As the General Election draws to a close, Mary Honeyball observes that women have been severely under-represented in the media during the campaign and outlines some of the challenges facing Rachel Reeves if she becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer as she tries to 'close the gender pay gap once and for all'.
Women have been under-represented in this general election, both in terms of visibility during the protracted campaign and in the policies on offer. According to Loughborough University’s Centre for Research in Communication and Culture, the election coverage has been dominated by male voices. Only seven of the 20 most prominent figures in the media during the campaign have been women. Even Rachel Reeves, our probable next Chancellor of the Exchequer, only ranked fourth in terms of coverage behind Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage. During the week from 23 to 29 June, the male trio received 70 per cent of the coverage compared with five per cent for Rachel Reeves.
Having spent much of my political life from the 1980s until Brexit ended my tenure as an MEP in 2019 campaigning for equality for women, this is not at all what I had hoped for this time round. Equality for women has not so far been achieved across the country as a whole, and political parties have shown themselves as some of the worst offenders. Only 32 per cent of the Conservative Party’s candidates selected to fight this general election are women; the figure for Labour is 47 per cent. The smaller parties fare a little better – Greens 45 per cent, SNP 39 per cent, Plaid Cymru 31 per cent and the Liberal Democrats 29 per cent. Only 16 per cent of Reform’s candidates are women.
Having women representatives in the House of Commons is of the utmost importance not only to the female half of the population but to the country in general. Many of the advances under previous Labour governments – improved childcare, better provision for the under-fives and measures to tackle violence against women and girls – to name but a few, were made by women campaigning hard and not letting such issues disappear into the parliamentary ether. All of these matters require more work and further legislation, as does the gender pay gap. The difference between male and female pay in Britain stands at a whopping 14.3 percent and at the current rate of progress it would take 20 years to achieve equal pay according to the TUC.
Rachel Reeves has taken up the challenge to end the gender pay gap, telling The Guardian that ‘I believe the biggest impact that I can make to the lives of ordinary women, women who go out to work, is to close the gender pay gap once and for all. That’s what I’m setting out to do’. Reeves also wants to see 50 per cent women on company boards with the emphasis on executive positions together with an entitlement to flexible working. Labour has also pledged to opening 3,000 more nurseries in school settings, offer 30 hours of free childcare a week and a fully funded breakfast club in every primary school.
The fact that Labour has a woman as Shadow Chancellor is undoubtedly important but during its time in government, the Conservatives have also introduced new equality legislation – Theresa May introduced protection orders for women at risk of domestic violence and female genital mutilation and made a new criminal offence of coercive and controlling behaviour. However, until there is parity between men and women in our representative governing institutions, the inequalities are almost certain to remain. The 2024 election should be seen as a staging post along the way and not the final destination.
Mary Honeyball is Honorary Research Fellow at the Mile End Institute and was Labour Member of the European Parliament for London from 2000 to 2019.