This blog will be exploring why women are still being underrepresented in politics and what the obstacles are in preventing greater women’s representation in the political arena. In recent times there have been changes in institutional reform in political institutions. However, these changes have stemmed from as what Mey Rusell (2001) terms as ‘positive change’ by certain political parties; which have been followed by a long struggle and campaigns by feminist activists. Political parties have made efforts to try and increase the representation and participation of women in politics ; on a smaller scale this has produced positive results as pointed out by Mary Ann Stephenson (2002). The political institutions and their policy making processes are trying to make women more inclusive in politics, ideology and manifestation; this has resulted in a UK women party being formed. The questions remains for debate as to what extent are women representatives making a difference and why are they seemingly largely absent from a larger political scale.
Women have had a long historical battle of underrepresentation in politics; female advocates for an increase in women’s representation saw sex equality in political representation as a priority. When women fought for the right to vote, this generally came with the belief that women were able to participate in politics and gain much political power as men (Sarah Childs 2010). In 1983, there were fewer than five per cent of female MPs and until 1997 there were fewer than ten per cent of women who accounted for the members of the House of Commons (MPs). There was a pattern of underrepresentation of women in politics despite women having achieved in education, employment and other public sectors which included applying for positions within the political office. Lovenduski et al (2000) explain that by the end of the 1970s women wanted to be qually represented as part of their agenda, by the end of the 1980s large social groups and political movements were formed in order to bring about gender equality in politics. By the 1990s there saw an increase in number of women entering into politics this was due to increased pressure from female advocates and international organisations such as the united nations, the council of Europe and the European union.
In the above data, the gradual increase of women representation in parliament House of Commons can be seen where the time period of 1918 where women were given the right to vote up until the year 1992 women MPs constituted to being less than ten per cent in parliament. It is from the year of 1992 up until 207 there was a massive rise in the number of women MPs from ten per cent to thirty five per cent a significant increase of twenty five per cent. The slow increase and change in the representation of women in politics has been due to obstacles which have been put in place preventing women from being represented at a greater level. Seyd and Whiteley (1992) have outlined the three main social obstacles from women entering politics. The first obstacle women face is a lack of resources in comparison to men, women are poorer than men, obtaining a lower employment status which involves occupations less involved in political activism. Secondly the different lifestyles women have in comparison to men which involves less time for being involved in politics due to family care commitments and responsibilities. Thirdly the obstacle women face is men who have established these political parties have looked to serve their own purposes reflecting male interests and purposes; which they intend to exclude any women making them feel discouraged and unwelcomed.
Komath (2014) gives different interpretation of the obstacles women face in entering politics, he suggests that this is due to gendered discriminatory way of thinking which society has labelled women as being weak not being able to make important decisions and they are seen as not being intelligent and less incompetent which has resulted in them being underrepresented in politics. Chemlay (2012) believes the obstacles lie in the way which funding is allocated and to who’s interests they are being catered for; these are primarily being aimed at serving men’s interests which has resulted in women’s issues not being addressed or voiced in parliament due to the underrepresentation of women in politics.
Figure 1 shows the percentage of women in the United Kingdom Parliament and Elected bodies by party. Taken from House of Common library (2018).
Figure one shows the figures of women in the UK parliament and their elected bodies by party; from amongst the two most notable positions in parliament; the current government in power Conservatives consists only 21% of women in the House of Commons which shows to have the lowest representation in comparison to its political party opponents and 25% of women being represented in the House of Lords which is slightly higher although interestingly they have the lowest amount of women elected in total in the House of Lords in comparison to Labour (32%) and Liberal Democrats (34%). The London assembly finds the lowest proportion of women being represented amongst the Conservatives in comparison to its oppositional parties. Phillips (1998) suggests the political obstacle women face in politics are due to men holding the positions of power and culturally men these politically parties tend to be masculine. Candidate processes for party representation have been tailored around men, where being male seems to be an implicit qualification.
Overall there needs to be more representation of women in politics, if women continue to be underrepresented then this will cause demotivation and discouragement for the coming generation of women to engage in politics. Topics affecting women need to be prioritised such as gender pay gap, employment opportunity alongside economic and social status. As Sloane (2014) suggests the public needs more access to female politics in order to gain an increase in interest and engagement; with making more female MPs accessible on a local and national level which needs to be firstly done by removing political, social and constitutional obstacles.
References:
Chemaly, S. (2012). Women in Politics: Why We Need More Women in Office. Available: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/women-in-politics_b_1307586.html.
Lovenduski, J. and Norris, P. (2003). Westminster Women: The Politics of Presence. Political Studies, 51(1), pp.84-102.
Komath, A. (2014). iKNOW, 2014. The Patriarchal Barrier to Women in Politics [WWW Document]. International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics. http://iknowpolitics.org/en/knowledge-library/opinion-pieces/patriarchal-barrier-women-politics
Phillips, A. (1998). Introduction. In: Phillips, A Feminism and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1.
Russell, M. (2000). Women’s representation in UK politics. London: Constitution Unit.
Seyd, P. and Whiteley, P. (2004). Party members and activists. London: Sage Publications.
Sloane, N. (2014). We need more women in politics – here’s how to do it. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/29/five-ways-more-women-uk-politics. Last accessed 4th April 2017.
Tremblay, M. (1994). Joni Lovenduski et Pippa Norris (dir.) : Gender and Party Politics. Recherches féministes, 7(2), p.187.
Women’s political participation in the UK. [online] Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/political-science/publications/unit-publications/89.pdf [Accessed 04 Apr. 2018].