BLOG 3 Gender and Political Engagement

Empowering Women, Tackling Inequalities

“If you want something SAID, ask a man; If you want something DONE, ask a woman” – Margaret Thatcher 

Year 2018 was a milestone for all women and their political engagement. It has marked 100 years of struggle AND progress for gender equality of political activism of the suffragette movement. It is therefore, only right that this blog reflects upon the advances that have been made with women’s political participation, but I would also like to highlight some of the persistent challenges around gender relations and political engagement, which we are still facing today.

During the 19th century, women were quite absent from the political landscape. Not necessarily by choice, but still, they were largely excluded from formal politics such as voting. Year 1918 marked major advances for women’s political participation and empowerment, finally (some) women were able to vote. And this is after years of peaceful protests, signing petitions but also some more direct action from the ‘Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) established in 1903 after many suffragists became frustrated with no progress in sight.

BUT, there was still a long journey towards the extension of the female suffrage. The WSPU methods became more violent, hoping that this would speed up the change. They followed the motto “Deed not words” after years of having to abide laws made by the government, which they couldn’t even take part in. With the WW1 breaking out, the suffragette movement made an agreement with the government to suspend their activities and contributed to the national war effort. In 1928 women’s aging vote was changed to over 21, some suggested this was a reward, for women’s effort during the war (Bartley, 2007). Either way, women could now vote on terms equal to men and that was still a step forward.

But how much progress have we made since then?

Graph 1: – The percentage of female MP’s elected for the House of Commons from year 1979 to 2017.

Although there is more equality between men and women in electoral voting, there is still a gender gap within the political system, which underrepresents the female population. In terms of political interest, it appears that men, are more interested and knowledgeable about politics, and even in terms of political discussions, men tend to get involved with at least one daily (Verba, et al., 1997).  It is also no secret that politics have been and continue to be dominated predominantly by men, and even today, women’s leadership in politics is restricted (UN Women).  As you will be able to see in Figure 1, the graph shows the progress of the number of females being elected for the House of Commons, reaching it’s peak in year 2017 with 32%, an all-time high with 209 women in the parliament (Browning, 2019).

Now, you might be thinking… 32% that’s great, we’ve even got a female Prime Minister!!! BUT let’s just have a look at the proportion of women in national parliaments, and then have a think about this again. Let me tell you this, the UK isn’t actually doing that great for representing women, in fact, the UK is currently ranked 39th. As you’ll be able to see in figure 2, at the very top we have Rwanda with 61.3% with Cuba (53.2%) and Bolivia (53.1%) also having majority of female members (Browning, 2019). So why is it that women are still being underrepresented in the UK, a country where we believe in equality for everyone, we are still falling behind 38 countries?

 

Figure 2: – The top 50 countries representing women in national parliaments by membership of lower or only house.

Well, could it be because there are just too many obstacles women face which can prevent us from being able to fully participate? One of these obstacles could be the gender norms, which have been attached to women for decades. One of them being the ‘separate spheres’ which argues that women have two roles reproductive and productive, so basically having babies, looking after them and cleaning, all within the private sphere of the house. Men however, the breadwinners, were better suited for the public sphere, aka politics (Bartley,2007). All of this can not only influence women’s political engagement but also their ability to run for the office! House of Commons for example, has been criticised for its unsociable working hours, their inflexible attitude towards parental responsibilities, and on top of that lack of childcare support (Richardson, 2013). So, could it be that we are still holding onto those outdated ideas about different gender roles, and they are stopping us from moving forward towards even more equality?

Reasons as to why these gender inequalities exist within politics can be complex, but one thing is for sure: We’ve got to break away from those gender norms and need to start creating new approaches in order to endorse a more equal political system (George, 2019). We MUST encourage women to actively leap into the political leadership positions. It might therefore, be time to change the working practices which restrict women from fully being able to involve with politics, to more modern practices which will allow both men and women to be elected for those leadership roles in Parliament and other areas of politics (Watson, 2014).

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Bartley, P., 2007. Votes for women, 1860-1928. 3rd ed. London: Hodder Murray .

Browning, S., 2019. Women in Parliament and Government , London: House of Commons Library .

George, R., 2019. Gender norms and women’s political participation: Global trends and findings on norm change. [Online]
Available at: https://www.alignplatform.org/resources/2019/02/gender-norms-and-womens-political-participation-global-trends-and-findings-norm
[Accessed 27 03 2019].

Richardson, S., 2013. Where are all the women in politics?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/where-are-all-the-women-in-politics
[Accessed 30 03 2019].

Verba, S., Burns, N. & Schlozman, K., 1997. Knowing and Caring about Politics: Gender and Political Engagement. The Journal of Politics, 59(4), pp. 1051-1072.

Watson, R., 2014. Addressing the under-representation of women in Parliament. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2014/jan/30/under-representation-of-women-in-parliament
[Accessed 30 03 2019].

Women, U., n.d. Women’s leadership and political participation. [Online]
Available at: http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation
[Accessed 30 03 2019].