Why is the representation of women in politics less in the UK?

Do the majority of women not want to engage?

Or are there not enough opportunities for them?

It’s been 10 decades since events like the suffragettes led to women finally getting to vote. This was a start to whole new revolution. 16 years before I was born the first ever female got elected to be the prime minister of England.

Fast forward to me, since I was a young girl I have had some memories of politics which as a child I may not have understood as being politics. I have looked up to my sisters and my mother as role models. I viewed them as opinionated women who stood up for issues they believed in. However, when it came to votes they were passive. I grew up in a Pakistani, Muslim household in Britain which created another challenge in engagement. The intersectionality theory takes place, where two or more dimensions of identity such as being female (gender) and having a Pakistani (ethnicity) Muslim (religion) background results in a myriad of disadvantage. A month the before the voting date a relative would arrive with a candidate known to them personally. They would persuade member of my family to vote for them and sign a postal vote. Although voting is one of the most evidential way to engage in politics, this still lacked full control in their opinions. This was carried out more like a chore rather than decisions for their own future. In my opinion they lacked the knowledge of the importance of engaging and having a personal say.

Presently, intersectionality still exists in my household but the engagement has developed, resulting in joining events to campaign on issues they strongly disagree with, signing petitions, voting for who they want, and overall being well engaged in politics.

However, are the females all around the UK engaging?

Figure 1 – Demographics of Gender Participation (UK Gender-Sensitive Parliament Audit, (2018).

When it comes to the ballot box females are voting more than men, therefore this shows active engagement but does not dwell in on their attitudes of towards politics. This shows women vote more than men.

Is this enough to show their engagement?

Figure 2 – Political Attitudes by Gender. Hansard Society, Audit of Political Engagement 15 (2018).

Figure 2 shows that less women compared to men believe that getting involved in politics is effective. Women are not as content with the government system as much as men and it shows more men have knowledge in politics. This suggests that many things in society still need to be changed by the government but more female representatives are needed, this results in policies that do not favours women and therefore more women than men are not satisfied by the present government. Men having more knowledge in politics is believable as they have grown up with almost all of the prime ministers and leaders in the UK being men. This stereotypically seems like it is a career for men. This shows women may consciously think engaging in politics is waste of time.

But are those women interested even making their voice count?

Figure 3- Political Activity by Gender, Hansard Society, Audit of Political Engagement 15 (2018).

Figure 3 shows statistics from a survey in 2018 on males and females political engagement. It shows that 77% of women have already participated in political activities/laws/policies and for men it was 73%. Another statistic on the above figure is shown that 89% of women would be ready to embark on an activity on a situation they feel strongly about where as the statistics for men was 86%. They both may just seem like a very small difference in stats, but the higher percentage in women on political activity shows that women do want to participate and back up their views by engaging.

Then why are there more men in politics than women?

Have females lost hope?

Or is it just a sexist system?

According to an audit the House of Commons has over 2000 employees. This includes the roles that support the running of the House of Commons, from the Parliamentary digital services, researchers, maintenance to the cooks. Statistics show that ¾ of those employed are female. However, when authoritative positions of Administration are investigated, females are not represented enough (Parliament.UK, 2018).

‘Only 33% of them are women’  (Parliament.UK, 2018).

Half of the employees in the House of Lords are women but when analysed women are still not represented enough. When it comes to higher positions, there are no female executive members of the board.

Why is it important to vote for female candidates?

Anne Phillips believes it is important to have female members representing females. She views it as ‘symbolic’  (Phillips, 1995:39).

Change for women is made when women are representing women. They make a stand for women symbolically.

Above is a video of a polish MEP who stated females should earn less because they are smaller and less intelligent.

This is why we need more female representatives.

Women need to represent women so that policies are in favour of them and less clowns get elected.

Bibliography

Hansard Society, Audit of Political Engagement 15 (2018). Available at: https://assets.ctfassets.net/rdwvqctnt75b/iHWHYym8BquqsMQ64oaEC/5c151f5dc7302f37633977500f68c104/publication/hansard-society-audit-of-political-engagement-15-2018.pdf (Accessed: 22/4/18)

Gender and Political Participation, (2018). Available at: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7501/CBP-7501.pdf (Accessed: 17/4/19)

UK Gender-Sensitive Parliament Audit, (2018). Available at: https://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-information-office/UK%20Parliament_%20Gender%20Sensitive%20Parliament%20Audit_Report_DIGITAL.pdf (Accessed: 23/04/19)

Phillips, A. (1995), Pg 39. The Politics of Presence (Oxford: Clarendon Press)