Are Women underrepresented in Politics?
It can be thought by many that society is patriarchal. Equality for men and women can also be seen to be at its best in history. Although these may be seen as both correct statements or not in the eyes of some. Equal treatment and rights for women in the western world and the UK could improve. Whether that be that women aren’t paid as much as men for the same jobs, or cases of rape and abuse aren’t dealt with properly by police, or that in the workplace women feel there is a glass ceiling in terms of employment. The list unfortunately for women does go on, so as a society we are at the point that it’s made positive steps when looking backwards but in reality when you look at women having the same rights as men or even nearer to them I believe we have a way to go yet. What better way for women to advocate for better rights than through politics and political engagement. So this is something as a society that needs to improve for women and it’s something that needs to be promoted to them so they themselves feel that politics and political engagement is a place for them. This is the case for many women, it’s not hard to notice or know that women have been heavily involved in political engagement in the west for a long time.
Who can forget in the Britain the suffrage movement and since then women have not stopped. I believe though that women can be represented in politics even more. That being more women MP’s and it’s not a secret that the number of women that are MP’s lack compared to the amount of men that are MP’s. Or it being that in society women are encouraged to have more interest in politics not believing that politics is a “man’s world”. I think that this journey has to correspondent with the empowerment of women, more equal treatment of men and women has to happen. The playing field needs to be even, so this means adopting an attitude of helping all Genders. As more equality for women will in turn create more equality for all. We need to see the government closing these gaps of sexist inequality, so what better way than for women and men to then by being politically active to strive for this more equal society.
The general election results in 2015 were important in the history of women MPs. There was a record of 191 women MPs that were elected this was 48 more than the first results in the 2010 general election (Kenny, n.d). This though just 29 per cent of MPs. Women in UK politics are still underrepresented though even though they equate to more than half the UK population (ibid). The results from the 2015 general election leave the UK in 36th in the ranking for representing women in politics (ibid). Behind many of European peers, as well as many southern/central Americans countries and countries in Africa (ibid). The world leader Rwanda has 64 percent women in house commons equivalent (ibid). Although the was an increase in the amount of women mps elected into the house of commons by the word ranking it’s clear that there needs to be a huge focus and deliberate intent in further representing women in UK parliament and that needs to come largely from political parties (ibid).
Results after 2010 general election.
Some academics believe that the reason for less women MPs is that the supply isn’t there, meaning it’s a matter of whether women are running for MP and party leader positions (Lovenduski, 2005). While other academics believe that the problem lies in the demand not being there (ibid). Political parties do not want women in politics, this is where the discrimination is prominent (ibid). Many political parties use the excuse that the supply is not there from women, arguing that there are not enough women who aspire to be MPs or involved in political careers (Kenny, n.d). This is problematic as this response results in the issue being put onto women, not with the people who make the decisions of who can join (ibid). Lovenduski analyses that in the UK the problem rather lies with demand rather than supply (Lovenduski, 2005). Lovenduski explains that it is not women that are at fault rather it is the political parties (ibid). Lovenduski illustrates that there are many studies that uncover that there is a ‘gender bias in political parties and there have been many cases of prejudice and discrimination by people who select members for parties in regards of choosing women (ibid). This has come in forms of expectations of outdated gender roles to sexual harassment (ibid).
Although it’s the demand aspect that is lacking when getting women into parliament it is important not to forget that the supply factors but firstly the party’s demand determines the supply (Kenny, n.d). Ironically when gender quotas need to be filled there are plenty enough women who are ready for the positions parties find out that all along there were women ready to stand in (ibid).
See table below for added context.
Word count: 873
Bibliography
Horton, H. (2017). ‘Sexist’ Polish MEP suspended and fined for saying women should be paid less ‘because they are smaller, weaker and less intelligent’.
Kenny, M. (n.d). Why Aren’t There More Women in British Politics?. Available: https://www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus/why-arent-there-more-women-british-politics
Lovenduski, Joni (2005) Feminizing Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Images
http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/forum/Thread-Teach-men-not-to-rape?page=11