BLOG 3 Gender and Political Engagement

In this blog, I will be conversing about women’s contribution and engagement in politics. It will explore the ways in which women’s rights have changed from not having voting rights to now developing into a significant module in the political world. Furthermore, this blog will look at the lack of illustration of women in the political system.

2018 was an important year for politics as it marked the 100^th year since women gained their political rights and were allowed to vote. In 1866 a petition for women’s rights caused a major spark within the community despite it having been failed in Parliament. However, this led to the main foundation of women’s movement, for example, the National Union Of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). In 1982 women were eventually given equal rights to vote. Having gained the rights to vote, the number of females being elected as MP’s has shown to have increased. 2017 was another significant year in politics as they passed the minimum number of women governments mandatory for an administration to be demonstrative of women which is 30%.

 

Figure 1: Female MP’s elected at general elections – % of all MP’s at each election

However, this does not mean women are represented highly in politics. On a larger scale, there have been gender inequalities in UK politics. Burns (2007) argued that gender inequalities within the political sphere is a consistent influence throughout democracies.

 

Figure 2: percentage of women in UK parliament and elected bodies by party

Figure 2 conveys that the Conservative party has the lowest number of females in the House of Commons as there were only 21% of females elected. In contrast, the Labour party evidently had the largest number of females elected in the House of Commons as they had a percentage of 45.

In addition, it also shows that the Conservative party had the lowest percentage of women elected in the London Assembly as only 13% were female. However, Labour had a much higher percentage of females elected in the London Assembly as 50% were females.

These findings illustrate that women are being underrepresented in the Houses of Parliament despite the hard effort the suffragettes faced. Moreover, the Conservative party have won the elections more than once which raises questions within society as they have shown to have the lowest numbers of female representatives elected in the House of Common and House of Lords. But why is this happening? One important explanation is that women often face disadvantages in numerous every day social obstacles such as domestic work and childcare (Shruti et al, 2014). Komath (2014) argued that the lack of women representation in the political world is due to the stigma and attitude that is placed upon patriarchy. For example, women overall tend to be portrayed as the weaker gender who are only capable of trivial matters, and overall less intelligent than males. In addition, Kurtzleben (2016) believed that the political world is not family friendly. This is because MP’s are expected to travel to Westminster to carry out their roles to full potential. This is an issue for women who have children as it makes it difficult for them to find a balance between their job as well as motherhood. Kurtzleben (2016) believes this demotivates women in the political sphere as it is hard to juggle the two.

This evidently shows us that the political sphere faces several gender inequalities in the United Kingdom. However, how does it differ from other political systems around the world? Are gender inequalities something that is only acknowledged in the UK or is it better when compared to other countries?

 

Figure 3: Women in national parties across the world

Figure 3 shows us that Rwanda have the highest number of females involved in parliament as 61% are recorded to be women. Similarly, 53% members of parliament are female in Bolivia and 49% of members are female in Cuba . Although half of the population in the UK is made up of females, only a third of political members in the Houses of Parliament are female (Political Studies Association, 2015). This shows that women are underrepresented in politics in the UK as there are only 32% of females in parliament and were ranked 38^th in the list of Women in national parties.

To conclude, women in the political world have progressed over the past 100 years. However, this does not mean that women are equally represented in parliament the same way as male counterparts. In order to achieve a system that is equally representing both men and women a lot has to be changed. For example, the public perceptions of women in society as well as in politics must change. Furthermore, government policies need to be put forward to guarantee that women are presented with the same opportunities as men are.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Burns, N. (2007). Gender in the aggregate, gender in the individual, gender and political action. Politics & Gender, 3(1), 104–123.
Komath, A (2014) The Patriarchal Barrier to Women in Politics. Available from: http://iknowpolitics.org/en/knowledge-library/opinion-pieces/patriarchal-barrier-women-politics [Date Accessed: 12/4/2019

Kurtzleben, D. (2016). Almost 1 in 5 Congress Members Are Women. Here’s How Other Jobs Compare. Available: http://www.npr.org/2016/06/11/481424890/even-with-a-female-presumptive-nominee-women-are-underrepresented-in-politics. Last accessed 4th April 2019.

Political Studies Association. (2015). Why Aren’t There More Women in British Politics? Available from: https://www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus/why-arent-there-more-women-british-politics. [Date accessed 1/4/2019]

Shruti, J., Kent, G., DeCastro, R., Stewart, A., Ubel, P., Jagsi, R (2014). Gender Differences in Time Spent on Parenting and Domestic Responsibilities by High-Achieving Young Physician-Researchers. Annals of Internal Medicine. 160 (5), 344-354.