Beatrice Barleon (London, Women and the Vote): 2008 marks the 90th anniversary of women winning the right to vote and to be elected to the House of Commons, as well as the 80th anniversary of women gaining equal voting rights to men. This clearly calls for a celebration!
But what exactly is it we are celebrating? Are we celebrating the fact that the UK ranks 60th in the world in terms of female representation? Or that we still have parties that show less than 10 percent of women among their elected representatives? No, wait; maybe we should rejoice at the fact that out of 4654 Members of Parliament since 1918 only 291 have been women?
Clearly not. But we can at least celebrate the women who have succeeded in what has until now been regarded a man's world, and the impact they have made. A number of important issues, such as policies around childcare, domestic violence or equal pay would have probably been much lower on Parliament's agenda were it not for the women MPs in the House.
This clearly gives us cause for celebration, and puts into context one of the reasons why equality of representation matters. Next to this substantive case for increasing the number of women in the House of Commons, there is also an argument simply in terms of justice. Women make up more than 50 percent of the UK's population, but only 1 in 5 MPs is a woman. Is this really the best we can do when other countries have proven that something resembling a more even split of 50:50 is possible, and indeed desirable? Secondly, democratic theory assumes that a Parliament should at least resemble the society that elects it. Surely, this suggests deficiencies in the current levels of women's representation in the House of Commons and, indeed, in many other elected bodies in our society.
Women's representation has improved since the Representation of the People Act in 1918, with a particular triumph for women in the 1997 General Election and in the devolved Parliaments. However, we should also be aware that a lot more still needs to be done, and that any honest attempt to change the political landscape to make it more female-friendly will have to be open to debates around our electoral system, party culture as well as our political culture more generally. In 2008, Women and the Vote aims to create a platform for such a debate to take place and calls on Government to use this opportunity to bring us closer to a more equal society. For further information about the campaign, or to sign up, please visit www.womenandthevote.com.
