Women in politics courtesy of:https://blogs.prio.org/2020/10/prios-state-feminist-helga-hernes-interviewed-by-kristian-berg-harpviken/
Do you feel that women are represented enough through the political system?
Lets talk about women and their political engagement. We can see that women are politically engaged, as, when looking at the 2019 turnout for the general election, we can see that “59%” of all women that could vote did so. This is relatively high when looking at the male vote which in comparison was not much higher, at only “63%” of all men who could vote at the 2019 election. Could this mean that women are starting to gain a higher political role in society? My answer to this would be unfortunately, no.
Even though we can tell that women are becoming politically engaged, this has not in turn helped women out within politics especially those working within politics. From the image below we can see the percentage of women who were elected into parliament at each general election from 1979 until the 2019 election, even though the numbers have risen and risen steeply since the 1990s by the 2019 election, only 34% of MPs within parliament are women, which would suggest that women are not being represented accordingly within parliament, considering that over half of the UK population is female, yet only a third of MPs are women meaning most MP’s are men who I believe would not be able to appropriately deal with women’s issues as well as women themselves, due to this i would say that more is now needed to get women better represented within parliament. This I feel is shown when Duflo et.al. says that “Men less often think about rape, domestic violence, women’s health, and child care. Women, in turn, have demonstrably different policy priorities than men (Chattopadhyay and Duflo 2004; Gerrity, Osborn, and Mendez 2007; Schwindt-Bayer 2006; Swers 1998).” showing how women’s issues within society are being marginalised and forgotten about as they do not directly affect the men who are more likely to be in power, and more likely to be dealing with these issues, therefore I believe these issues are not adequately discussed nor do I believe they are acted upon to enforce change by MPs.
Do you feel that the male MPs are listening and acting for women’s problems within society?
% of women elected at general elections, courtesy of: https://moodle.roehampton.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/1806038/mod_resource/content/1/Women%20in%20parliament.pdf
One way that I believe the gender gap within politics could change is through diversity quotas, this is as it would enforce that intersectionality would happen throughout the political system. Meaning that all peoples views and issue’s would be taken care of and have an equal voice within society. However, this is not always supported as some sociologists say “gender quotas will increase minority women’s representation in national legislature, but to a lesser extent than for the majority of women.” This helps me to understand that even if quotas were introduced and enforced they would only employ those that shared the beliefs and ideas of the dominant group, in this case middle class men. However I believe that this would be a first small step to helping and ensuring that women’s issues within society were dealt with by those who can understand and sympathise with the people who the issues effect. Do you feel that a diversity quota would help to ensure women’s issues are dealt with appropriately by politicians within society?
Do you feel that women are influenced by men on how to vote?
Even though we know that women are politically engaged and over half of all women in the UK voted in the last election, how do they vote and is their vote influenced by men. My belief is that yes they are influenced by men, by looking at the image below we can see the percentage of votes by both men and women in the 2019 general election by class. I believe that from looking at this we can see how women are influenced on how they vote. This is as if you look at the votes for men and compare them to women, in each different social grade, they are very similar in some cases identical. Could this be that as men may be more educated on politics, women listen to what they say and vote based on the knowledge they have gained from men within society. I believe that this is the case and so I feel that a way to stop this and give women their own voice which they can choose for themselves, starts within the education system, like many other things, I believe that women’s opportunities within schools and subject choice for them should empower them to become politically involved and give them knowledge on the political system, which men have had for years.
women and mens votes in the 2019 general election based on class, courtesy of: https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2019-election
Final Thought
Overall I believe that women’s issues are being marginalised and “pushed to one side within society”, I feel that there are many ways that this can stop. The ways i feel that would help to put women’s issues at a prominent place within society, comes through many different parts of society, firstly education, women should be better educated and encouraged to learn about the political system and how they can effect change within society, this would help women to enforce change by becoming more politically engaged, and also make better informed decisions on voting, and may also encourage more women to see power within the political system, in turn helping the effort with women’s issues within society.
Do you feel that if better education was offered to women to encourage political participation it would help to solve women’s issues within society?
Bibliography
women and men’s votes in the 2019 general election based on class, courtesy of: https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2019-election
% of women elected at general elections, courtesy of: https://moodle.roehampton.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/1806038/mod_resource/content/1/Women%20in%20parliament.pdf
Women in politics courtesy of:https://blogs.prio.org/2020/10/prios-state-feminist-helga-hernes-interviewed-by-kristian-berg-harpviken/
HUGHES, M. “Intersectionality, Quotas, and Minority Women’s Political Representation Worldwide.” The American Political Science Review 105, no. 3 (2011): 604-20. Accessed March 24, 2021. available at: doi:10.2307/41480860.
Paxton, P., & Hughes, M. M. (2014). Introduction to women in politics. In Women, politics, and power: A global perspective (pp. 1-30). SAGE Publications, Inc., available at: https://www-doi-org.roe.idm.oclc.org/10.4135/9781452275482.n1