31% (30%) of Conservative candidates were female
31% (30%) of Labour candidates were female
34% (34) of Liberal Democrat candidates were female
“28-29%” (29%) of Conservative councillors are female
“28-29%” (31%) of Labour councillors are female
“A third” (34%) of Liberal Democrats councillors are female
Rallings & Thrasher conclude that...The proportion of men and women candidates contesting local elections now appears fixed in the ratio 2:1 and the rapid rise in women candidates during the second half of the 1980s has stopped … There is just one authority, Purbeck District Council, where women candidates outnumbered the men. By contrast, there are three local authorities in Wales where the proportion of women is fewer than one in five candidates. Another trend that continues is for the percentage of women elected to be slightly less than the percentage of women candidates.
It would be interesting to know the proportions of selected parliamentary candidates for the three parties. I know the Conservatives at one stage were up to 35% but I suspect this has fallen back to around 30% now. Anyone got the comparable Labour & LibDem figures?
It seems to me that these figures at a parliamentary level will rarely rise beyond the low thirties if the proportion of approved candidates who are female remains so low (ie, those approved but not yet selected). A good way of attracting more female parliamentary candidates is to encourage more female councillors.
4 comments:
Whoever carried out this research obviously has an unhealthy obsession with women. In order to redeem themselves they'll have to carry out another survey showing a breakdown of politicians/candidates by religion; geographical origin; natural hair colour; sexual orientation; height; shoe size; mathematical ability and marital status.
If the object is to guarantee fairer representation I personally would like to be represented by Olive Oil. Not by some la-di-da public school educated Harriet Harmon or by that lying trollop Jacqui Smith. (Jacqui is such a common name. I bet she puts those little circles above the i's when she writes.)
I think South Northants Council is the only one with women in all positions of authority:-
Leader - Sandra Barnes
Dep Leader - Mary Clarke
Chairman - Rebecca Breese
Chief Exec - Jean Morgan
hats off to the ladies
I actually remember that back in the 80s the three group leaders on Lancashire county council were all women.
I agree that the "councillor route" is one way that women could be selected (eventually) as parliamentary candidates.
However, the Tory Party must clamp down on the practice of 'parachuting' people (usually men from London) into marginal seats outside of London - and blocking local councillors (often women) from applying for their seats using the discriminatory "you must be on the candidates' list" argument.
By all means have checks on who should be a parliamentary candidate - but surely being a Tory councillor is qualification enough???
Post a Comment