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July 02, 2008
1 in 5 is not enough
1in5
Originally uploaded by make votes count
Just back from outside Parliament, where we have been celebrating two significant anniversaries: 90 years of women getting the vote and 80 years to the day since suffrage was equalised for both men and women to 21. The rain held off all morning, so we could get some fantastic photos, with a dozen 20s-dressed volunteers smiling for the assembled cameras. Over 40 MPs, from all parties, dropped by College Green before PMQs to have their photo taken and mark the occasion.
But amid the smiles and costumes, there was a serious message.
Equality in law has not meant equality at Westminster. Only 1 in 5 MPs are women, and that is not enough. More needs to be done.
ERS research shows there is no prospect of increasing the number of women MPs at the next election. Indeed, the number of female MPs at the next General Election will likely be stuck at 1997 levels. Eight decades on from the ‘Flapper Vote’ and women are still being passed over by local parties when they choose candidates for winnable seats.
Beatrice Barleon, the ERS’s Women’s Officer, was interviewed earlier on College Green and said: “And the blame can’t just lie with the parties: our voting system fails women – and minority groups. The evidence from around the world is unambiguous – where there is a fairer, more proportional system, countries have more women and minority representatives. At the moment, if you want to support a party, you have to vote for whoever they put up as your local candidate, which still most likely to be a man. In contrast, a more proportional system would provide parties with an incentive to field a more diverse range of candidates – allowing voters to choose the candidate from their favourite party that they identify with the most. Our current system has denied voters the simple opportunity to choose a female candidate in a winnable seat, holding back the breakthroughs seen in other European countries, and even in our own devolved assemblies. Scotland and Wales, with their proportional systems, have much better ratios of women MPs – the Welsh Assembly now ranking among the world’s top flight for women’s representation."
Posted by malcolmclark on July 02, 2008
