Candidate selections reflect the barriers for women in politics Last week, all UK political parties confirmed which candidates they were standing in each constituency for the 2024 general election. Including independents, a total of 4,515 candidates will be fighting for a seat in the... Posted 20 Jun 2024
Pursuing parity: New report examines gender quotas across different electoral systems Throughout history, the political landscape of the United Kingdom has been predominantly shaped and governed by men. The struggle towards gender parity across the United Kingdom has been fought tirelessly throughout the 20th century. Women... Posted 08 Mar 2024
Welsh Government to introduce progressive electoral reforms Last week in the Senedd, First Minister Mark Drakeford announced the Welsh Government’s plans for legislation for the next year. This covered eight new bills which the government hopes will become law. There was a... Posted 06 Jul 2023
How we could make the House of Lords gender equal overnight It is a quiet scandal that 105 years after women first won the vote they are still grossly under-represented in Parliament. Women make up just over a third of MPs in the Commons and the... Posted 08 Mar 2023
International Women’s Day: How Westminster’s voting system is holding back gender equality What’s clear is that Westminster’s out-dated structures aren’t allowing the fair representation Britain needs. That’s bad news for everyone. Posted 08 Mar 2021
10 years since the Equality Act was introduced, parties need to come clean on diversity It has been 10 years since the Equality Act (2010) received Royal Assent, providing Britain with a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. Sadly, not all of... Posted 08 Apr 2020
Time is running out in this Centenary year – why are the government waiting to tackle the ‘political gender gap’? In November, the Electoral Reform Society helped coordinate an unprecedented coalition of campaigners and politicians in calling for government action on the ‘political gender gap’. Marking the centenary of women’s right to stand for Parliament,... Posted 14 Dec 2018
How Westminster’s voting system is holding back gender equality In the centenary month of women securing the franchise, looking back on the politics of previous decades throws up some grim reminders of discrimination. Take just one: when Janet Fookes was first elected to represent... Posted 13 Feb 2018
Women’s legislative recruitment: no simple explanation, no single panacea Rosie Campbell, Birkbeck University London & Sarah Childs, University of Bristol It is a widely held view that the first-past-the-post electoral system disadvantages women and that electoral reform would improve the representation of women in the UK... Posted 08 May 2012