by Rene Kinzett
Councillor, PPC for Swansea West and TRG Member
At this evening’s Swansea Council Meeting, we briefly debated the recommendations of the Welsh Assembly Government Panel looking into how councillors are selected and elected across Wales and how we should all be working towards making councillors more representative of the communities they represent. For example, across Wales, 75% of councillors are men.
I have made my views known and given more analysis on the WalesHome website.
This debate reminded me about the issues surrounding the debate within and outside the Conservative Party on All-Women Shorlists. Currently, only 28% of all selected Tory Parliamentary Candidates are women. Whilst the number of female Tory MPs looks set, at current estimates, to rise from 18 to around 60, the trends for women being selected in currently held Conservative constituencies (where the sitting MP is retiring) is not very satisfactory at all.
Of the last 8 selections for candidates in these seats, all 8 have selected male candidates, even after rules were implemented ensuring balanced shorlists in three of those selection battles. Interestingly, the only Tory-held seat to select a female candidate recently has been Totnes, which selected a local GP after an open primary selection procedure.
Now, the John Maples MP, the Deputy Chairman of the Party with responsibility for candidates, has posted his views as to why All-Women Shortlists, in Tory-held seats, is now vital if the Party is to seriously address the historic (and continuing) under-representation of women in our Parliamentary Party.
I have to say that I do agree that we MUST press ahead with All-Women Shortlists. It cannot be the case that we are selecting only the best candidates when under one-third of our PPCs are women. It simply cannot be the case that selection committees are weighing up in a fair and even manner the respective skills of all candidates of both genders and coming up with conclusions that appear to virtually exclusively favour male candidates. There are problems with selection procedures and approval systems for candidates in ALL parties, but we have to act NOW and not wait another four years or more before we can move decisively towards a more balanced and representative Parliamentary Party.
I would propose that open primary selection procedures should now be brought in for ALL selections for Parliamentary candidates across ALL political parties – conceivably this could be enshrined in law. This seems to have been the one initative within the Party that has had some success in selecting women in winnable seats.
Conservative HQ have challenged local parties to take the issue of selecting women candidates more seriously and they have failed. The Party may express that it is “reluctantly” going down the road of All-Women Shortlists, but to quote one famous Tory lady “there is no alternative”.
This piece first appeared on Rene’s Blog. You can see the original here
Rene, I agree. I support meritocracy and think we should be picking the best candidates, regardless of their gender, ethnicity or sexuality but there is not a level playing field. When the A-list was in place, some fantastic women candidates were selected. Since then, of the last 17 selections, all but 1 went to men. It is vital that we have more women in elected to Parliament and, until we can address the imbalance at the Association level, AWS are a necessary evil.
Comment by Victoria Roberts — 23 October, 2009 @ 2:17 pm
I’d like to highlight something that continually gets lost in this debate. I don’t think more women MPs will necessarily benefit all women. Certainly my own experience is that female MPs are completely unsypathetic to women who choose family, home and community above a career. These women MPs are not just unsympathetic they are hostile. Women such as myself are viewed as an insult and as nothing better than parasites.
Comment by OrganisedPauper — 23 October, 2009 @ 3:27 pm
Thanks for your comment, Victoria. It is vitally important that Conservatives seize the moment on this one and make a real push for step-change in the proportion of women that we send to the Commons next summer.
Comment by Rene Kinzett — 24 October, 2009 @ 12:06 am
@organisedpauper – I agree, I think this was a factor that led to so many female Labour MPs from the 1997 intake giving up after one or two Parliaments. The change needs to be cultural, as well as just correcting a mathematical imbalance.
Comment by Rene Kinzett — 25 October, 2009 @ 4:04 pm
I object very strongly to selection by gender as I do to any other limitation on persons for whom I can vote. In a democracy I should be able to vote for the person whom I consider is the best person to do the job. If this turns out to give the country an all female or all male parliament , then so be it. If my voting is to be limited then I may as well live in a dictatorship.
Comment by Mr. K. E. Taylor — 15 November, 2009 @ 6:01 pm