Counting Women In
The Centre for Women and Democracy, the Electoral
Reform Society, the Fawcett Society, The Hansard Society and Unlock
Democracy have formed the Counting Women In (CWI) campaign
to address the lack of women in politics. We believe the under
representation of women in Westminster, the devolved assemblies,
and town halls around the UK represents a democratic deficit that
undermines the legitimacy of decisions made in these chambers.
Together, we will be campaigning to ensure women have an equal
presence and voice within our democratic system.
1. Democratic Legitimacy
The House of Lords—the last UK legislative
institution to admit women—has long been the subject of
campaigns for reform. These have generally centred around democratic
legitimacy in the sense of an unelected legislative body being
an anachronism and therefore untenable for the future, but there
are other reasons for viewing reform as both necessary and desirable.
a) The current House of Lords is heavily (78%)
male, and almost all of the women members are life peers. At a
time when the public increasingly expects legislators to reflect
the make-up of the population, and as the general notion of what
constitutes democracy continues to move from the delegative to
the representative and participative, a Parliament in which a
minority of the population is dominant both looks out of touch
and lacks democratic legitimacy.
a) Reform of the second chamber offers a unique
opportunity to create a strong and vigorous body capable of providing
democratic leadership unencumbered by the weight of tradition
and cultural expectation which weighs on the lower House. This
opportunity would be enhanced by the inclusion of equal numbers
of women and men, since it would enable the House to draw on the
wider range of experience and approach increased diversity offers.
As a result, the new House would be in a better position to deal
more effectively with issues such as working hours, rights of
petition, accountability, etc.
b) The under-representation of over half the
population in the nation's legislature means that Parliament is
failing to make best use of the skills, abilities and experience
of all its citizens. As has been demonstrated in more than one
study[5],
the routes into the House of Commons have narrowed in recent years,
but a reformed House of Lords with clear criteria for candidacy
and a commitment to ensuring a diverse membership would be able
both to open up new routes and secure access to the legislative
process for a much more representative body of people drawn from
across the population.
2. Better Decision-making
Apart from issues around social justice and democratic
legitimacy, the most compelling argument for ensuring that women
are present in numbers in any legislature is that they change
the nature of the debate so that it takes the whole of the population
into account in different ways. In particular:
a) There is a growing body of evidence, largely
drawn from business, that women make a positive difference to
the quality of decision-making. For instance, in a recent report[6]
Deloitte found that 'In Europe, of 89 publicly traded companies
with a market capitalization of over 150 million pounds, those
with more women in senior management and on the board had, on
average, more than 10 percent higher return on equity than those
companies with the least percentage of women in leadership', and
came to the conclusion that 'In reality, the question is not women
or men, it's how to ensure women and men are working together
in decision-making roles'.
a) The same argument pertains equally to the
world of politics.
b) Research carried out by the Hansard Society[7]
found that, despite the difficulties women face in institutional
politics, they can and do bring issues to the table which may
not otherwise be debated, or which might otherwise be considered
to be of less significance. They thus have the effect of making
the legislature more relevant to the whole population, both men
and women.
Frequently quoted examples of this are work/life
balance issues and childcare, which in the early nineties were
generally considered to be exclusively 'women's issues' but are
now accepted as being relevant to both sexes.
c) There are also other considerations. Women
and girls benefit enormously from the education system, and go
on to develop skills and expertise based upon that and their life
experience. If they are largely excluded from national (and local)
politics these skills are being under-used in terms of public
benefit. Whilst it is true that in many respects the life experiences
of men and women are the same, in some they are not, and to be
truly effective the country's democratic institutions needs to
take account of what the full range of people involved in them
can offer.
3. Opportunities for increasing women's representation
within the Lords
CWI welcomes the Government's proposals to use a
fairer voting system such as STV or t he open list system, which
provides more opportunity to increase women's representation within
the Lords. The House of Lords Reform Bill provides an opportunity
to bring about a step change in women's political representation
and address the democratic deficit of the current gender imbalance
in the House of Lords. CWI will be seeking measures within the
House of Lords Reform Bill to this end.
The UK is now trailing in international league tables
on women's access to positions of political power. At present
just 22% of the Lords are women. A new, reformed Chamber must
be representative of the population as a whole and be equally
informed by the experiences and expertise of women and men. Government
also has a legal duty to assess how measures for reform could
promote equality between men and women and tackle discrimination.
As we move towards reform of the Lords, the representation of
women must be at the heart of the agenda.
If reform of membership of the House of Lords is
implemented there are several options which could be adopted to
ensure it is more representative in future.
Proportional Representation (PR) systems provide
a fairer system of electoral representation, with political parties
receiving seats in proportion to their electoral strength. Academic
research classifies PR as a facilitator rather than a guarantor
of better female representation[8],
as no voting system in and of itself can guarantee gender parity
in political life. While PR as a system has greater potential
than other voting systems to improve women's representation and
diversity, this can only be guaranteed in conjunction with additional
positive action measures.
Where progress has been made in delivering more women
into positions of power—both in the UK and internationally—the
driver for this has been the implementation of positive actions
measures, such as quotas, All-Women-shortlists, zipping or twinning
shortlists such that women and men are equally represented, or
reserved seats for women in appointment-only systems.
Positive action measures need not be implemented
on a permanent basis. Instead they can be time-limited and regularly
re-evaluated to gauge their utility and necessity. Given the longstanding
dominance of men within politics, positive action measures can
provide a boost to the change already in process. Positive action
measures could be built into the legislation in different ways
depending on the reform model that is finally adopted.
In relation to the elected element
of a reformed Upper House, positive action measures should be
integrated into the electoral system, requiring parties to proactively
cast their net wider to ensure the selection of equal numbers
of women and men.
In the event that a proportion of peers are appointed
rather than elected, the Appointment Commission should be statutorily
required to ensure the appointment of equal numbers of women and
men.
4. Principles for Reform and Recommendations:
Counting Women In recommends that:
- Reform of the House of Lords
offers a once in a generation opportunity to increase the presence
and voice of women in the Upper House;
- A PR model has greater potential
than other voting systems to improve women's representation and
diversity, but this can only be guaranteed in conjunction with
additional positive action measures;
- The legislation should require
the political parties to ensure the selection of equal numbers
of women and men as candidates for election to the new Upper House;
- The Appointment Commission
should be statutorily required to appoint equal numbers of women
and men as peers in a reformed, hybrid House of Lords;
- Consideration should be given
to the effect that the right of ministerial appointment and the
allocation of 12 ex officio seats for Church of England Bishops—currently
reserved seats for men—will have on equality and diversity
of representation in a reformed Chamber.
1 October 2011
5 The most recent of these is Pathways to Politics,
Durose, Gains, Richardson, Combs, Broome & Eason (Universities
of Manchester and de Montfort) for the Equality & Human Rights
Commission, 2011 Back
6
The Gender Dividend: making the business case for investing
in women' Pellegrino, d'Amato & Weissman, for Deloitte,
2011 Back
7
Women at the Top: Changing Numbers, Changing Politics? Childs,
Lovenduski, Campbell, for the Hansard Society 2005 Back
8
Childs, 2008 as quoted in Evans, E & Harrison, L. Candidate
Selection in British Second Order Elections: A Comparison of Electoral
System and Party Strategy Effects, 2011. Back
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