Think tank calls for all-women shortlists
All three of the major political parties in Britain should adopt women-only shortlists to improve women’s under-representation in parliament, a leading think tank said today.
The Hansard Society insists women-only shortlists are the best way to radically increase the proportion of female MPs from its current level of 20 per cent, and that they are vital for “simple reasons of justice and fairness”.
Of the three main parties, Labour is so far the only one to have taken advantage of a change to the law in 2002, which allowed for the creation of all women shortlists, and female Labour MPs now constitute 77 per cent of all women MPs in parliament.
Labour currently has 98 female MPs, compared to the Tories with 17 and the Lib Dems who have ten.
The Conservatives still oppose the lists in principle, while the Lib Dems remain divided on the issue, favouring the use of quotas and the mentoring of prospective female candidates instead.
But Hansard argues that without “equality guarantees”, women will continue to be severely under-represented for the foreseeable future.
Joint author Sarah Childs said: “Unless all political parties select women in their vacant held and most winnable seats at the next general election, we are likely to witness a fall in the number of women MPs in 2009.
“Unless all parties use equality guarantees, such as all-women shortlists, it is most unlikely that they will select women in those vacant seats.”
The report was welcomed by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) who insisted the implementation of such measures to ensure greater parity in parliament would be “a vote winner”.
“Since using the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act in 2002, the Labour party has increased both its number of women MPs, and its share of the female vote. All political parties can benefit from using this legislation,” said EOC acting chair Jenny Watson.
Director of equality campaigners Fawcett Katherine Rake wrote to the Tory leadership candidates earlier this month, urging David Cameron and David Davis to back radical measures to increase the number of women MPs.
“In constituencies where there is a women MP, women voters are significantly more likely to agree with the statement ‘government benefits people like me’ – a very important factor with the high levels of disengagement we are currently seeing,” she said.
Ms Rake added: “International evidence has shown time and again that the only way to significantly increase the numbers of women representatives is to use positive action.”
However, both Mr Davis and Mr Cameron last week ruled out the use of all female lists if they became leader, although the latter said he would consider drawing up an ‘A-list’ of top candidates, half men and half women, to promote.
