New Sex & Power report finds women are missing from top roles in politics and public life
Three quarters of MPs are men
90% of
bank CEOs are men
Two thirds of public appointments go to men
Almost 90% of chief constables and police & crime commissioners
are men
Two thirds of local councillors
are men
Sex
and Power 2013: Who Runs Britain?
-
Britain is falling down the global league tables when it comes to women’s access
to power and representation in politics
- Continued ‘drift’ is inevitable
without real, committed and targeted action
- Political parties should take steps
to ensure an increase in the number of women candidates fielded in winnable
seats at all levels of politics
The Counting Women In coalition has today published Sex
and Power 2013: Who Runs Britain?The report
examines the presence - or lack thereof
- of women in politically powerful positions in politics and other
spheres of public life in the UK today, including the police, the education
sector, the arts and the world of finance. It then goes on to consider the
implications of a country largely governed by men, and makes a series of
recommendations for tackling the
dearth of women in influential positions.
Key findings include:
·
just
22.5 percent of MPs are women, 21.7 percent of peers and 17.4 percent of the Cabinet. Women make up 13.3 percent of elected mayors and 14.6 percent of Police and Crime
Commissioners.
·
Britain is falling down the global league
table when it comes to the representation of women in politics, as other
countries move forward faster: in
2001 we were ranked 33 out of 190 countries, but by the end of 2012 we had
fallen to 60th place.**
·
women
are similarly ‘missing’ in many other spheres of public life: just 36.4 percent
of public appointments are women, 13.6 percent of the senior judiciary and 5 percent of Editors of national daily newspapers.
·
women’s
absence is particularly marked in finance and economy: there are no women at
all on the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee; women hold just 11.1 percent
of UK Bank Chief Executive positions, 17.3 percent of FTSE 100 Director positions and make up just 15.1 percent of
members of Local Economic Partnerships.
The report
explores the impact of this dearth
of women at the top tables of public life, and concludes that:
- The
lack of diversity in public life weakens democracy and public confidence in it;
-
Women
make a positive difference to actual decision-making itself; excluding them
from politics and other areas of public life means missing out on the
substantial benefits greater involvement of women would bring, while also
wasting the huge investment made in women and girls through the education
system and beyond;
- A
more diverse body politic with a
wider spread of expertise and reflecting the life experience of both halves of
the human race would be better placed to lead us through the complex times that
face us.
- Real,
committed and targeted action is required; failure to do so means the UK will
continue to ‘drift.
The report
makes six recommendations:
- Political
parties should take immediate action to increase the number of women candidates
at all levels of election with a view to fielding as many women candidates from
as wide a variety of backgrounds and communities as possible in winnable seats
in 2015. This should include active consideration of positive action measures
in selection processe
- In
order to enable everyone concerned
to develop a much better understanding of the issues, a monitoring form
similar to that used in recruitment for
public appointments and applications for
funding should be introduced. It would be completed and submitted to returning
officers by all candidates together with nomination forms
at all levels of election, and the results collated and published annually.
This requirement should be implemented at the 2014 English local and European
elections
- Government
should pilot a new government-wide scheme in 2014 to increase women’s presence,
profile and participation in the 2015 general election and beyond. This could
be done by drawing together experience from the UK
and abroad which could be used to improve both the participation and the
candidacy of women of all backgrounds in Britain
- In
addition to adopting the proposals for
cultural change in public life contained in reports
such as the Speaker’s Conference, the Councillors’
Commission, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Pathways to Politics, steps should be taken to develop a much wider
set of proposals for improving the
culture of both politics at all levels and the media coverage of them.
-
All
organisations – public, private and
third sector - should take steps to
ensure that, at meetings and events, both women and men appear on platforms as speakers, and editors
and broadcasters should also take responsibility for
commissioning contributions from both women and men as commentators and experts. Individual citizens should be
encouraged by to object to men-only platforms,
panels and programmes.
Nan Sloane, Director of the Centre for
Women and Democracy said:
‘This report
shows a shocking absence of women from powerful roles in Britain. We are
often told that it’s just a matter of time before
we have equality, but we have already waited for
generations; asking us to wait still more
will change nothing, and the quality of decision-making in our democracy and
public life will suffer as a result. There needs to be meaningful action now if
next year’s report is to show real
progress.’
Katie Ghose, Chief Executive of the
Electoral Reform
Society said:
“These missing women offer the most vivid illustration of
parliament’s failure to keep up with the times. Politicians will struggle to
connect with voters as long as the combined talents and perspectives of half
the population are shut out. Party leaders admit there’s a problem, but all
have failed to find a lasting solution. It’s not a good look for the Mother of all Parliaments to be left lagging
behind on the fundamental issue of women’s representation.”
Ceri Goddard, Chief Executive of the
Fawcett Society, said:
“ It’s simply scandalous fact that in 2013 men
still outnumber women 4 to 1 in parliament. If political parties don’t take
urgent action, Britain
will continue to fall down the global league table when it comes to women’s
access to power and representation in politics.”
"The number of women in the Cabinet is at a ten
year low. Failure to increase the number of women around the top table of
politics sends a message to other walks of life and to the next generation for whom we hope for
something different, that excluding women from positions of power is
acceptable.”
“Women’s votes will determine the next election –
remaining male dominated won’t help the parties on polling day”
Ruth Fox, Chief Executive of the Hansard Society said:
“Parliament needs to show leadership
in reflecting the people it governs and serves. Decisions made in Parliament
affect women and men equally and the dearth of women in positions of political
power not only reflects badly on the quality of our democracy, it also wastes
the skill, expertise and life experience of half the population and sets a
terrible example for other
professions and industries. It’s time for
Parliament and political parties to take concrete steps to increase the number
of women in politics.”
Alex Runswick, Deputy Director of Unlock Democracy, said:
"The lack of female involvement in UK politics is
a canary in the mining shaft; it is a particularly visible example of how the
system fails to represent people more
widely. Our democracy and public life is weaker because it misses the skills
experience and talents of over half the population. It is not enough to
recognise the problem and simply hope that things will improve; we need
Parliament and politicians to take urgent action."
ENDS
Notes to editors:
For further information
please contact:
Charlie Woodworth
Charlie.woodworth@fawcettsociety.org.uk
/ 020 7253 2598 / 07767297812
Claudia Laidlaw
claudia.laidlaw@electoral-reform.org.uk 020
7928 1622
/ 0759 801
9738
(1) The Centre for
Women and Democracy, the Electoral
Reform Society, the Fawcett Society,
the Hansard Society and Unlock Democracy have joined together to form the Counting Women In coalition to address the
lack of women in politics. We believe the under representation of women in
Westminster, the devolved assemblies, and town halls around the UK represents a
democratic deficit that undermines the legitimacy of decisions made in these
chambers. Together, we will be fighting to ensure women have an equal presence
and voice within our democratic system.
(2) Copies of the full report “Sex and Power 2013: Who Runs Britain?” are
available at www.countingwomenin.org.uk
or from the above contacts.