Women in Parliament

Representative democracy is there to represent the interests of every sector of the population, which may be done without MPs visibly being strictly representative. Why must women be represented but not every other sector of society — and to ensure parliament exactly reflects demographic makeup is impossible.

This argument is more patronising — it suggests that female MPs are only interested in ‘soft’ issues rather than hard political, economic or military policies. Margaret Thatcher in the UK, and Madeleine Albright and Condoleeza Rice in the USA show female politicians do deal with stereotypically ‘male’ issues.

The style of political debate in a country has more to do with its customs and history than with the number of female politicians! The two-party, first-past-the-post structure of the electoral systems in the USA and UK encourages confrontational, negative campaigning. Countries with proportional representation and a tradition of coalition government may develop a different political culture. Furthermore, all-female election campaigns have shown that women are just as capable of arguments ad hominem as men are.

A true role model has to be admired. However, if people feel that a woman has been appointed simply for her gender rather than for her talents, then this will damage rather than enhance the status of female MPs. The Opposition are in favour of true meritocracy. The British Labour Party’s policy in the 1990s of discriminating in favour of women in selecting candidates for parliament was rightly found to be in breach of the Human Rights Act, being against the European Convention because it was unfair to potential male candidates.

Merely glossing ‘positive’ discrimination does not hide the fact that it is still discrimination. The leaders of nations should be the best on offer — equality is enough to compensate for past unfairness. Furthermore, women in the past did not have the same educational opportunities as men — it is only the generation coming to maturity that did; and the balance of women in politics and business is likely naturally to rectify itself.

It is wrong to suggest that women can only enter politics via national parliaments. Throughout history, and at the present time, female agitation has proven effective through extra-parliamentary means: petitions, protests and campaigns. There is already undue focus on the small worlds of Westminster, Washington, Brussels, Paris, etc.