Women, politics and the coalition

By Lisa James

In the first few months of the coalition, there have been some worrying signs about its attitude towards women. The first, and most obvious, is the sheer lack of Conservative and Lib Dem MPs: forty-eight and seven respectively, compared to Labour’s seventy-eight. This is reflected by a cabinet which only includes four women.

Of course, you only need to look at Labour’s last cabinet to realise this is not a problem confined to the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. And it is a problem that won’t just be resolved by having a 50:50 cabinet or shadow cabinet but something that needs to be tackled throughout politics. We need to understand what it is that stops women getting elected, what it is that stops them staying in politics and what it is that stops them reaching the top in politics. And then we need to address these barriers from the bottom up, not through imposing artificial solutions at the top.

Labour still has a long way to go to recognise and address these barriers, but there has been clear progress and this is to be applauded. This is in contrast to the mere 55 female coalition MPs out of 364 in total.

However, it is not just women in politics who are being disregarded. The Fawcett Society’s application for a judicial review (on the basis that the treasury did not assess the gender impact of its budget) is another striking example of how little the government appears to recognise and take into account its impact on women. Their analysis indicates that women will be disproportionately affected by the budget and that inequality is likely to increase. Similarly, cuts to public services, and consequent job losses, are likely to have a greater impact on women, as will the proposed requirements for lone parents to seek work earlier.

Finally, the shocking – and thankfully dropped – proposal to grant anonymity to men accused of rape indicates a deep mistrust of women. This proposal, seemingly introduced on a whim, would again have primarily affected women and the fact that it was confined to rape cases, and not any other violent crimes, to me demonstrates a deeply worrying attitude.

From the poorest to those in power, it feels as if we are being drip fed the idea that women are of less consequence, are somehow not to be trusted. It is imperative that Labour now gets our own house in order and prioritises the fight back for women.