Why is the political system such a boys club, and is there a solution?

Women can be seen as somewhat active citizens in the sense that they consistently participate in conventional forms of political engagement, such as casting a vote, which is positive, clearly, there’s not a huge gender disparity in voter turnout, with the 2019 election showing that fifty-nine percent of females voting and a similar number of males voting at sixty-three percent (Ipsos Mori 2019). However, the political system is arguably still a male-dominated field, almost a boys club. So, this blog post will explore why this is and what we can do about it. The mere four percent difference in voter turnout between males and females (Ipsos Mori 2019) is an indicator towards arguably levelled out playing field in terms of casting a vote, which in my opinion, is a sign of progress in terms of gender equality in political engagement. I personally have voted since I was of legal age.

Women are clearly politically compelled enough to vote, therefore we can see them as somewhat participating in active citizenship, but, when it comes to women in politics, there just are not enough of them, this is visible as women account for only thirty-two percent of all members of parliament (Browning, 2019). This blatant gender difference in members of parliament is a perfect indicator of how females do not go into political positions of power.There are a variety of different reasons for this, however, I am going to focus on one that is particularly interesting to me as I have been able to observe it throughout my school life. It is that there is an inherent and implicit gender-based difference that begins at a young age and can be observed in classrooms this, in turn, contributes to female students becoming subdued as it has been found that in the classroom setting, male students appear to be the dominant group, consistently requiring the majority of the attention, often having a lot of questions that need answering (Sadker and Sadker 1994). I believe that these types of scenarios are common, and I have personally encountered them throughout my academic career with male students even if it’s unknowingly, constantly demanding the constant attention of teachers. This type of behaviour then results in female students somewhat making a conscious attempt to censor themselves in order to align with the societal expectations of femininity(Brown and Gilligan 1992). The classroom is often seen as mimicking a workplace/office environment, as there is a correlation between what principles are taught to students, and the workplace in turn operates based on these principles. (Bowles and Gintis 1981), therefore the conclusion can be made that this gender based environment carries on into adulthood and the workplace, perhaps contributing to women not feeling capable of putting themselves forwards to be in a political position of power as the sexist culture has dictated the subdued nature that should be adhered to.

We have looked into one of the possible reasons for women not becoming members of parliament, but, the important question is, what can be done to change this lack of female representation in the political field? A possible solution is to introduce a quota. The central aim of quota systems is to ensure women enlist into political positions on a level that does not suggest tokenism, essentially it’s utilised in order to increase that women are adequately represented in politics (Dahlerup, 2009). There are a few reasons I think that utilising a quota system to ensure a minimum amount of female politicians, the first being that it appears to be an appropriate solution to counteract the legitimate barriers in place in our male dominated society that put limitations on women in regards to accessing political seats. On the other hand, the argument can be made against the concept of introducing a gender-based quota system that it is simply a violation of the principles of democracy. (Dahlerup 2009).

To Sum up, while females are active citizens in regards to the fact they consistently cast a vote, however, the majority of politicians are male, this is most likely due to the consistent male dominated society which can be seen from a young age, particularly in the classroom environment which then imitates adulthood and the workplace. The concept of a quota system would ensure a more equal political playing field with women having a fair representation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ipsos Mori (2019). How Britain Voted in the 2019 Election.[online] Available at https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2019-election [Accessed 20 Mar. 2021]

Browning,S.(2019). Women in Parliament and Government.[online] Researchbriefings.parliament.uk Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01250/. [Accessed 01 Apr. 2021]

Sadker, & Sadker. (1991). The Issue of Gender in Elementary and Secondary Education. Review of Research in Education, 269-334.

Brown, L.M. and Gilligan, C., 1993. Meeting at the crossroads: Women’s psychology and girls’ development. Feminism & Psychology, 3(1), pp.11-35.

Bowles, S. and Gintis, H., 1981. Education as a site of contradictions in the reproduction of the capital-labor relationship: second thoughts on the correspondence principle’. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2(2), pp.223-242.

Dahlerup,D. 2009. Gender Database Quotas   [online] Available at: https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/gender-quotas/quotas [Accessed 02 Apr 2021]