Good point, Caroline – I just wish you hadn’t made it like that

By Stephen Gummer

I don’t think she flounced. In fact I’m not entirely sure what flouncing out of the Cabinet would look like. But there is little doubt that Caroline Flint’s resignation from the cabinet last week did little to cover herself or the feminist agenda in glory. Newspaper headlines on Saturday morning ranged from ‘The Stiletto in the Back’ to ‘Beware the Women Scorned’. Both the tabloid and broadsheet media seemed eager to vilify Ms Flint and even more eager to resort to cheap gender stereotypes in the process.

Nobody with half a brain thinks any of the points raised by Ms Flint were inaccurate. She said Gordon Brown had a male dominated inner circle – we all know this to be true – and she observed the lack of women who actually run money-spending departments was now down to just one – Yvette Cooper. While she was at it, she could also have mentioned that Harriet Harman, despite passing the only worthwhile piece of legislation this term (the Equality Bill) and campaigning incredibly hard, was needlessly attacked by Alastair Campbell and John Prescott the day after the elections and was then totally overlooked in the reshuffle as Mandelson was effectively made Deputy Prime Minister.

Despite Labour’s undoubted progress on gender equality, both Parliament and the Labour Party remain institutionally sexist.

So why has Ms Flint’s resignation been so badly received within the Labour Party? There is certainly a perception that the former Europe Minister was never all that interested in the feminist cause until she was using it as a smokescreen to attack the Prime Minister. Firstly, there was her infamous photo shoot in the Observer. Personally, I don’t put too much weight behind this argument: there is very little reason why someone can’t look good in a red dress and put forward a feminist agenda at the same time. Further, Ms Flint’s point that New Labour women were encouraged to communicate with the electorate in as many innovative ways as possible does seem to hold true. However her comments at the time of the photo shoot were less well advised. She reportedly told the Observer she’d never experienced sexism from any of her male colleagues. While loyal to the Party, I doubt this is true and it certainly undermined her late claims that she had been treated as “window dressing”.

So there is some truth to the fact that Caroline Flint has never really been part of the feminist club in Westminster – she wasn’t particularly well-known for speaking out on women’s issues. However what niggles most about her recent decision to resign regarding allegations of sexism is just how easy Ms Flint made it for the press to cling to the woman in power stereotype. Ms Flint, almost certainly resigned because she didn’t get the promotion she wanted; this is the only conclusion to draw when on Thursday she is backing Gordon Brown, on Friday she is resigning due to sexism and the following Thursday she’s on GMTV saying she resigned because the PM questioned her loyalty. In a single week she expressed more contradictory views than a Conservative manifesto and the sole perception left is one of grandiose ambition above party loyalty. This is a stereotype universally thrown at women in power. Secondly, it seemed Ms Flint resigned suddenly and in a fit of rage. The idea that women cannot control their temper and are continually the victims of hormonal imbalance is another wholly inaccurate but all too often cited stereotype.

Ironically Ms Flint, while bemoaning sexism that actually exists in the Labour Party, met all the preconceptions attached to it. She seemed moody, petulant and ambitious while accusing the Prime Minister of holding such stereotypes about women. By drawing attention to the feminist cause in her moment of resignation she has actually hurt the progress of women in the Labour Party by making it too easy for the media and members of the Party to use her as an example of wholly inaccurate stereotypes. Her actions may very well have delayed the feminist agenda for years.

Just to complete this woeful tale of misconceptions and irony, the most ludicrous part of the whole affair is that Caroline Flint herself is actually a prime example of the type of woman the Labour Party should be looking to attract. She doesn’t at all meet the stereotype previously alluded to, she is far too complex and too well accomplished to be described by such clichés. She is not just ambitious, not just moody and is far from stupid. Her lack of dedication to the feminist cause aside, she had a tough childhood, she worked in education and then in a trade union and finally rose up through the ranks of the Labour Party continually being loyal to the party.

It is sad that in one of the worst resignations in Labour Party history she has momentarily given the appearance of the female political stereotype that will leave a shadow over the remains of her career and, worse, taint the essential work of the feminist movement within the Labour Party.