Is it Gender or Race? or is Gender and Race?
Todays blog may clash, but they are issues which need to be heard of!
Sexism and Racism are two major components of Inequality. So today lets talk about them. ‘How gender has been in politically over the years’ as well as ‘how Race has been politically recently’.
Since the 20th century, more specifically in November 1918, there have been massive changes for women, from being able to vote and to officially entering the parliament. Despite the changes, there still are obstacles for women to actively participate in the politics.
According to studies, The inclusion of women in politics is not just a social but also an economic and political good, which is vital not just for gender equality but also for the progression of the economic growth, which further allows benefits to minorities and promotes inclusion in the public sphere. Does this make women a threat to the political structure? Or does this show a sense of strength and hope within the parliament?
Since 1979, figure 1 shows the percentage of female MPs elected at the general elections has been increasing quite well.
1979 is also the same year when the first British female Prime Minister was elected. Margaret Thatcher won the elections in 1979 with her Conservative political party and spent time in office from 1979 to 1990. She was also known as the longest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th century. Having a female monarch to a female prime minister did seem to show some female empowerment, which did make an important mark within the British history of the 20th century.
Moving forward to 2017 and 2019. Figure 2 shows, that the highest records of female candidates were shown. Especially within the labour party, it was recorded a high number of female candidates. In 2015 only 34% of female candidates were recorded. In 2017 only 41% of female candidates were and in 2019 only 53% of female candidates were recorded.
It seems like women are slowly and steadily building a fix in parliament and how often do you read or hear about female candidates?
Moving on, although it is nice to see some progress for females in parliament. Sexism is not just the problem that women face alone in society but also racism. Being in an ethnic minority does often make you an easy target, especially if you are in the public eye.
There is no denying in official data, of ‘Black and Asian women MPs are abused more online than any other parliament members. There is a makeup of 5.7% of total Ethnic minority MPs in parliament.
Diane Abbott is the first Black woman to be elected to parliament since 1987. She is a member of the labour party and is one of the longest-serving Black MPs in the house of commons. Abbott has also served well in other official government roles before her official entry into parliament as shadow ‘Home sectary’ from October 6th 2016 to April 5th 2020.
Social media is one of the fastest ways of connecting individuals. even though it has many benefits it can also have one of the darkest sides of the online world. Contempt having an experience of over 30 years within the parliament, it was recorded that during the 2017 elections, Diane Abbott received more online hate than any other MP in running shown in figure 3.
The tweets Diane Abbott receives are horrifying from having written verbal abuse to written physical abuse. Many online articles have claimed to track down the hateful abusive tweets towards all MPs and have stated that half were directed at Diane Abbott. That was 25,688 hateful abusive tweets were recorded, and half of which were directed at Diane Abbott, so around 12,844 which is awfully a lot. Figures 4 and figure 5 show how dark it can be.
Diane Abbott has addressed the hate she has received on ‘Good Morning Britain in September 2017’. She vocalised that there has been a change over the years through the way she has been receiving hate. She mentioned in prior years individuals would have to ‘write a letter, to express their hate whereas now it is ‘one-click away’. Diane Abbott, sees anonymity as a problem. She believes that online social media sites do not do enough to protect and safeguard their users. She often feels undermined and humiliated. Any form of abuse does impact the mental health negatively and to wake up consistently and see abuse, does sound disgustingly harsh.
When Diane Abbott was asked in the same interview about turning away from social media as some known figures often do, she stated that this is not something that she can avoid or leave on the side as a politician. She and her staff have to open her social media as well as emails and letters in order to stay connected to her constituency.
Social media are platforms where individuals are able to connect quickly and efficiently, especially for politicians it allows for them to engage with the public within minutes. Therefore, for politicians to reduce their time or leave social media in today’s society can cause some political problems for them.
All individuals have the right to carry out freedom of speech. However, there is a fine line between freedom of speech and abuse. It is natural for everyone to not be liked from famous to non-famous individuals.
As social media, is found to be one of the main causes of the abuse, which MPs receive. The social media platforms should push their platforms on promoting a healthy environment rather than a cruel and unsafe environment. Which could help support in reducing the hate towards any individual. Often filtering certain words can help push toward those healthy environments.
As a youth we often rely on social media platforms to connect as well as to share what is happening around the world. Social media, is found one of the leading areas of marketing. Large cooperates along with Politicians and others, often take this as huge advantage to engage with us as well as to understand our needs and grab our attention from it. Social media is our main area of attraction as a youth. We have grown in and from the platforms.
what are your thoughts?
Do you think it is the structure of the parliament or do you think this is the structure of society? which allows sexism and racism to still be a problem today? There are some clear changes in sexism so why not racism?
References;
- Youtube.com. 2017. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OZIqw5exdw> [Accessed 3 April 2022].
- Amnesty.org.uk. n.d. Black and Asian women MPs abused more online. [online] Available at: <https://www.amnesty.org.uk/online-violence-women-mps> [Accessed 3 April 2022]
- Dhrodia, A., 2022. We tracked 25,688 abusive tweets sent to women MPs – half were directed at Diane Abbott. [online] New Statesman. Available at: <https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2017/09/we-tracked-25688-abusive-tweets-sent-women-mps-half-were-directed-diane-abbott> [Accessed 2 April 2022]
- Palmer, L., 2019. Diane Abbott, misogynoir and the politics of Black British feminism’s anticolonial imperatives: ‘In Britain too, it’s as if we don’t exist’. The Sociological Review, [online] 68(3), pp.508-523. Available at: <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0038026119892404> [Accessed 3 April 2022]
- Uberoi, E., Watson, C., Danechi, S., Bolton, P. and Tunnicliffe, R., 2022. Women inn politics and Public life. [online] House of Commons Library. Available at: <https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01250/SN01250.pdf> [Accessed 3 April 2022].
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