‘Where are the women?’ This is not a question we needed to ask last night as Committee Room 17 in the House of Commons was full of women, and some men, to discuss women and leadership.
We were delighted to be joined by Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty; Alice Delemere of the Electoral Reform Society; Dr Ruth Fox of the Hansard Society; Ceri Goddard Director of the Fawcett Society; Mary MacLeod MP; and former Minister Maria Eagle MP. The topic was what are the barriers to women reaching the top in politics and what are the solutions.
There were a number of barriers identified from the cost of standing for parliament, childcare and family responsibilities, constitutional issues such as the ‘first past the post’ voting system, and political and social issues. Alice pointed out that in systems with proportional representation twice as many women are represented in Parliament. Ruth noted that in the current discussions on electoral reform in the UK women’s representation is not even on the agenda, even though it could have a fundamental impact. Pressure needs to be on political parties to consider impacts on women of the proposed constitutional reforms in the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Ceri recognised that ‘there are not enough women in political power because we are so unequal in so many other areas’. She suggested that we need to move forward on all these rights. She also suggested that women are seen as the problem, rather than the problem being the system. If democratic participation is a human right then surely the system needs to enable female participation?
There was a lot of agreement across the aisles – Mary MacLeod MP (Con) and Maria Eagle MP (Lab) agreed that there are not enough women in parliament or political leadership – but that we should recognise the gains that have been made. However, they also agreed that the problem hasn’t been solved because gains have been made, and that we need to keep the pressure on to increase women’s role in parliament.
We discussed how ministerial teams often don’t have women, and that it is important to have women at the table to bring the female perspective on how policy impacts on women. One audience contributor suggested we need to win the argument on what importance women bring to policy making and political leadership in terms of female perspective and diversity.
The discussion also focused on the importance of the media in shaping public perception of women in politics. Women are more likely to be criticised for their appearance rather then the substance of their performance. ‘Cameron’s Cuties’ and ‘Blair’s Babes’ are based on the trivialisation of women in politics and appearance focused. Shami told some stories of her own experience and how the perception of politics and, for some the experience, is that party politics is still nasty, brutal and misogynistic. A participant asked shouldn’t female MPs take on the media and challenge their bias?
There was an agreement that there is a real need for solidarity across all parties and cooperation between women regardless of political affiliation. Shami urged a personal commitment from all of us to demand change.
Solutions included mentoring and supporting women candidates and potential women candidates. Role models were cited as important and Maria said that Barbara Castle MP had inspired her to stand. Mary said it was vital that the leaders of the parties saw women’s roles as a priority and that change has come to the Conservative Party because David Cameron took it on as an issue. Changes to the voting system, as well as equal paternity and maternity laws were also cited as a part of the solution. The meeting concluded with our speakers making commitments to all take personal actions.
Progressive Women want to join together in solidarity with you and like minded women and men. We are organising an event on 6th November to inspire, support and develop women leaders – so watch this space for more details.
Other ideas for what we can all do:
* Get involved and join a political party
* Follow and support the work of the Fawcett Society, the Electoral Reform Society, the Hansard Society
* Share your ideas with Mary MacLeod MP and Maria Eagle MP, or your own MP
* Submit your thoughts to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee Inquiry *Read the Speaker’s Conference report for more on women and political representation
What will you do? Tell us here….
[...] are the women now? In July, at the end of our ‘Were are the women’ discussion we asked each one of our panel members what one thing she was going to do to promote [...]