Last week, the annual Sex and Power report was published. This is produced and researched by a coalition of organisations, Centre For Women and Democracy, the Electoral Reform Society, the Fawcett Society, the Hansard Society and Unlock Democracy which asks the question Who runs Britain?
It made no less grim reading than usual. This handy infographic shows exactly what we are dealing with in terms of the under-representation of women at all levels of public life.
The figures for the proportion of women amongst elected representatives are bad enough but there are precious few women in positions of power in the media to care about it and few in the higher echelons of the Civil Service. The report draws the depressing conclusion that a baby girl born today would be drawing her pension before there is any hope of equal representation if progress continues at its current glacial pace.
The report has 6 recommendations for change. For me the most important are those which concern themselves with representation in the media:
The 2010 general election was notable for the absence of women from the public discourse, and for the extent to which this was noticed. All organisations – public, private and third sector – should take steps to ensure that, both before and during the election campaign, at meetings and events, both women and men appear on platforms as speakers, and editors and broadcasters should also take responsibility for commissioning contributions.
If you watched the national media in Scotland, you would think that the most important decision facing Scots in hundreds of years was exclusively to do with men. From Gavin Esler’s BBC News Channel tour of Britain to the sofas of the Scotland Tonight studio, all male discussion panels are commonplace. In an increasingly fractious campaign, it can’t be a coincidence that last night’s final television debate, which had 4 women participants out of 6, was the most thoughtful and respectful of all of them. Sadly STV then spoiled it all by having two all male panels to carry out the analysis. All too often this happens across the media. We need to be watchful that women are not sidelined into talking about sexism or childcare. We need to hear women’s voices talking about war, or Islamism or economics and tax too.
In terms of political parties, the report recommends that there should be a plan to increase women’s representation ready to implement immediately after the 2015 election. It calls for all sorts of measures to increase the number of women candidates, including positive action such as all women shortlists. One recommendation that the Liberal Democrats are on their way to doing is establishing procedures to deal with sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination. The report also talks about implementing quotas for representation if sufficient progress is not made. That goes hand in hand with the recommendation for diversity monitoring by returning officers in public elections.
From a Liberal Democrat point of view, I would like to see effort going in to making sure we elect as many women as possible at the General Election and that means giving additional support to those women who are standing in key marginals and who are taking over from sitting Liberal Democrat MPs as well as our current women. You may well be committed elsewhere but a donation or an hour’s phoning or a weekend away to one of their campaigns could make the difference for them.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Electrification of the Midland Mainline is paused yet again
Ninewells Community Garden Big Biodiversity Bash #dundeewestend
UN panel raises concerns about impact of Labour's welfare bill
Reform turn up in time for the end of the meeting
Peter Martin
Andy Daer
David McDowall
Mohammed Amin
Graham Jeffs
10 Comments
There always seems to be an element in these things of name and shame. I’d like to see a bit more name and fame. Which organisations (from any walk of life) have done good work in this area? And what, if any, difference has it made?
I’m always a bit careful about diversity monitoring as such – it always seems a bit blunt.
I don’t see why we can’t meet in the middle and do some positive things without resorting to quotas. All this arguing is a waste of time. As soon as a woman announces she is in favour of quotas it makes me less likely to support her candidacy, so it’s counter productive. I don’t do it out of spite, it’s because I don’t like quotas.
Regards
Interesting that the Welsh Assembly and European Parliament where we have some more proportional element in the election are the best in terms of percentage. The Scottish Parliament is on 35%. Although SPADEs have more of a gender balance than a lot of other groups they have highlighted and there is no electoral element at all.
It is really shocking how dreadful the media is.
“it can’t be a coincidence that last night’s final television debate, which had 4 women participants out of 6, was the most thoughtful and respectful of all of them.”
This is a most unhelpful comment.
Everything else, I basically agree with – though more statistics on the Civil Service would show that only looking at PS is not helpful either. The Civil Service has developed an OK record, which is increasing much more effectively than most areas – and if think-tanks highlighted it, then some of the Civil Services’ bast practices could be more easily transferred to other areas.
So we get posh privately educated ladies from Roedean rather then posh old Etonians running the country. Or more likely both. Big deal.
How about dealing with the real inequality and injustice, highlighted by the report Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission: the attainment gap between the privately educated and the state educated.
It’s important not to push gender equality aside by saying things like “why don’t we deal with the real inequality of class instead”.
I’ve always recognised that gender equality is important, but I see too much of the opposite happening with too many feminists trying to push other areas aside. It’s a form of radicalisation that pits the patriarchy as the great oppressor.
One day, politics will recognise this and we’ll learn that we all agree with each other more than we think.
I agree with Eddie Salmon, in that we should not be introducing quotas on how many women candidates there should be in the General Election or in the Devolved Elections. Furthermore, I agree with Eddie, on that we should be promoting women candidates, without the resort to quotas. I know Labour believe in All Women Shortlists, but I think this can nbe demeaning to the individual themselves. I think having Women’s only workshops on how to be a PPC and potential MP, is a step forward. I also commended the setting up of Lib Dem Women, to encourage more women to run for these positions.
Adam I think you are a little behind the times in your commendations – these things have been happening for years in the Lib Dems!
Take any newspaper and count the photos of men and women.. often no women, but almost always men in the majority. Look just at the sport pages and it is even worse, with a picture of a woman very rare (in fact mostly dominated by men’s soccer ignoring other sports even)
The way we need to sell quotas as an idea is to show that it isn’t about giving an advantage, but about addressing a system in favour of men and helping to rebalance it.
I support this because I see the advantages I have in life. I will never be quizzed in interviews about my plans to have kids or raise a family. I will rarely be in situations, in politics, where I sit on panels or committees where my gender is the minority, I will never be pigeon-holed and expected to only really be the voice for issues dictated by my gender (ie “women’s issues”). I will never be silenced because my passion is derided as “hysterical”. I will not be seen as an object by colleagues where more attention is given to my anatomy rather than my ideas. The reasons are endless.
Quite simply. as a man (a white man at that), I have inherent advantages in life and until the patriarchy is well and truly smashed we need to find ways to tackle problems like representation. It isn’t an ideal route, but at least it is one that guarantees some kind of positive outcome. Now I also understand and agree with the concerns regarding class and how we’ll only help to elevate middle class, privileged women. However, are we really saying that on that basis we should still opt to protect rich white men in their positions of power? 50/50 rich women and rich men would still be more representative than having a large majority of men.