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Electoral Reform crucial for women’s equality
Published: Friday, May 7th 2010
The latest results have shown that our new parliament will have more women MPs than ever before. The number of elected women has increased to 142 out of 649. The percentage of women in parliament now stands at 21.8%, compared to 19.5% in 2005.
Labour have 81 women MPs (31.4%). Conservatives have 48 women MPs (15.7%) and the Liberal Democrats have 7 women MPs (12.3%)
The North East region has the highest proportion of women – 10 out of 29 MPs (34.5%) are women. The region with the lowest proportion of women is the East of England – 9 out of 58 MPs (15.5%) are women.
High numbers of retiring MPs have provided the opportunity for women to make real progress in the 2010 election. Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have achieved a rate of 50% women candidates in seats with retirements. In total 152 male and 28 female MPs retired, and they were replaced as candidates by their parties with 87 men and 65 women.
However, there were still 262 seats across the UK which fielded all male candidates.
Our democratic processes, our political debate and our government are impoverished by the lack of women's representation. Yet an increase in the proportion of women in parliament is not likely to be achieved, according to the Electoral Reform Society, without a change in the voting system.
Progress towards electoral reform must be a precondition for a coalition or support for a minority administration; without this we will not see a parliament that
Alice Delemare, Women’s Officer at the Electoral Reform Society said:
“In spite of their claims to want more women in parliament, the parties have simply not delivered enough
“Achieving greater diversity is crucial for the legitimacy of our democracy. An absence of women in parliament leads to a lack of focus on issues that matter to women and girls, and a lack of confidence in our system
“Internationally, it is countries with proportional voting systems that have in the main a higher proportion of women MPs. Until Britain makes a change to PR we are unlikely to see a fairer gender balance in our parliament.
“What we have seen is another election dominated by white, middle-class and middle-aged men. It’s embarrassing and disappointing. No matter how good these men may be, they do not add up to a parliament that reflects the society they represent.”
“Achieving greater diversity is crucial for the legitimacy of our democracy. An absence of women in parliament leads to a lack of focus on issues that matter to women and girls, and a lack of confidence in our system
“Internationally, it is countries with proportional voting systems that have in the main a higher proportion of women MPs. Until Britain makes a change to PR we are unlikely to see a fairer gender balance in our parliament.
“What we have seen is another election dominated by white, middle-class and middle-aged men. It’s embarrassing and disappointing. No matter how good these men may be, they do not add up to a parliament that reflects the society they represent.”
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