Submission from Unlock Democracy (SC-54)
ABOUT US
Unlock Democracy (incorporating Charter 88)
is the UK's leading campaign for democracy, rights and freedoms.
A grassroots movement, we are owned and run by our members. In
particular, we campaign for fair, open and honest elections, stronger
parliament and accountable government, and a written constitution.
We want to bring power closer to the people and create a culture
of informed political interest and responsibility.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Unlock Democracy supports a demographically
representative Parliament that will not alienate people from politics.
This submission focuses on the under-representation
of women in politics, especially local government, but has wider
implications.
Although systemic action can be very
effective in promoting a more representative Parliamentas
Labour's All-Women Shortlists evinced in 1997Unlock Democracy
would not wish to force parties to adopt such measures and believed
the cultures of the different parties should be respected.
Electoral reform, namely moving to a
multi-member constituency system, is the most important systemic
change to make, which has proved successful internationally. This
could be combined with exclusive shortlists, zipping, or quotas,
if parties so desired.
The New Politics Network (now amalgamated
into Unlock Democracy) interviewed 17 female councillors
about barriers women face at the local level in 2006. The study
identified the need for there to be visible female role models
in politics, and better support for female candidates. It found
that women faced outdated attitudes, and difficulties balancing
work and home commitments. The unpaid nature of local government
work, was also found to be more of a barrier to women in light
of the gender pay-gap. Some of the women interviewed noted that
parties' selection process was open to discrimination because
too informal.
Unlock Democracy is concerned that All
BME Shortlists could lead to an "ethnic faces for ethnic
voters" policy, and warns that discriminating on the basis
of ethnicity is a dangerous path to go down.
Local parties need more members to choose
more diverse candidates. Unlock Democracy believes party funding
should be used to incentivise local political activity.
Political activity should be promoted
as a public service and included within Government sponsored volunteering
schemes.
Parties should provide financial support
for childcare to women candidates standing at election.
Parties should be proactive in identifying
and recruiting women as members and candidates at the local level.
At the national level, state grants could
be provided for outreach and training programmes for women, and
There could be a move away from yah-boo
adversarial politics in favour of parliamentary committee work
and case work.
Unlock Democracy notes that the issue
of social/economic barrier to entering Parliament is crucial and
perhaps being currently overlooked.
INTRODUCTION
1. Unlock Democracy very much welcomes the
launch of the Speaker's Conference to: "consider and make
recommendations for rectifying the disparity between the representation
of women ethnic minorities and disabled people in the House of
Commons". We believe that Parliament being unrepresentative
of the country it serves fuels the alienation that many people
in Britain feel from politics. It fuels the perception that politics
is not something that ordinary people engage in. Our submission
focuses primarily on how to increase the number of women in Parliament
as this is the area where we have conducted original research.
However the systematic changes we suggest would benefit all under-represented
groups.
2. The stark fact that fewer than 20% of
MPs are women is a testament to the barriers which women still
face in entering national politics. Even if all the major parties
nominated women in 50% of their vacant and winnable seats until
parity was reached, the rate of change would be slow. The year
would be 2037 before equality of men and women was reached
in the Parliamentary Labour Party; 2046 in the Liberal Democrats
and 2278 in the Conservative Party.[126]
3. This is not to deny the progress of recent
years. In 1945, there were just 24 female MPs; we now have
a total of 126 out of 646. The major leap in this period
took place in 1997, when Labour instituted its radical affirmative
action initiative. The doubling in the number of female MPs from
60 in 1992 to 120 in 1997 was almost entirely
due to the increase in female MPs in the Labour Party. Ninety-seven
of the Labour Party's 355 MPs are women. In the Liberal Democrat
Party this figure is ten out of sixty-three, and in the Conservative
Party it is seventeen out of 196.
4. While there are systemic changes that
we would recommend to increase the diversity of Parliament, we
believe it is essential to respect the different cultures of political
parties. While All-Women Shortlists have undoubtedly been an important
tool in increasing the number of Labour women MPs we do not think
that this, or indeed any individual mechanism, should be imposed
on a political party. There is no magic bullet for increasing
the diversity of Parliament, it will require both systemic and
cultural changes.
PARTY MEMBERSHIP
5. There is a danger when examining issues
such as these of focussing exclusively on getting under-represented
groups into Parliament, without recognising that they are under-represented
in politics more generally. Affirmative action can be used to
get those who are already politically active into Parliament but
there is a risk that these mechanisms become a fast track for
professionals who would have got there anyway rather than bringing
new people into politics and Parliament.
6. Political parties choose candidates from
among their party members. This pool of activists and potential
candidate has diminished drastically in the last half century.
There are now around two members of the RSPB for every member
of a political party in the UK. Unfashionable though it may be
to say so in the present climate, political parties perform important
roles without which representative democracy could not exist.
The lion's share of this activity continues to take place at the
local or constituency level of party activity. There is presently
no better alternative model for organising democracy. Members
of the RSPB do good work but without active members of political
parties, who are willing to deliver leaflets, canvass and stand
as candidates then our democracy is in crisis.
7. One of our predecessor organisations,
the New Politics Network, published a study of the health of local
parties in 2004, exploring what campaigning activities the local
parties were able to carry out and how many activists they could
rely on. When it came to candidate selection many of the local
parties in their study were unable to field candidates in all
wards in local government elections because they could not find
suitable candidates willing to stand. This problem was most acute
in safe seats held by another party where, in one instance a local
party was only able to field candidates in 14% of wards. However
even in some marginal seats, which are the focus of a greater
degree of party activity and campaigning, some parties are unable
to field candidates in all the available seats. Of the 10 local
parties that were able to fulfil this basic criteria, only four
were also able to hold a contested selection process. Where there
is no or little choice of candidate, there is nothing anyone can
do to encourage under-represented groups to take up politics.
If we want there to be more women, ethnic minority and disabled
MPs and candidates then we need to ensure they participating in
politics at all levels.
8. Unlock Democracy believes that party
funding should be used to incentivise political activity at a
local level. We believe it is essential that urgent action is
taken to revive grassroots politics and that increasing participation
more generally will help to create a wider pool of candidates
for political office at all levels. For more information on this
please see Life Support for Political Parties by Alexandra Runswick
which can be downloaded from our website here http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/wp-content/Life%20Support.pdf
WOMEN IN
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
9. Any attempt to increase the representation
of women in Parliament is laudable. However, national equality
measures and targets do not always recognise the interrelation
between the different tiers of government. In 2006, the New Politics
Network conducted interviews with seventeen female councillors
in order to discover the specific barriers that women face at
local council level. In addition to these seventeen councillors,
we also spoke to two Members of Parliament and four members of
devolved chambers.[127]
10. Local politics is an important pathway
to involvement in national and devolved government, and this is
particularly true for women. It is therefore crucial that any
steps to improve the representation of women in politics do not
ignore the local level. According to research from the Equal Opportunities
Commission, 68% of both male and female parliamentary candidates
said that previous experience in local politics was important
in encouraging them to stand. Of all elected MPs in 2001, 55.7%
had local government experience.
11. The lack of women already in politics
is often the first barrier that women face as it discourages them
from seeing themselves as potential politicians. Training was
also conspicuously absent as a means to recruit women and to encourage
them to enter politics. Most of the women thought that support
from their respective parties could be improved. It is worth noting
that all of the women we interviewed thought that the experience
of local politics was a good "apprenticeship" or "training
ground" for national politics.
12. Party procedures governing initial selection
were often seen by the women to be lacking formality and therefore
open to discrimination. What is more, most of the women thought
that there was not enough political will from their parties to
address these issues and to turn promises of more female candidates
into policy commitments aimed at increasing women's participation
in government. On this issue we found a division along party lines.
In general, the Labour interviewees were in favour of using equality
guarantees; the Liberal Democrats preferred training and support;
and the Conservatives opted to let things improve over time with
the help of better education to increase general interest in politics.
13. Typically, the women's experience in
office was characterised by a culture of direct and indirect discrimination.
In particular, outdated attitudes about the role of women meant
that some felt that their expertise had been overlooked when they
were assigned roles within the council.
14. Despite women statistically being less
likely than men to achieve the very top positions in local councils,
in general the women we spoke to were satisfied with the encouragement
they received from their parties when considering running for
positions of authority or leadership. However, some interviewees
did identify room for improvement when it came to formalising
support networks and finding endorsement for such systems within
their local parties.
15. Probably the most significant barrier
the women faced was the difficulty of balancing council duties
with home life and a career. The timings and locations of meetings
were brought up by some women as a problem, but the financial
strain of taking on a role in local government and possibly missing
out on other paid employment was the greatest barrier of all.
Some of the women also suggested that the loss of earnings involved
in choosing a career in local government was the biggest disincentive
to women considering becoming a councillor. The pay-gap between
men and women in the workplace means that this is more of a problem
for women than it is for men.
16. By looking at the interviewees' responses
as a whole, it is evident that there are a number of ways in which
women are prevented from participating equally in local government.
Some of the women reported intentional discrimination, sexual
harassment or taunting. These are attitudes and behaviours which
are perpetuated by party structures and councils' institutional
frameworks and working practices. The women also cited problems
such as council decisions being taken "at the pub" and
the times of council or party meetings not taking account of family
commitments. This may not be through any particular malice or
intention to marginalise women, but it is something to which local
authorities and political parties need to be sensitive.
17. This research focused on the experiences
of women in local government but the barriers that they face are
the same as for women trying to enter national politics, the only
difference perhaps is that as there are fewer seats the barriers
to entering Parliament are even higher.
ELECTORAL SYSTEM
18. There is no single change that would
on its own increase the numbers of women, ethnic minority and
disabled MPs but the change that would make by far the most difference
is reforming the electoral system. They may use different electoral
systems but internationally, the countries that have more representative
politics also have multi-member constituencies. This is the case
even where there are no quotas in operation. Where parties have
the opportunity to nominate more than one candidate they are more
likely to nominate a balanced slate than if they can only nominate
one candidate. If only one candidate can be nominated, parties
will often choose the white, male candidate as he is seen as the
more broadly acceptable candidate. There is a myth that women
candidates lose votes has wide currency in constituency parties.
Often discrimination was justified by blaming the voters, arguing
(incorrectly) that the voters would not vote for a woman and the
relevant Party could not risk losing the seat. However the Fawcett
Society has shown that Voters do not penalise women candidates.
The problem is that political parties do not select women in sufficient
numbers in safe or winnable parliamentary seats.[128]
19. Multi-member seats also offer parties
the choice of a number of different pro-active measures for selecting
candidates from under-represented groups. In the UK All-Women
Shortlists are the most well known and controversial form of positive
discrimination but there are mechanisms for encouraging selection
of women candidates. For example in list electoral systems some
parties "zip" the party list so that every other candidate
is female. Other parties use quotas, often thirds, for candidate
selection so that at least a third of the list must be male and
a third must be female. Of course it is not just getting on the
list that is important but the position on the list which is why
this technique is often combined with a quota for the top of the
list so that at least one of the top three candidates also has
to be female.
20. Electoral reform is not a panacea; without
accompanying changes in the political culture reform will still
be slow. While electoral systems enable the selection of a wider
variety of candidates but on its own the electoral system cannot
change the political culture. The experience of introducing the
single transferable vote in Northern Ireland has demonstrated
this. However it remains the one systemic change that would make
the most difference to the selection of a more diverse range of
candidates.
ALL BME SHORTLISTS
21. Unlock Democracy share the concerns
of commentators[129]
that all BME shortlists would be a detrimental step for British
politics. Our main concern is that all minority shortlists would
be placed in the seats with most black and Asian voters, and retreat
to an "ethnic faces for ethnic voters" argument. Parmjit
Dhanda was elected to the predominantly white constituency of
Gloucester in 2001, if all BME shortlists had been in place would
he have been advised to go to Leicester or Ealing and told to
wait for one of "their seats" to come up? There is also
a danger that minority-only contests would focus more on ethnicityand
which community's "turn" it is to win a seatthan
the candidate's qualities.
22. Legalising the exclusion of certain
ethnic groups from selection processes, albeit with the worthwhile
intention of increasing the representation of groups within Parliament,
could have very dangerous consequences. The British National Party
already selects its party members of the basis of ethnicity we
do not want to encourage this kind of candidate selection. While
All-Women Shortlists have cause some divisions within the Labour
Party, most notably in Blaneau Gwent, we believe this is nothing
compared to the balkanising effect that all BME shortlists would
have on British politics.
OTHER ISSUES
23. One of the significant barriers to becoming
an MP not explored in this Conference is money. For most people
the experience of being a candidate involves moving around the
country spending time, often many years developing a seat. MPs
are lucky enough to already live and work in a constituency that
is a safe seat for their party and even if they did they would
usually be expected to stand somewhere else first to gain experience.
This is only possible if the type of work you do enables you to
move to different areas and if you have the resources to do so.
Even if this is financially possible it is of course a significant
proposition for those with families, particularly children. At
a New Politics Network fringe event about the health of local
political parties on recently elected MP spoke of having given
up his £70,000 a year job and moving into the constituency
to be a full time candidate for two years prior to the election.
He was very lucky that he was able to do that and that his wife
earned enough to support them while he did but that simply wouldn't
be possible for many people. There is a real danger that even
as Parliament becomes more representative in terms of gender,
ethnicity and disability that it becomes less representative in
terms of background. It is difficult to see how someone like John
Prescott would become an MP today not because the public would
not vote for them but because they would not be able to afford
the experience of being a candidate.
REFORM OF
NON-PARTY
INSTITUTIONS
A more modern debating chamber
24. Aggressive "yah-boo" politics
not only dissuades many women from putting themselves forward
for office, it also perpetuates the perception that politicians
are ego-driven and disconnected with the realities of their constituents'
lives. Parliament is about far more than Prime Ministers Questions
and we believe that there should be more emphasis on the work
of select committees and the case work that MPs do.
Political participation as a voluntary activity
25. This Government has rightly done much
to promote the importance of volunteering within society. However
politics is very rarely included in any of the schemes encouraging
people to volunteer in their communities. We need to reintegrate
the concepts of political participation and public service and
recognise that people who join political parties and deliver leaflets,
organise stalls in high streets and canvass are the bedrock of
our democracy rather than being somehow suspect.
Financial help towards childcare whilst standing
as a candidate
26. We recognise that political parties
have limited resources and that their priority, rightly is to
spend money on campaigning. However we believe if more women are
to be encouraged to become candidates there needs to be financial
support available for childcare while they are standing for election.
REFORM IN
THE PARTIES
Outreach work
27. Political parties need to be more proactive
in identifying and recruiting female community activists to join
their parties and to stand for local office. Networking between
women's groups within the parties and from the local community
would be a good first step.
Training for female candidates
28. Many of our interviewees, especially
those from smaller parties, mentioned the lack of outreach work
and training programmes. Given that the under-representation of
women in local politics is also a problem for the wider democratic
process, there may be a case for state grants to be available
for recruitment and training programmes.
Training for selection committees
29. The importance of training selection
committees to make sure that they are recruiting a representative
set of candidates was highlighted by several of the councillors.
The major parties all claim that they already have training programmes
for selection committees in place. Parties would be well-advised
to ensure that these are genuinely effective measures, and not
just token gestures.
126 J. Lovenduski, and L. Shepherd Robinson, Women
and Candidate Selection in British Political Parties, (London:
2002). Back
127
This research was published as Linsley, B Marie,A Martin R Stacey
L Women in the Chamber barriers to representation in local
politics New Politics network 2006 and is available for
download here http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/?p=418 Back
128
J. Lovenduski, and L. Shepherd Robinson, Women and Candidate
Selection in British Political Parties, (London: 2002). Back
129
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2008/03/minority-shortlists-british Back
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