Discrimination and under-representation of women is still overt and visible in politics. Diana Silvia Stirbu argues that progress on the gender equality agenda doesn’t come easily, but it is possible through a combination of structural, political and cultural factors. Westminster can learn a lot from the successes in the Welsh National Assembly and Scottish Parliament

Stirbu, Diana Silvia

English

LSE Research Online

blogs.lse.ac.uk http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/2012/03/26/women-representation-westminster-stirbu/Westminster can learn a lot about gender equality bylooking at Welsh and Scottish levels of politicalrepresentationMar 26 2012Discrimination and under-representation of women is still overt and visible inpolitics. Diana Silvia Stirbu argues that progress on the gender equality agendadoesn’t come easily, but it is possible through a combination of structural, politicaland cultural factors. Westminster can learn a lot from the successes in the WelshNational Assembly and Scottish Parliament.The assumption that today’s British society provides a level playfield for men andwomen is shared by many young women who genuinely cannot relate to the idea ofgender inequality; at least not in the early stages of their life. But gender inequality still exists at alllevels of our society; more covert today than let’s say a century ago. It hits women later in their lives,when they have to compromise between family and careers and hit an insurmountable glass ceilingin their professional lives.Politics is one area where discrimination and under-representation of women are still very much asovert and visible as ever. The House of Commons today is only 22 per cent women; roughly one infour local councillors are women – despite women representing more than 50 percent of the UKpopulation. Sexism in politics is not a thing of the past either, when none else than the British primeminister puts an opposition woman MP in ‘her place’ with a ‘humorous remark’: ‘Calm down dear,calm down’. Is this what politics is all about, or is there more to it than what we see on primeminister’s question time? Where would young women, aspiring for a career in politics, have to lookin order to find some inspiration and encouragement? This piece deliberately looks beyondWestminster and investigates advancements on the gender representation agenda in Scotland andWales.The Scottish parliament and the national assembly for Wales were designed to differ from theWestminster parliament. In 1997, when devolution plans were drafted for Scotland and Wales, thebuzz-words on everyone’s lips were: ‘new politics’. The gender dimension of this new politics founda solid ground in the new rhetoric of better representativeness and inclusiveness, which, alongsideaccountability and closeness to the people featured as devolution’s main mantra in 1997.The 1999 elections produced impressively gender balanced results: a healthy 37.2 per cent womenrepresentation in Scotland, and 40 per cent in Wales. In 2003 we saw an increase to 39.5 percent in Scotland, and 50 per cent in Wales, whereas 2007 brought the first minor decline in numbers(33.3 per cent in Scotland and 46.7 per cent in Wales). Wales was in fact the first country to breakthrough the 50 per cent barrier in 2006, when, following the by-election in Blaenau Gwent, thenational assembly’s gender composition was 31 women to 29 men! It is astonishing to think thatwomen representation never fell below 40 per cent in the national assembly, and under 30 percent in the Scottish Parliament!The fundamental question we ask here is whether the devolved institutions in Scotland and Waleshold the key to more balanced gender representation or not. How did these numbers come aboutanyway? And how sustainable are they in the long run?The electoral ‘triumph’ of women post 1997 in Westminster, but more so in Scotland and Wales, isnot down to chance but to a combination of political will, structural factors and strong activism from‘strategic women’ within political parties. Political will rested mainly with the Labour Party’scommitment to use ‘all women shortlists’ in the 1997 UK general elections. In similar fashion in1999 in Wales, Labour and Plaid Cymru used ‘twinning’ (pairing up constituencies –one man, onewoman candidate) and ‘zipping’ of candidates (women on the top and third place on regional lists).Structural factors, such as the design of the electoral system also helped: the PR element of theadditional member system used in Scotland and Wales arguably favoured women’s chances.Beyond political will and constitutional devices, the strong activism of women within political partieswas also important. In Scotland, the Scottish Constitutional Convention provided a platform forleading feminists and activists (i.e. Alice Brown, Wendy Alexander etc) to put gender equality on thepolitical agenda. In Wales, women activists (such As Val Feld, Jane Hutt, Christine Chapman orHelen Mary Jones) also campaigned strongly within their own political parties (Labour and Plaid).The question of sustainability is multi-faceted and goes beyond whether or not the numbers gamecan keep up in the long term. Evidence from the 2011 elections in Wales and Scotland shows amixed picture. On the one hand, it was evident that Labour and Plaid gradually stepped back fromaffirmative action, raising fears of a dramatic fall-back in the number of women elected. However,the elections results were not as bad as predicted: the gender composition is now 43.3 percent women in the national assembly (a decline of 4 per cent from 2007), and 36.5 per cent womenin the Scottish parliament (a slight increase from 2007). On the ‘positive side’, we note the betterperformance of parties traditionally reluctant to employ affirmative action. Moreover, notably, two ofthe main political parties in Wales now have women as leaders (Kirsty Williams for LiberalDemocrats and more recently, Leanne Wood leader of Plaid Cymru).Nonetheless, the tough lesson that Scotland and Wales teach us is that, despite a decade ofprogressive approach to gender equality, success and best practice did not permeate the otheraspects of public life. In Wales for instance, the Equality and Human Rights Commission reportWho Runs Wales 2011 drew a gloomy picture, counting only 2 female chief executives in the top 50firms in Wales, only 2 female editors at the newspapers surveyed, and only one in ten assemblygovernment sponsored bodies are run by female chief executives. Only the national assembly stoodout, not only for its record in the number of women elected, and their high profile with the institution(female Presiding Officer, women chairing important committees), but also for its gender balance atadministrative and managerial level (women chief executive and deputy chief executive forinstance).Hence, the message from the devolved legislatures is mixed. First, progress on the gender equalityagenda doesn’t come easily, but it is possible. A combination of structural, political and culturalfactors is required to achieve any substantial progress. Women activism, political will, affirmativeaction measures, and the electoral system, are all crucial aspects but not sole ingredients forsuccess.Secondly, we have to accept that the nature of the ‘job’ (assembly member or member of theScottish parliament) is slightly different in Wales and Scotland from Westminster, making it moreattractive for women. This is down to institutional features: less of a macho environment, aconsideration to balancing family and working life (the national assembly has operated familyfriendly working hours since its inception), no tolerance to sexist language and behaviour, and, moreimportantly, a significant presence of other women. By no means do we claim here that tribalpolitics doesn’t happen in Wales and Scotland, but there certainly hasn’t been any ‘calm down dear,calm down’ on the floors of the Holyrood or the Senedd.Finally, there is no room for complacency, nor for assumptions such as that once ‘critical mass’ inparliaments is achieved we can all assume gender battle has been won! Translating best practicefrom politics into other areas of public life is a big hurdle. Acknowledging best practice, as well andlearning from experience across the UK and internationally is probably something that bothpoliticians and women activists should embark on as gate-keepers for the gender equality agenda.Please read our comments policy before posting.Note:  This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the British Politics andPolicy blog, nor of the London School of Economics. About the authorDr. Diana Silvia Stirbu is Senior Lecturer in Public Administration at London MetropolitanUniversity. Diana specializes in devolution and territorial politics in the UK, with a particularinterest in issues surrounding the constitutional development of the National Assembly forWales, as well as the impact of the devolution process on the UK constitutional arrangements.You may also be interested in the following posts (automatically generated):1. Quota rules would be more effective than proportional representation in moving towardsgreater gender equality in the Commons2. Gender equality policy despite the recession? Only with pressure from outside government3. The gender imbalance online seems to be the result of wider political exclusion, not digitalexclusion.4. Lack of women at Westminster

Westminster can learn a lot about gender equality by looking at Welsh and Scottish levels of political representation

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

LSE Research Online