As woman, no matter our social class, our race, religious beliefs etc. we have always been underrepresented in society. Men have always been put on a pedestal Graph1: these figures show female MPs elected at each General Election (House of Commons 2019)allowing them to seen as superior to woman, and respected as such. Going back as far as 1721, Sir Robert Walpole was the first person to be elected as a Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, and it came as no surprise that it was a man that was chosen to be the decision maker of our country. Since then there has continued to be a lack of woman representation in British politics, to be more specific, since Robert Walpole, there has only been 2 to be elected as Prime Minister of our country. First Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) who was our longest serving Prime Minister, and our now Prime Minister Theresa May (GOV.UK). I am sure that it came as no surprise that I was appalled at these figures, but it is also a huge accomplishment within itself. We as woman have continuously had to fight! Fight to be acknowledged, heard, respected and treated fairly, but luckily we no longer have to fight to vote. This conveys that there has been a huge improvement in woman’s rights, which has continuously advanced since the suffrage movement (The Telegraph 2018).

Graph1: these figures show female MPs elected at each General Election (House of Commons 2019)

2018 was a year to be celebrated as it marked the 100^th year of woman gaining the right to vote in Great Britain and Ireland. The National Union of Woman’s Suffrage society (NUWSS): a pivotal historical movement in 1848, which was lead, due to woman being treated inferior to men, thus woman new their only resolution to achieve reform was through voting (The Telegraph 2018). Thousands of woman and men collectively devoted their time and energy to protesting for woman’s rights, so woman could one day be respected as full time citizens, and voting was seen to be the first step to accomplishing this. The act was signed into law August 6^th, 1965 abolishing the discretionary voting practises, adopted in many southern states (Crawford, E., 2003). The graph below shows woman’s political participation during 2017 elections, which conveys a small difference between men and woman’s votes, showing that woman are now equally engaged as men in general elections

Graph2: shows the turnout of woman voters in comparison to men voters in 2017 (Green, and Prosser, C 2017 British Election Study)

Woman make up more than half of Britain’s population. In 2017 the UKs population was just over 66 million, with 33.46 million females and 32.58 million males “This gender distribution is reflected in all four counties that make up the United Kingdom, with over half a million more woman in England than men” (Statistics 2017), So why is there a lack of female representation in politics? Woman only accounted for 32% of MPs which is relatively low in comparison to male MPs (BBC News 2017). According to the House of Commons (2019) since 1918, 491 woman have been elected as members of parliament, accounting to 31% of MPs, which is at an all-time high, unfortunately these woman tend to be back benchers, meaning they sit behind their parties, while the frontbenchers, represent for their department (Parliament.uk 2018).

Graph3: shows the growth of woman MPs from 2010-2015 (Speed B 2015)

As an ethnic minority female from a working class background, my mother has always installed the importance of being politically engaged. At a young age my mother made me aware that if I lived in the era of the 19^th century, then I would not have had the opportunity to vote. Feminist were dedicated to woman’s rights, and because of this I am now able to have my voice heard, thus why I always vote at every election. Although, I always try to keep on top of politics (because I have been raised to do so). I don’t have much interest in the matter, and nor does my female friends, and the lack of female representation is one factor behind this, there isn’t much female politicians. Don’t get me wrong, there has been a huge transformation in society regarding woman’s rights. But I truly believe that more could have been accomplished regarding woman’s rights if there were more females in politics to represent for all types of woman. For example, although woman have now been granted the right to work, there is evidence to show that there is still an imbalance within the workplace. The graph below shows that there is still work to be done to prevailing gender inequality across Europe.

 

 

Bibliography

Speed B 2015. How many female MPs do we have now? (Accessed online 23/04/19)

Crawford, E., 2003. The women’s suffrage movement: A reference guide 1866-1928. Routledge.

Green, J. and Prosser, C. (2017) British Election Study:Women, Men and the 2017 General Election

GOV.UK: Past Prime Ministers. (Accessed Online 20/04/19)

Molly M (2018) The Telegraph: How far have women’s rights advanced in a century? (Accessed Online 22/04/19) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/far-have-womens-rights-advanced-century/

Parliament.uk (2018) the Party System.( Accessed Online 22/04/19 https://www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/members/partysystem/)

Parliament.uk (2019) Women in Parliament and Government. Accessed Online 22/04/1. https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN01250

Statistics (2017). Mid-year population estimate of the United Kingdom (UK) in 2017, by gender and country (in million people) (Accessed Online 22/04/2019)