BLACK (WOMENS) LIVES MATTER!
(Free image from: Unsplash)
This blog will look at the inequality women of ethnic, lower socio-economic backgrounds face and how it affects their political participation and engagement. Interlinking the concepts already discussed in the previous 2 blog and additionally how black women specifically are underrepresented in politics.
Quick blast from the past,
The Representation of the People Act (1918) had been passed whereby women over the age of 30 were now allowed to become property owners or married to someone who was in order to be allowed to vote. However, women of a lower socio-economic background were not applicable.
Though the act did provide change and the United Kingdom elected their first female prime minister in 1979, some argue that women of colour particular black women still face hurdle today as they face the impacts of intersectionality, as defined by Kimberle Crenshaw (1991). This is where gender, race and class inequality extremely hinder their political engagement. Black women only received the right to YEARS later with the establishment of the Equal Franchise Act (1928).
(Free image from: Unsplash)
Around 13% of the United Kingdom’s population are from a black and ethnic minority background (BAME) (Office of National Statistics 2011.) However, the said community make up for just over 6% of members of parliament with its population of women making for 3% of that population (Audickas 2016).
It is important that the issue of underrepresentation of black women is reduced so that parliament and the social policy makers and legislators of the United Kingdom are more in tune with issues that their population faces. Issues such as black mothers being reported to be five times more likely than white mothers to die during pregnancy between 2014 and 2016, but the life expectancy of black people has also been identified to be lower than that of the general population as a result of the disproportionate number living in areas of deprivation.
Another issue was brought to light when the Women’s and Equality Committee (2016) stated that Muslim women were among some of the most economically disenfranchised members of society. Many Muslim women fall under the issues of intersectionality by facing gender inequalities for being a woman, racial inequalities when they are from an ethnic minority background and other issues such as discrimination or prejudices because of their religion with the problem of Islamophobia when the committee stated should not be underestimated with the accumulation of these issues having the capacity to cause a massive impact on their employment projections.
Political rights of women should be guaranteed by political institutions for all women as representation is fundamental to democracy.
There are just 12 black females in parliament out of 220 women (Aworo,2020)
It is not hard to understand why women are very underrepresented in parliament. The doors of the House of Commons are seemingly harder for young women members of the BAME community to break through as the white, socioeconomically higher positioned men have a better chance of working and getting greater position roles in parliament.
Additionally, in the UK’s 2019 General Election, it was found in research conducted by IPSOS MORI (2019) that of BAME population who could vote, 52% turned out. In comparison to 63% of the white population.
Lack of representation causes a lack of trust amongst black women as it may be hard to vote for people who they feel don’t look like them or are out of touch with the inequalities they experience.
When black women are represented in politics they are often disrespect and disregarded. Oppenheim (2016) reveals MP, Dawn Butler’s continuous victimisation of derogatory remarks, such as being referred to as a “cleaner” and consistently having her position questioned (The Guardian, 2016). Labour MP from Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Diana Abbott receives an enormous amount of abuse online particularly on social media, receiving almost half of all abusive tweets sent to female MPs as seen in the graph (figure 1). A study conducted by Amnesty International (2017) found that out of the top 5 most abused women member of parliaments
Figure 1: Tweets of abusive sent to female Members of Parliament (Dhrodia, 2018)
Being the first black female MP, this treatment of someone could easily hinder chances of young black women who she represents wanting to actively engage in politics at a high level. The representation of minority groups of people is integral to people who want to participate in politics as they can gage whether decisions made by that persons has their best interest.
Fixable? Let’s see…
Tighter regulations on social media sites regarding abuse women and in particular BAME women MPs face on sites will help reduce the toxic rhetoric that is perpetuated which hindereds BAME womens involvement in politics.
Quotas would be a tactic that would directly allow for us to move from just talking about gaining representation within parliament and actually cause use to see a difference with meaningful and lasting change. Quotas are systems put in place to recruit individuals of minority, discriminated backgrounds into high positions of politics including decision making etc (International IDEA, 2021). Though this would increase BAME women contribution in parties and parliament, it would nonetheless assume those individuals are only in said positions because of their gender or ethnicity and not the work they have put in.
I believe questioning decisions made on behalf of communities that feel unheard and marginalised is extremely important. This mentality will lead to the social policy change and change period that we are all after much more than a quota system! Let me know what you think.
Bibliography
Amnesty International UK (2017), Black and Asian women MPs abused more online. [online] https://www.amnesty.org.uk/online-violence-women-mps
Audickas, L., (2016). Ethnic Minorities in Politics and Public Life, House of Commons Library Briefing Paper
Aworo, E. (2020) We need more black women in British politics. [online]. Available at:https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/we-need-more-black-women-in-british-politics
Crenshaw, K. (1991) “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp. 1241–1299.
Dhrodia, A. (2018) Unsocial media: A toxic place for women. IPPR Progressive Review. 24 (4) pp. 381-387.
International IDEA (2021) Gender quotas database [online]. Available at: https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/gender-quotas/quotas#what
Ipsos MORI (2019) How Britain voted in the 2019 election. Available at: https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2019-election
Office of National Statistics., 2011. Annual Population Survey
Oppenheim, M, The Independent (2016) “Black MP Dawn Butler reveals she was victim of racism in Parliament after fellow MP assumed she was a cleaner”, [Online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/black-mp-dawn-butler-reveals-she-was-victim-of-racism-in-parliament-after-fellow-mp-assumed-she-was-a6901261.html
Women’s and Equality Committee., (2016). Employment Opportunities for Muslims in the UK: Supporting the Aspirations of Muslim Women