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Addressing the lack of representation for girls in politics!

So, I would like to begin by addressing the fact that there is not a massive gulf between male and female voter turnout in the UK. In fact, when both men and women were asked, in a 2019 survey, whether they were likely to vote in a national election, there was a 2% difference in the amount of respondents who had replied ‘yes’, a result of 65% women and 67% men (Democratic Audit UK, 2019). However, there is a large problem with the representation of women within politics. Shockingly, research has shown that women hold fewer than a quarter of legislative seats worldwide despite representing half of the global population! How is this even possible?

First, we must ask: why are women so underrepresented in politics? One reason for this underrepresentation is because of the way that females from a young age are socialised politically. Particularly within the classroom, girls are not taught how to be “outspoken” and “demanding” which are key traits of those in political roles; in fact, some theorists suggest that women have simply not had enough negotiation training when young and therefore, shy away from leadership roles (Harris, 2014); I know I did! Despite the inclusion of political teachings in schools as well as open classroom policies, young girls still often remain quieter than boys who are much more likely to dominate conversations or debates in the classroom setting (Sadker & Sadker, 1991). This complies with harsh gender roles which limit the way that different genders act, particularly in young children where these roles are ingrained into them from the family or education. This is expected to lead young girls further away from roles where they are likely to have to debate and more into gender specific roles such as careers leading from subjects such as English and Art. Interestingly, research shows that women feel that they need to have a full understanding of something to fully participate. As young girls are not likely to get much political education from either their family or education, they are less interested in participating full within political systems and instead find their own ways of participating through activism or roles such as school governor (Ondercin & Jones-White, 2011)

Similarly, another reason for the lack of representation of girls in politics is the lack of self-belief in becoming political leaders. Due to a cycle of underrepresentation, women do not hold much power within these political systems and so are unable to act as role models for younger girls. Notably, female representation has only just increased to over a third of members within the House of Commons, now up to 34%, a staggering total of 220 women elected (Watson, Uberoi, Mutebi, Bolton, & Danechi, 2021) but this is nowhere close to being enough! Comparably, the United Kingdom is 39^th for the number of women represented within parliament, with Rwanda and Bolivia almost doubling their number of female MP’s! To say that the UK have gender equality would definitely be an overstatement. Interestingly, some theorists suggest that this lack of interest in becoming politicians is a result of the lack of knowledge that girls have about politics from a young age. When presented with a political test, boys were much more knowledgeable in their answers, whereas girls were much more likely to choose the ‘I don’t know’ option (Simon, 2017). But does this really mean that girls know less? Or are they just more likely to answer ‘I don’t know’ on a test? Although, this research has been criticised for the use of multiple choice tests and when given a larger and broader political test, result on knowledge were somewhat similar with certain genders dominating certain political areas. For example, girls were much more able to recognise local members of parliament while boys had a wider knowledge of international political affairs (Simon, 2017). In spite of this, girls are still massively lacking in confidence when competing against boys for these roles. Only 46 women in history have been lucky enough to obtain a role within the cabinet and only 6 remain in the cabinet at the moment. The picture below demonstrates where women are heads of their government:

It is crucial to encourage women to get into politics so that all genders feel represented within their government as well as to encourage young girls’ aspirations. A way for us to elect more women into political roles could be through reserving seats for women to encourage them to apply. By broadening the chances for women to become elected, there is likely to be a large increase in applications from women. However, this goes against the idea of encouraging gender equality by favouring women for their gender rather than their suitability for the role. To ensure that women are represented in politics, it is very important to ensure that both genders have a full understanding of their local politics at a young age. This can be done by increasing citizenship education or changing the way that children are gendered; particularly in the classroom setting where boys are likely to dominate their ‘classroom politics’.

Bibliography

Democratic Audit UK. (2019, January 3). Has the gender gap in voter turnout really disappeared? Retrieved from Democratic Audit: https://www.democraticaudit.com/2019/01/03/has-the-gender-gap-in-voter-turnout-really-disappeared/

Harris, R. H. (2014, November 13). 5 reasons why there aren’t more women in politics and business. Retrieved from The Business Journals: https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/growth-strategies/2014/11/5-reasons-why-there-arent-more-women-in-politics.html

Ondercin, H., & Jones-White, D. (2011). Gender Jeopardy: What is the Impact of Gender Differences in Political Knowledge on Political Participation?†. Social Science Quarterly, 675-694.

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

Simon, A. (2017). How can we explain the gender gap in children’s political knowledge? American Behavioural Scientist, 222-237.

Watson, C., Uberoi, E., Mutebi, N., Bolton, P., & Danechi, S. (2021). Women in Politics and Public Life. London: House of Commons Library.

 

Have schools done enough to politically engage their students?

Throughout my years of education, I cannot remember once being taught about politics or how to vote. For some this may come as a shock, but to my fellow local Church of England secondary school goer’s this does not seem too out of the ordinary. Similar to many students in my area, I had not had much of an interest in politics until I entered post-16 education and was able to seek out information on my own. Due to a lack of interest in and access to politics for families with a lower socioeconomic background, it is evident that students with lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to be politically engaged when of voting age (Janmaat & Hoskins, 2019); but how are schools tackling this?

Since 2002, schools have introduced different forms of citizenship education to encourage students to maintain an interest in politics (Keating, Kerr, Benton, Mindy, & Lopes, 2010). These range from developing the classroom structure to allow for more informed and accepting debates to more intense classroom teachings of democracy and voting. Similarly, schools also have the opportunity to engage students in pretend elections such as School Council, demonstrated in the photo below. These citizenship teachings gave disadvantaged children, who are unlikely to be taught at home, an opportunity to understand politics as well as building on skills that other, more privileged students may have had access to from an earlier age. So why is this not enough? During the 2017 UK election, around 15 years after the introduction of Citizenship education, the lowest voter turnout in terms of social group were young people (aged between 18-34) who were either unemployed or in unskilled/semi-skilled labour roles at a shocking 35%, followed by young people in skilled manual labour roles at 49% (Janmaat & Hoskins, 2019). In comparison, “all other social groups according to gender, age, social class and ethnicity” had a voter turnout of more than 50% (Janmaat & Hoskins, 2019). Evidently, a lack of education post-16 has been the largest culprit for students sharing limited interest in the political system.

So, why are those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds still not interested in politics despite being given the tools to understand it themselves? This is likely due to the differences in home lives among students. Students with a higher socioeconomic background are more likely to understand the political system already through the knowledge their parents have whereas, students from a lower socioeconomic background are less likely to have parents that understand the political system themselves (Janmaat & Hoskins, 2019). As a result of these backgrounds, certain students are able to take on the citizenship teachings more appropriately and be able to respond better to this form of education, likely leading to a career in politics compared to students of a lower social class. From my own experience, I preferred to avoid class discussions about politics as I had always lacked enough knowledge to be able to contribute to these discussions myself. In tandem, my mother, from a working-class background, preferred not to vote and didn’t understand the political system so preferred to keep out of it. This is very common among working class families who either don’t receive the information to understand politics at a young age or don’t want to understand politics. In parallel, politicians from working class backgrounds are becoming scarcer and politics as a whole will eventually be dominated by the middle-class (UCL, 2018) as a result of political disengagement from young people.

Crucially, we must ask ourselves: is it too late to improve on voter turnout among lower socioeconomic groups?

Never!

There are always ways to adapt and improve what we know already to benefit our future generation of politicians. Particular theorists have discussed the idea of enforcing compulsory voting to encourage members of all social groups to have a larger interest in politics. I know what you’re thinking, COMPULSORY voting would surely limit the expression of political identity? Liang makes sense of this, suggesting that those with the lowest voter turnout are likely limited in voting due to their socioeconomic obstacles (Liang, 2015). By ensuring that voting is compulsory, the obstacles faced by those in the working-class (where voter turnout Is lowest) are no longer present, hopefully increasing voter turnout. Another improvement to be made could be to make citizenship teachings compulsory until the age of 18 rather than 16. This would likely encourage the younger generation to have more of an in-depth understanding of their role in society and the necessity of voting.  Finally, the most crucial change to make would be to teach young people that their vote matters and that elections are relevant to them (Baston & Ritchie, 2004)!

Bibliography

Baston, L., & Ritchie, K. (2004). Turning out or turning off? London: Electoral Reform Society.

Janmaat, J. G., & Hoskins, B. (2019). Education, Democracy and Inequality: Political Engagement and Citizenship Education in Europe. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Keating, A., Kerr, D., Benton, T., Mindy, E., & Lopes, J. (2010). Citizenship education in England 2001-2010: young people’s practices and prospects for the future: the eigth and final report from the Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study (CELS). London: Department for Education.

Liang, C. (2015, April 9). Political disengagement and socioeconomic inequality: the case for compulsory voting. Retrieved from 99 percent Campaign: http://www.99percentcampaign.org/blog/2015/04/09/political-disengagement-and-socioeconomic-inequality-the-case-for-compulsory-voting/

UCL. (2018, July 30). Decline in working class politicians, shifted Labour towards right wing policy. Retrieved from UCL News: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2018/jul/decline-working-class-politicians-shifted-labour-towards-right-wing-policy

 

Young voters, who have been rejected in their search for political identity, are now reclaiming their future and demonstrating a passion for politics. For years, young voters have expressed their resistance and distrust within the government, exemplifying this through their lack of votes. Since 1964, voter turnout between the ages of 18-24 have declined from around 77% to approximately 43% in 2017 demonstrating a change in young people’s voting habits (Uberoi, 2020). Although, there has been significant increase in young people participating in other forms of political engagement such as protests, demonstrations and campaigns. These forms of political engagement are less conventional and regarded as ‘civic’. Typically, citizens are likely to address current issues by voting for different parties and ensuring the correct candidates are elected. However, younger voters’ politics have evolved and young voters may address “these issues today might be tackled instead through consumer activism, protests and demonstrations, activity on social media, charitable fund-raising, or voluntary work in the community” (Barrett & Pachi, 2019). To put this all into perspective, more young people voted in the TV show Big Brother than the 2001 general election (Johnson & Marshall, 2004)!

So, what has been put in place to encourage young voters? After the shocking turnout from the 2001 General Election, schools introduced the Crick report to educate student on citizenship and democracy as part of the national curriculum following national policy (McLaughlin, 2000). The Crick report advised teaching students to behave and act as citizens as well as the values, skills, depositions and understanding (McLaughlin, 2000) that is needed to become active citizens in society. With this knowledge, students are expected to understand the importance of rights to vote as well as what politics are in a general sense so they feel more empowered to vote when they are able to. Despite this, some critics suggest that starting these teachings at such an early age may be confusing for young people, alongside the introduction of other moral and social development teachings, such as PSHE, may be substantially harder to digest (McLaughlin, 2000). Notably, Big Brother creator Peter Bazalgette has been in communications with Conservative Party leaders to encourage a similar voting turnout increase to Big Brother through the possibility of introducing email and text message voting (Johnson D. , 2002).

Young voters have now adapted the way that they politically engage to encompass the modernity of society. In previous years, it could be seen as evident that young people had begun to look for new ways to identify themselves politically, specifically through protests and demonstrations. This has adapted to the role that social media has in our everyday lives and now, young voters are able to share their political views as well as show support for activist groups and alternative parties (specifically green party). Theorists such as Andersen identify that voters have become more individualised due to post-modernity and that “socially defined individual identities, and contextual influences related to them, are generally less important to voters now than they were in the past” such as social class (Anderson, Yang, & Heath, 2006). Following this, individuals feel that they do not have to vote and can express a political opinion in alternative ways.

There is a plethora of reasons for young people’s lack of votes, such as a lack of interest in politics or not being able to identify with a particular political party. However, research has identified that there has been a crucial lack of trust in politicians within recent years. Around 49% of voters in 1986 stated that they trusted the Government to put the needs of the nation first, compared to only 17% in 2013 (Uberoi & Johnston, Political disengagement in the UK: who is disengaged?, 2019). Similarly, when asked if politicians can be trusted when in a tight corner, 9% agreed in 1956 compared to 10% in 2013 (Uberoi & Johnston, Political disengagement in the UK: who is disengaged?, 2019). This demonstrates that there has always been a distrust in politicians when under pressure. The larger concern for citizens seemed to be that those in power are not acting in the best interest in the country. Alternatively, research has shown that teenagers and young adults are “less likely to be involved in conventional politics, be knowledgeable about politics, have an attachment to any political party, or view voting as a civic responsibility” (O’Toole, 2004). Some accredit this to a lack in civil education, despite the introduction of citizenship teaching after the Crick report, whereas others suggest that young voters simply do not understand the necessity of voting in election. As a result, when young voters inevitably become the older generation, will we have adapted the way we engage politically and continue to place little importance on voting?

Bibliography

Anderson, Yang, & Heath. (2006). Class Politics and Political Context in Britain, 1964-1997: Have Voters Become More. European Sociological Review, 215-228.

Barrett, M., & Pachi, D. (2019). Civic and political engagement in young people. The Psychologist, 54-56.

Johnson, C., & Marshall, B. (2004). Political engagement among young poeple: An update. London: The Electoral Commissions.

Johnson, D. (2002, December 8). Young need to spur vote. Retrieved from Variety: https://variety.com/2002/tv/news/young-need-to-spur-vote-1117877097/

McLaughlin, T. H. (2000). Citizenship Education in England:The Crick Report and Beyond. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 541-570.

O’Toole, T. (2004). Explaining Young People’s Non-participation: Towards. Birmingham: University of Birmingham.

Uberoi, E. (2020). Turnout at Elections. London: House of Commons Library.

Uberoi, E., & Johnston, N. (2019). Political disengagement in the UK: who is disengaged? London: House of Commons Library.

 

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