like us, you believe that it shouldn’t be like this. That politics is no longer men only. That women should be at the forefront not the tail end of the political discussion. Then do something about it.
We’re asking you to put pen to paper, or fingers to key boards, and ask Labour women to stand for the leadership. Write to ones you know, write to ones you’ve never heard of before. Write to one you really believe in, or write to them all in the hope that some will listen.
Ask them, if not you, then who?
This is your chance to say that you want women to be political leaders. Not women who will fill a token role. But women who will set out their views on the future of the Labour Party, who will argue their case for the policies they believe in and who will be judged not on their gender but on what they stand for and what they believe in. Politics is better when women and men from all backgrounds stand up to be counted.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a Labour party member or not. If we want to see more women leading the way we need to tell them so. We need to ask them to stand.
A template letter is after the jump which you can copy, paste and amend in an email.
MPs contact details are here and a Word version of the letter is here
Or you can write to: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Subject: Labour Leadership – if not you, then who?
Dear
I’m writing to ask you to consider standing for the Labour Leadership.
In recent days we’ve seen a government enter office with only 4 women in a Cabinet of 29. The voice of women risks being lost. I’m delighted to see Diane Abbott standing but even with her we face the possibility of the Labour leadership contest being fought out between an almost entirely male cohort. The debate on the future of the centre–left should be much broader than this.
Politics is no longer men only but if we’re not careful soon we’ll have a government and an opposition where the presence of women on the frontbenches is the exception not the norm.
We need women like you to step forward. We need women to be part of the discussion, to be part of the debate, to be arguing for the policies that they believe in. We need women from all backgrounds and all parts of the Labour party to take part.
We need you to stand for the leadership of the Labour Party.
And if not you, than who?
Politics is better when women and men from all backgrounds stand up for what they believe in, for the change they want to see in their communities and in their country.
Please consider this an invitation to stand for the leadership of the Labour Party. Politics needs women like you.
Yours sincerely
Your name
Your address
I agree that it is unacceptable that there is no female MP running for leadership of the Labour party and that the numbers of senior women are so low. However, I disagree that writing a letter complaining about it is the right thing to do. There are not a large number of women to choose from and that is what needs to be addressed. I blogged about this recently. I think three things need to happen.
1. Encouraging more women to come forward to stand as MP’s.
There is research from the US (applicable here) that shows that women need to be encouraged to run for public office rather than going for it themselves. There are several reasons for this, confidence being one, culture being another. (Yes I know there are examples of women who come forward but this research shows a tendency). Addressing this would require a campaign not unlike an election campaign, reaching women in their homes and social lives. We would need to expand the scope of the political parties campaigns for increasing the numbers of female MP’s and empower them with budget to get out and about, round the country to encourage women to stand. Now that the Lib Dems are in government we might find money for increasing the work that the Campaign for Gender Balance does.
2. Changing the perception of women as leaders in the party, in politics and in society.
This is even trickier. Research shows that people automatically think of a man when you use the word ‘leader’. Our concept of leadership is masculine, which obviously makes it harder for a women to get elected, promoted within a company etc. They have to work a lot harder to prove that they can lead, rather than it being assumed they can, the position men find themselves in. (Yes I know there are examples of the opposite… etc) The solution here is, paradoxically, to create role models of female leaders. We need to develop and promote the female MP’s we have to be seen more obviously as leaders. We need to actively encourage local parties to do the same and we need to encourage the media to run stories that portray female leaders in a positive light. Less of the shoes and handbags stories about female MP’s and more about what they actually achieve in their roles. This will make it easier for women to come forward to stand because they can see they will get recognition and will decrease the numbers of female MP’s leaving due to being constantly harangued by the press.
3. We need to change the nature of the job of MP.
It’s currently set up for a man. Well, really for a person who has someone else at home looking after the kids and house full time. That tends to still be men. If a woman wants to be an MP, currently she has to fit into this mould. Hence the data showing that there are few mothers in parliament. If we are serious about making room for women, then we need to understand that women bear the burden of raising our future generations. We need to make it possible for them to do this (and dare I say for men to be able to do this too) and still become MPs. We need to work out what parliament would need to look like for women to be able to contribute their thinking and their time, as well as taking care of community and family. This is not a simple task and yes, is the redefinition of gender roles in society but it is basically what needs to happen.
So, you see, we should not moan about the numbers of women we currently have in parliament without a recognition of the deep systemic issues affecting a women’s chances of being successful at the job. I’m up for changing this and will be making an offer to the Lib Dem/Conservative government to that effect.
Hi Lee, thanks for comments. Many of which I’m sure we could agree with. As you say in your opening point – women, more than men, need to be asked to stand, to get involved, to put themselves forward and that’s just what we’re doing with this campaign. We’re asking women to stand. It’s one small part of the much bigger jigsaw that will hopefully lead to more women in politics and in leadership in the longer term. Taking just a couple of minutes now to email a Labour woman asking her to stand could make a big difference.
There’s a great groundswell of support for more women in politics at the moment, and there is much work to be done to get more women involved – we look forward to working with you and others to make sure that happens.
[...] If not you, then who? [...]
[...] forget, we’ve still got time to get more great women to run for the Labour leadership. And if you get any interesting responses, do let us know in the comments below or by emailing us. [...]
good point ^^