It’s been 100 years since women got the vote, but have things progressed for women in politics as much as they should have?
“What are you all complaining about? Women are as equal as men – what more do you want?” Ah, this is a sentence I have heard a worrying amount, from impromptu pub debates with friends to a rowing couple on the tube. What more do “we” want? How about, equal pay? The average pay gap in the UK is 9.1% as of 2017 (ONS, 2017). How about to not fear sexual assault in the work place? October and November 2017 saw the resignation and suspension of a number of male cabinet officers after the #MeToo movement shone a light on the sexual harassment occurring in UK politics (Krook, 218) How about to know that women are represented in politics to the same degree as men? In 2016 statistics showed that only 22.8% of all national parliamentarians were women (UN Women, 2017)
This year marks 100 years since women received the vote. Now, don’t get me wrong – we have come a long way since 1918; I am a proud, politically active citizen and a women. This is something that living in the UK has afforded me, but this is not the case everywhere. This is why I wanted to write this blog, I wanted to do my little bit to shine a light on the global issue of gender in politics. One hundred years on, after the brutal torment of the suffragettes we are still having this conversation. People are still uttering that insufferable sentence – “what more do you want?” well, my ignorant friend, let me explain to you what we want.
(Video displaying some of the misogynistic behaviors female politicians around the world have had to face.)
In light of it being one hundred years since (some) women got the vote, it feels important to examine women in politics. All of the aforementioned issues; sexual harassment, unequal pay, and under representation of women can be seen so acutely in politics. We have seen the number of women in Head of State positions globally fall from 19 to 17 and the number of women in parliament has notably slowed down (UN, 2017). There is no exception to this in the UK – in the 2017 general election the number of female candidates was 29% (973 out of 3 304), but whilst this was the highest proportion to date, it was still a fall from the 2015 election where there were 1 033 female candidates (Keen & Cracknell, 2018). Why is this? Why is it that globally and nationally women are still only making up the minority of political positions? According to the UN, women are still facing obstacles such as discriminatory laws, institutions limiting women’s opportunity to run for office and women still often lack the resources and contacts still needed to be in positions of political power (UN Women).
Whilst this is a sad state of affairs, we should also look to the likes of Nicola Sturgeon, Theresa May, and Angela Merkel who head some of the biggest power houses in the world. We can also see some states where women make up the nearly half of women in national parliaments. In Rwanda 61.3% of seats are held by females, in Bolivia 53.1%, in Cuba 48.9%, (See Fig.1) and from here the number keeps decreasing (Inter- Parliamentary Union, 2018). So, it seems that women can represent their state in equal proportion to men, so why isn’t the case in more countries?
Fig 1. Table displaying the percentage of female politicians in descending order from first to tenth in the world (Inter- Parliamentary Union, 2018)
Maybe, women don’t want these seats? If they don’t, who would blame them? With instances like #MeToo in 2017 and still the issue of unequal pay – the gender pay gap in politics is averaged at 13% (The Guardian, 2017). I can’t help but wonder if the idea of a job in politics is just too ugly. Even when women make it into these seats they often have to face sexual harassment, online threats, and do not even get paid the same as their male counter parts.
There have been campaigns to highlight these issues and draw attention to the issues women in politics face every day. Just to name a few, there is the #LabourToo which is a movement that allows women to anonymously share their experiences of sexual harassment to build a compilation of stories to urge for change (LabourToo, 2018). There is the EQUAL PAY NOW #CSW61 which is when women will walk out of office at 4:10 with 23% of their work day left to highlight the gender pay gap, and the #StopTheRobbery campaign where 23 characters on twitter will be blocked out in order to support income equality (UN, 2017).
One hundred years on from women receiving the vote we have so much to be thankful for, but just because some progress can be seen, does not mean that we can let the obvious inequality in politics continue. This is my call to arms – let’s join together and no longer stand for sexual harassment, under representation and unequal pay. Change is still needed.
Bibliography
The Guardian, 2017 – “Gender pay gap widening at one in four government bodies, figures show” [Online] Available: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/10/gender-pay-gap-widening-at-one-in-four-government-bodies-figures-show [Last Accessed: 2nd April 2018]
Inter- Parliamentary Union, 2018 “Women in National Parliaments” [Online] Available: http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm [Last Accessed: 2nd April 2018]
Keen, R. & Cracknell, R. 2018 “Briefing Paper: Women in Parliament and Government” [Online] Available:https://moodle.roehampton.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/745442/mod_resource/content/1/women%20in%20parliment.pdf [Last accessed: 2nd April 2018]
Krook, R. 2018 “Westminster Too: On Sexual Harassment in British Politics” [Online] The Political Quarterly, Vol. 89 Iss. 1, Pg 65 – 72, Available: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-923X.12458 [Last Accessed: 2nd April 2018]
Labour Too, 2018 –“Labour Too” [Online] Available: https://labourtoo.org.uk/ [Last Accessed: 2nd April 2018]
ONS, 2017 – “Understanding the gender pay gap in the UK” [Online] Available: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/understandingthegenderpaygapintheuk/2018-01-17 [Last Accessed: 2nd April 2018]
UN, 2017 “Women’s political parity slow to grow as UN launches latest ‘Women in Politics’ map” [Online] http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2017/03/womens-political-parity-slow-to-grow-as-un-launches-latest-women-in-politics-map/ [Last Accessed: 2nd April 2018]
UN Women, 2018 –“Facts and figures: Leadership and political participation” [Online] Available: http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures [Last Accessed: 2nd April 2018]
UN Women, 2017 “Women’s Leadership and Political Participation” [Online] Available: http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2013/12/un%20womenlgthembriefuswebrev2%20pdf.ashx [Last Accessed: 2018]