February 5

BLOG 3 Gender and Political Engagement

Gender inequality within politics has been increasingly updating in terms of female participation. There are many laws and legislation’s that have been introduced which promotes gender inequality, however is it enough?

My blog will focus on gender inequalities, specifically females and their political engagement. My blog will identify how women are not acknowledged in politics in contrast to men. I will also find reasons as to why women are not as visible in politics.

In the UK, women make up for nearly half of the population which indicates there are a lot of women in UK (Political Studies Association, 2015). 2018 is an occasion for women. This is the 100^th year that politics have evolved, and women have equal rights to vote now. This was only possible with the action of the Suffragette movement in the United Kingdom. The suffragette movement started in 1832, however results were released in 1928, when women could finally vote under the legislation of the Equal Franchise Act (1928). This is beneficial for the evolving societies previously, as well as contemporary society. These changes are beneficial for women who have always had an interest in politics.

Figure. 1- Percentage of females achieving position in Parliament and certain political parties (House of Common Library, 2018).

This is important data in terms of gender inequality and political engagement. The two main parties Labour and Conservative have opposing views in politics. For example, Conservative had only elected 21% of females in the House of Commons, whereas Labour had elected a massive 45%. Similarly, in the House of Lords, Conservative elected 25% in contrast to Labour electing 32%.

The information shown in figure one amplifies how patriarchal the politics are in United Kingdom. Although there are more legislation’s such as Equal Pay Act (2010) and the Divorce Reform Act (1969), politics have not demolished the gender inequality. It indicates that women who have an interest in something that is male-dominated, are not included. Interestingly, the party with the least females; Conservatives are ironically the successful party in winning elections. This could be an indication of how influential the Conservative party is on society. Thus, implementing gender inequalities to society and allowing the rest of society to be inferior to men especially in politics. This allows politics to be of interest for men, which makes politics in the United Kingdom very patriarchal.

Figure 2- difference in pay per hour between male and female in 2011-2017 (Office for National Statistics 2017)

Another gender inequality within politics in the gender pay gap. Men have been receiving a higher pay in contrast to woman whilst doing the same job role which is very discriminating. From 2011 to 2017, men are getting paid more from £13.00 to £14.48 per hour. In just six years, men’s pay has increased by 10.4% in contrast to women’s pay which has increased by at least 12%. Although there is a success due to the pay increase, however it is nowhere near as high as a man’s pay check. On average, men are getting paid 9.1% more than women which is terrible.

“At election time, women become an “issue”, rather than being seen as legitimate voters, with as varied a sweep of interests as other citizens” (Williams, 2017). There are many issues with the main parties’ manifestos as they are favouring men in contrast to benefiting both men and women in society. However, Conservatives emphasised that companies with over 250 employees must declare their pay gap (Williams, 2017). This is beneficial as 250 is a large number and depending on how many females would be working in that company, they are being exploited and are unable to do anything. The focus that these manifestos addressed were focused on childcare which is a different debate. This infuriates me as although they are progressing in terms of including females in politics, there are still sexist issues. This is still having the assumption that females are the most nurturing gender and they should have the expressive roles in terms of childcare. This disallows them to follow their ambition and have a mentality of being a carer for others.

Figure 3- women in national parties globally (House of Common Library, 2018).

Although there are women increasingly being represented in politics, it is quite disappointing to know countries such as Bolivia have 53% of women in national parties and out of 130 seats, there are 69 women. In contrast to the United Kingdom who consistently have political issues and regular elections it is quite disheartening on behalf of the women in the world.

Females are not being represented proportionately in politics. This is due to women seen as being expressive and emotive. The Office for National Statistics (2017) state that women are more likely to work with caring involved e.g. childcare or healthcare. Standards have been set low for women and this needs to be challenged and allow women to have equal rights with men.

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