In the UK women turn out to vote just as much as men, however they remain significantly underrepresented in political structures such as parliament and local government. It’s a shocking statistic that in 2021 only 34% of MP’s are women (Parliament. House of Commons, 2021). At an ‘all-time high’, it’s still too low. Moreover, there are only 37 ethnic minority women MP’s: that’s 5.7% of all MP’s (Parliament, House of Commons, 2020). Democracy aims to represent everyone, and our laws uphold equal rights of all citizens regardless of characteristics such as race and gender, but we remain far from equality and there is no level playing field for women in politics.
The UK rates poorly in comparison internationally. As shown in figure 1, Rwanda tops this list with 61% of parliamentarians being female. Cuba also holds a female majority and others are closer to gender equality than the UK, placed at number 39. Figure 2 shows most countries have between 10 and 30% of female representatives (Parliament, House of Commons (2021). In addition, women are less likely to hold senior decision-making roles within politics; around 70% of nations worldwide have always been led by a man (Geiger and Kent, 2017).
I recently read ‘women and leadership: real lives, real lessons’, written by two extraordinary female leaders; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Julia Gillard. Ngozi is currently the first female and African to become director-general of the World Trade Organisation, previously working as the first female finance minister of Nigeria. Julia Gillard is the first female prime minister of Australia (elected in 2010) and has spent much of her subsequent career working with organisations helping women in education. In their book, Ngozi and Julia share inspiring and terrifying experiences of international female leaders unpacking their experiences as women. Their insight and hypotheses offer vital insights into why gender inequality persists in politics.
Ngozi and Julia advise aspiring women leaders:
- Women are not likeable leaders
Gendered barriers and stereotypes encompass politics and the media representation of female leaders. Stereotypes and gender bias shape our expectations of the attributes or roles women and men should fulfil. During Julia’s leadership, she was called ‘witch’ and criticised for not being relatable due to her childless status (Gillard and Okonjo-Iweala, 2020). In a more recent example Ngozi’s appointment as WTO director-general was reported in Swiss newspapers as “This grandmother will become boss of the WTO” (Ford, 2021). UN leaders point out that male leaders’ successes are not characterised by offspring or lineage (Ford, 2021). Women leaders face discrimination and abuse in the media and within political environments, potentially discouraging other women from seeking leadership roles.
UNFORGETTABLE: Julia confronts her opposition about sexism and misogyny in parliament:
2. Who’s minding the kids?
Women leaders across the world guided their nations to better outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic (Garikipati and Kambhampati, 2021).Often the focus on female leaders highlights their ability to manage career and family. Jacinda Arden, New Zealand’s prime minister is repeatedly asked how she manages work/life balance, having had her first child in office. More than 800 newspapers worldwide reported the pregnancy, one headline reading “New Zealand’s prime minister is unmarried, pregnant and going on maternity leave” (McFadden, Whitman and McGee, 2018). She is only the second female leader to give birth in office, the first was Pakistan’s prime-minister Benazir Bhutto in 1990 (Khan, 2018). In comparison, the same news source reported “Boris Johnson and partner announce they are expecting a child and are engaged” (McCausland and Woods, 2020). Women are continuously subjected to discrimination and condemnation regarding personal choices, compared to males who are celebrated.
3. Are women supporting other women?
Representing and listening to the voices of women of colour is crucial in this fight for equality. Women of colour are more likely to face barriers in education as well as be subject to racist and sexist stereotypes (Gillard and Okonjo-Iweala, 2020). The pandemic highlighted and exacerbated issues already affecting women such as domestic violence, redundancy, childcare. More women are pushed into extreme poverty than men, especially those from marginalised racial and ethnic groups (Fernandez, 2021). We need more women in decision-making positions to influence policy concerning women of colour. Last year saw Kamala Harris become the first female Vice-President of the USA. Many issues disproportionally affect women of colour, so these voices are crucial to increase the speed towards a more equal world. This is not solely a gendered problem.
So, what can we do?
The World Economic Forum estimates closing the political gender gap will take 95 years (World Economic Forum, 2020). One idea put forward is positive discrimination. Quotas have been suggested as a means of increasing representation of women in politics. This would address the imbalance of power in parliament and increase the number of females in decision making positions (Topping, 2018). While dealing with the surface issue, this largely ignores underlying structural sexist and racist attitudes. I suggest we need to work harder to eradicate stereotypes and barriers through education, encouraging young girls to be leaders.
Ngozi and Julia identified similarities between themselves and other female leaders. Their parents told them they could achieve great things; “YOU GO GIRL”, is the phrase they use for this hypothesis. Education is crucial and for some, the route to survival. In the UK, there are calls for government to address sexism within schools after reports claimed a third of girls are sexually harassed at mixed-sex schools (Murray, 2021). Education has a key role in tackling misogynistic attitudes and preventing sexual violence to empower and stop the reproduction of gendered stereotypes.
We need to move faster and we’ve got a lot of work to do.
HERE’S THEIR BOOK: https://www.waterstones.com/book/women-and-leadership/julia-gillard/ngozi-okonjo-iweala/9781787634381
Bibliography:
Fernandez, B. (2021) COVID-19: The patriarchal pandemic. Al Jazeera, 22 March. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/3/22/covid-19-the-patriarchal-pandemic (Accessed: 23 March 2021).
Ford, L. (2021) Reporting on WTO’s first female head ‘sexist and racist’, say African UN leaders. The Guardian, 23 February. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/reporting-on-wto-first-female-head-sexist-and-racist-say-african-un-leaders-ngozi-okonjo-iweala (Accessed: 20 March 2021).
Garikipati, S. and Kambhampati, U. (2021) Leading the Fight Against the Pandemic: Does Gender ‘Really’ Matter? University of Reading. Available at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/economics/emdp202013.pdf (Accessed: 23 March 2021).
Gillard, J. and Okonjo-Iweala, N. (2020) Women and leadership: real lives, real lessons. Great Britain: Bantam Press.
Khan, M. I. (2018) Arden and Bhutto: Two different pregnancies in power. BBC News, 21 June. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44568537 (Accessed: 23 March 2021).
McCausland, P. and Woods, L. (2020) Boris Johnson, partner announce they are expecting a child and are engaged. NBC News, 29 February. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/boris-johnson-partner-announce-they-are-expecting-child-are-engaged-n1145956 (Accessed: 23 March 2021).
McFadden, C., Whitman, J. and McGee, C. (2018) New Zealand’s prime minister is unmarried, pregnant and going on maternity leave. NBC News, 17 April. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/new-zealand-s-prime-minister-unmarried-pregnant-going-maternity-leave-n866441 (Accessed: 23 March 2021).
Parliament. House of Commons (2020). Ethnic diversity in politics and public life. (CBP-01156) London: House of Commons. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01156/ (Accessed: 20 March 2021).
Parliament. House of Commons (2021). Women in politics and public life. (CBP-01250) London: House of Commons. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01250/ (Accessed: 20 March 2021).
Topping, A. (2018) Britain needs gender equality quotas now, Fawcett Society says. The Guardian, 23 April. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/23/gender-equality-quotas-fawcett-society-britain (Accessed: 23 March 2021).
World Economic Forum (2020) Global Gender Gap Report 2020. Switzerland: World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/reports/gender-gap-2020-report-100-years-pay-equality#:~:text=153%20countries%20ranked.-,The%20%E2%80%9Crole%20model%20effect%E2%80%9D%20reaps%20dividends%20at%20the%20top%20%E2%80%A6,and%2021.2%25%20of%20ministerial%20positions (Accessed: 23 March 2021).
Hey Poppy,
Your blog really highlighted how alarmingly low females representation in politics is- especially women of colour. The UK praises itself to be one of the first countries to reach equality however in reference to your first graph it is easy to see that this isn’t the case. The fact that the UK ranking for the number of women who are in parliament is so low, is very discouraging for me as a female who is interested in politics. I definitely believe that I am not the only female who feels like this and who feels as though the patriarchal structure of the UK government isn’t made to benefit women. You mentioned that you believe the best way to tackle the low numbers of women in parliament is through education, however the 5.7% statistic of the number of coloured women in parliament is a large statistic to tackle. Women are not only discouraged by the lack of representation that they have within parliament but also through the lack of representation in the policies that affect them.
Could you think of any other ways (excluding education) in which we can increase the participation of women in politics as a society?
Hi Era,
Thank you for your comments! Yes, I have thought much about this after writing my blog. I think quotas may be necessary if we are unable to increase the representation of marginalised groups, but my point is that they don’t address the reason why we have such low representation of these groups in the first place. The political education is not there currently and for those who are unrepresented in parliament, I believe this only alienates them more. Political education needs to be valued more highly for it to make an actual difference. I do believe we would see changes in political representation if we spent more time ensuring people understand how it works, affects them and show how it can benefit them if they’re involved.
However, if I were to answer your question directly on what we can do to address the shocking statistics other than through education I would say quotas could help, but maybe if we used a proportional representation voting system, we might firstly engage more people in politics and also more people would feel represented and perhaps this would instil greater faith in our parliamentary system and encourage more women of all backgrounds to go into political positions. The seats in the house of commons would truly reflect how the electorate voted and this is not how our current system works.
I wonder if you’d find this video interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkbAmRv3wrs
It’s about how PR systems work and how First Past the Post (our current voting system) doesn’t represent our voters’ wishes and many of our votes are simply wasted. For example, in the 2015 election, the Conservative government only received 37% of the overall vote but secured a majority of seats in parliament taking up 51%. I believe the system is undemocratic currently, the unelected House of Lords is a whole different argument, but I believe the system needs to be reformed to ensure further political representation of marginalised groups in our society.
Let me know if you have any thoughts on this! Would love to hear what you think too. Thank you again for your comment, it’s such an interesting but complex issue.
Thank you for your response Poppy.
I completely agree with you that not enough is being taught through education in the UK about our political system and the way that it affects us. I would love to see, in the future, government and politics being embedded into our curriculum. I also think that not enough schools have Government and Politics as a subject to study and this in turn leaves a number of students uneducated on our political system.
Quotas are a great and prime example of the ways in which we could increase participation, as it would mean that it would be mandatory for ethnic minorities to have a higher representation in the UK parliament. The increase in ethnic minority representation would then influence younger generations to participate in politics.
Thank you for your response as it was very interesting to see your views on this topic. In regard to the current voting system, we have in the UK, I would also argue that it is not as democratic as we think it to be. Once you start to understand the way First Past the Post works, you start to realise that it doesn’t support the wishes of the majority.
Hi Era, thanks for replying 🙂 Yes, a government politics GCSE would be brilliant. I took A-Level Politics and I remember thinking I should have been told all of this sooner! I also hope to see changes in the current curriculum.
Regarding the quotas, I do completely agree, and I think maybe this should be integrated into a more proportional voting system. I guess, there’s quite a lot wrong with UK politics and more people should know about it and be given the opportunity to understand it. Our government should be transparent. Unfortunately, it’s quite the opposite.
Thanks again Era, it’s interesting to think about this and hear your thoughts. 🙂