In her latest article in The Political Quarterly, Dr Sofia Collignon argues the focus of discussions around gender disparities in UK parties' candidate selections should shift away from individual women toward the party structures and practices that perpetuate gender inequality.
This article was originally published in The Political Quarterly on 9 May 2024 (online, early view). Read the full article.
"AS REPORTED IN the Financial Times, analysis by the journalist Michael Crick finds that, of 134 parliamentary selections by the Conservative Party, 70 per cent are men, with the majority having a background in local government. In comparison, of the 206 reported Labour Party selections, the percentage of men is 56 per cent.1 Without cross referencing this data by seat winnability—and of course, knowing the swing to and from different parties—it cannot be estimated confidently how many men and women will be returned at the upcoming election. That said, given the current composition of the House of Commons, where the majority of Labour MPs are women (52 per cent), but only about one quarter of Conservative MPs are women, it is likely that there will be significant inter-party asymmetry in women and men's representation in the next Parliament.
"If the gender gap between the two main UK political parties is shocking, it is nonetheless in line with a long-observed trend, reinforced at the 2019 general election, where the parties showed distinct variations in terms of their selection of women candidates. Labour became the first party in UK history to present more women candidates than men to the public in that election, with an increase of 11 per cent in the share of women candidates over prior elections. In contrast, only 31 per cent of the Conservative Party's candidates were women, an increase of just 1 per cent compared with the proportion of their women candidates standing in 2017.2
"The apparent lack of Conservative Party progress towards gender parity in the current round of candidate selections is disappointing and disconcerting for those concerned with representation. It is possible that because 2017 and 2019 were snap elections this may have been a constraining factor in the recruitment of women. Yet, almost five years on—and with the party leadership cognisant of their candidate and parliamentary gender gaps—there seems to have been little progress. This is the case despite the central party, and especially some of its women MPs and its party women's organisations, not least Women2Win, having put considerable efforts into the selection and election of higher numbers of women since the mid-2000s.
"The Financial Times article offers up three reasons for the lack of gender diversity in the Conservative MP candidate pool: a lack of supply, that is, there are too few women who put themselves forward to stand for office; a lack of good local candidates; and harassment, abuse and intimidation (HAI). There is a certain commonsense appeal to these three explanations. Yet, all three invite further consideration, for they imply that the problem lies with women, and not the recruitment procedures or the wider political process and institutions. Accordingly, it follows that the ‘solution’ lies with women, who must become more ambitious, work harder to get involved, and be more resilient and put up with any HAI. Such reasoning can be categorised as a ‘fixing women’ approach.
"But women do not need to be ‘fixed’. Instead, the Conservative Party leadership needs to recognise its tardiness in changing any rules, procedures, practices and cultures that negatively affect the diversity of its candidates and MPs. These are issues, it should be said, that have long been identified not only in academic research that explains women's under-representation and men's over-representation in politics, but also by some senior Conservatives MPs and party actors, who have acted to reform their party and increase the number of women candidates and MPs, not least those associated with Women2Win.
"The standard arguments fail to address key determinants of political recruitment and, therefore, cannot explain away the Conservative Party's lack of progress on gender equality, especially against the backdrop of the Labour Party's success in recruiting women since the 1997 general election. By focussing on the size of the women's supply pool, rather than the reasons why different people do or do not put themselves for political office, attention is directed onto individuals rather than the conditions under which participation in electoral politics takes place, and how different political parties recruit candidates for the House of Commons. Whilst acknowledging there is no silver bullet to bring about equality of representation, well-designed quotas can bring about quick improvements. Any such intervention must be supplemented with other institutional and cultural changes to political parties so that diverse women can participate, making local party activism attractive and achievable for those with caring needs, for example, or providing support to meet the financial costs of political participation."
Article continues in The Political Quarterly. Read the full article.