Let us Talk about Quotas.

Figure 1-(Southworth et al., 2022)

Women in Parliament is needed, but why do we need quotas for this to help see what is needed in society? A Quota is a system idea to recruit women into political positions and ensure that women are not just a small part of political life. If young women who learnt about the suffragettes grow up to see that there is still a lack of females in politics, they need others to look up in order to be driven to go down that career path (Gender Quotas | International IDEA, 2022).

Fight for Women’s Rights in Politics

Women in politics has been a dispute for many years and a topic taught in all education is the suffragette movement. It is not possible not to recognise the name of the word ‘suffragette’ and not have some sort of recognition of the word. It was in 1903 that the women’s social and political union focused on women in politics. During WW1, Christabel Pankhurst, one of the founders of the Women’s Social and Political movement, worked with the British government to encourage women to play an active role in the WW1 operations and duty (Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) (1903-1917) | Towards Emancipation?, 2022). So, if women were able to step up and take control while the men were at war, why is it that women are still seen to be useless regarding politics or lesser than men? Yet when the men were not there to work, the women were able to step up and take over their roles. It was in 1918 that the women’s social and political union achieved the success that women who met the proper criteria and were aged over thirty were allowed to vote, but it was later in 1928 that women were then granted electoral equality with men(Century, 2022).

Figure 2- (2015 United Kingdom Parliament Election – Number of women in UK Parliament rises by a third, 2022)

DO WE NEED QUOTAS TO SUCCEED?

Although we now know that women before us brought significant change when it comes to women in politics, why is it that we still need change or why do we as women, need things such as quotas in place to be a voice in politics? Quotas are not completely negative, when you explore the positives, they are useful with regards to how they compensate for the barrier’s women face. Quotas are useful when women first go into their share of political seats, it does not discriminate against women. You can identify this above with the graph shown in figure two and how the percentage of female candidates in 2015 is very low thus proving it is a man’s world.

This is because these women are just as qualified and possibly even more qualified than the men, however it is their qualifications that are downplayed in a male-dominated political system. The quotas are ideally temporary – it may have a few conflicts, but its aim is to help to make this happen without the help of quotas. These concepts should not have to be introduced in order to enforce change.

However, although this idea is good with regards to ensuring that there are women who have political seats and can be active participants in politics, there will always be a stigma that is attached to women who have earned their political seats. Due to societal standards and judgements, women in politics will always be regarded as having the easier route due to this new rule. There is also the argument surfacing that due to these quotas, this takes away the equal opportunities as women will be given the preference over men (Ro, 2022). The irony of this argument is, if this industry was equal and fair and not male-dominated, there would not be the need for quotas altogether.

 

Alternative to Quotas

Electoral financing bills can be created to be more gender-responsive by the registration of political parties, depending on having no more than two-thirds of any gender in the governing bodies (Elections, 2022). This will also help the gender divide in politics by doing something slightly different to quotas, by forcing political parties to have a roughly equal amount of each gender so one is not outdoing the other. This will help change one of the negative opinions of quotas by allowing women to gain their roles in politics without the stigma of getting a place due to just being a woman in politics. It will be important for the public to see the balanced number of women to men, as this will not only, take away some of the stigma of the quota, but work in favour of both genders being represented politically.

 

The Change Is Needed

These strategies are needed within society due to the fact that it is not easy for women to go beyond the glass ceiling above them, there needs to be hope for the youth of women today that when they work hard, they will get to where they want to be, without a stigma and without trying to fight against the male-dominated political environment. However, until that time comes these two strategies are what is needed to steer society and politics in the right direction of equality between genders, once there are changes from the top it will be easier to have changed from underneath.

Do not let the Glass Ceiling Stop You!

 

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