Where are all the women in the cabinet?

One thing that strikes me on this thread is that people are assuming that the reason that there are fewer female MPs is because fewer female candidates put themselves forward.

This isn't quite right (although I'm sure that fewer females do put themselves forward, for reasons that have been suggested previously).

The real issue is that women are generally not selected to contest winnable seats. When a shortlist is put in front of a constituency panel which contains both women and men (even in equal numbers), the women are overlooked time and time again. One reason suggested for this is that a white male able-bodied candidate looks like a 'safe' choice for a winnable seat, probably because that's what most MPs are.

All women shortlists were brought in by Labour so that panels in winnable seats (50% of winnable seats having AWS being the target) would be forced to select a woman. And it worked. The number of female MPs rocketed in 1997. Then there was a legal challenge so they weren't used in the 2001 election and the number of female MPs dropped. Legislation was then passed to make it legal to discriminate on grounds of gender in elections. This option is open to all parties until 2015, however Labour is the only one that makes use of it. The Conservatives and Lib Dems prefer to use other measures to increase the number of female MPs.

To see the success of all women shortlists, you need to look at the proportion of female MPs within each party. 31% for Labour, 16% for Conservatives and 12% for the Lib Dems. Clearly the other measures aren't working. If you want the rate of female MPs to increase at a reasonable rate, AWS in winnable seats are the best method.

Other countries where there are reasonable amounts of female representation all use some form of quota for women.

This report goes into the issue in some depth:
www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/publications/archive/2007/10/01/Women-at-the-Top-2005.aspx

CaveMum, there are also lots of long serving female MPs that have been overlooked. One example is Sarah Teather. She's been a Lib Dem front bencher for years, a very popular local MP, regularly put in front of voters on Question Time etc, articulate and principled. Yet she wasn't one of the Lib Dem MPs Nick Clegg nominated for cabinet.

There are 649 MPs (one seat is to have another election as one of the candidates died).
Of these MPs 142 are women. That is approx 22% of all MPs.
There are 20 senior members of the cabinet and 4 of these are women (granted one if these women sits in the House of Lords). That means 20% of the Cabinet are women.

Now I know that it is not representative of the country as a whole, but it is representative of Parliament.

As several people have said, there are many first-time female MPs this time round and you cannot give a Cabinet job to a rookie MP.

As I've said earlier in this thread, yes it would be great to have more female MPs and therefore more women in the Cabinet but let's not go down the road of giving someone a job based purely on their sex.

piglet, there were lots of bad men in the last government. Gordon Brown was not a successful Prime Minister. Nobody is holding him up as an example of why men should not be allowed to run the country.

Sakura, was being a tad sarcastic in that last post.

Of course the best person should be chosen for a job. But the reality is for every job you don't know how good some one will be until they get a chance to do it. Some people (men and women) will always be better than others. With our current set up, either men really are five times as likely to make good politicians as women (unlikely) or something is stopping women from trying and potentially succeeding (more likely).

"Only the best people should be chosen for any job, let alone one as important as running the country."

Why does this rule only apply when it comes to women? Aren't you being sexist, happysmiley?

We've had so many knobs running the country before now; there are so many thicko male MPs out there.
But when someone argues for making politics more accessible to women suddenly its 'Ah, well wimmin, you're not up to the job.
Err, yeah... thanks guys- for the credit crunch, oh and all the wars, and prostitution and underfunded schools and etc, etc. Clearly those who've been in charge untill now were up to the job

Sex is irrelivant, like someone said on here ability to do the job well is important, dont care if its a man or woman tbh. So many usless women in Labour government, Harriet Harman, Jackie Smith etc

I just want to add that I'm happy the conservatives are back in power.

I really like David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

Ah, you too happysmiley.

what is wrong with a coalition? After the election people tend to work together fine, see Obama/Clinton, Angela Merkel/Guido Westerwelle. I just feel sorry that Nick Clegg did not get as many votes as he would have deserved as the papers (and all the estimates beforehand) were so over the top and people started to 'vote tactically'.

MrsRigby, totally agree with you. Only the best people should be chosen for any job, let alone one as important as running the country.

I'm constantly surprised that some people continue to insist that women are just as capable as men, just as intelligent and just as hard working, when clearly they are not. If they were, there'd be more of them as ministers of state.

You'd think that after all these years when women have been given all the same opportunities in life and so few have made it into government, people would have finally realised that women are just plain stupid and the reason they aren't holding the senior posts because they are all totally crap.

OP I'm guessing your a feminist.

Are you saying that the government should employ more women to please the likes of you?

Personally I would like a government full of qualified people, who can do the job and do their best for our country - regardless of gender.

I'm damn sure David Cameron and Nick Clegg chose the best people for the jobs. The sex of the persons wouldn't for a minute come into things.

It's only taken in to account by women like yourself who want to prove a point and further their own cause.

Why do you need more women in the government?

Fruitstick. Women can be a pain in the arse, and opinionated, don't you think?

'There have been more women qualifying as solicitors since I qualified nearly 20 years ago. That fact has had next to no impact on the number of senior partners who are female. I can't remember the figure but is something less than 10%'

I hear you Mollie. It is around 10%.

That's manifesto commitments on equality of course.

And just in case you didn't think the Tories hadn't put enough effort into their proposals, they actually have a much bigger document as well.

the Tory Contract for Equalities

I vote that we all write to Theresa May and express our desires to see the Tory and Lib Dem manifesto commitments enacted. It's all to easy to forget when you've got the Home Office to run.

For reference here they are

Lib Dems

Tories

Caroline Spelman has also got a post.

I have to say that, although I think it is shocking that there is only one woman in the cabinet, I am really disappointed that Dominic Grieve did not get Home Secretary. A nice, clever man who really believes in civil liberties.

Also, what does it say about the role that Theresa May is also minister for women and equality - tagging that onto one of the toughest jobs in Cabinet as an afterthought, and giving it to someone who voted against repealing section 28, against gay adoption,against lowering the age of consent for homosexuals to 16 and against the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, does not sound like equality is really in the forefront of their minds.

Lynne Featherstone or Sarah Teather should take on this role. May is not the right person to promote equality.

On of the reasons why Eton is so successful at getting men into parliament is that they encourage their pupils to take an interest in politics (debating societies, rota of visiting speakers etc). Simple things really do make a difference.

Overall, I think motherhood is really the biggest fact that prevents women from entering politics.

If we had a better, more affordable childcare system, more family and cultural support for mothers, fathers being made to take financial and parental responsibility for their children, then women might be less burdened to enter the sphere.

Also, if politics were taught in all schools, as I think it should be so that everyone understands the basics, then young women might be more interested in having a say. If teenagers were more aware of how politics affects them, they would engage with the issues.

Long hours culture, childcare responsibilities and politics being a very male dominated environment puts so many women off.

I see there are a good few labour women MP's which is encouraging though.

I am ashamed though that things have not improved enough for half the population to be properly represented. A fairer cabinet would be made up of equal numbers of men and women to reflect out population.

But we are not there are we? If women stop having children then perhaps we might get in!

What has happened since the 80s when we had Thatcher to so devalue women that we appear to have less of a voice as time goes on, rather than more?

It's a national disgrace and we need a new feminism to change the last 20 years of media and societial sexism.

How many of the mums on this thread complaining about not being represented in Parliament are going to put their names forward as an MP candidate in May 2015?

A mother has been through the medical system for example, whereas a father has not, so she has a better idea of what is needed in hospitals based on her own first hand experience.

Interesting point, there minthumbug. Yes, men and women are held to completely different codes of behaviour, especially in parenting, sex, violence...err, need I go on

Yes, I agree with that. I think that women, well mothers to be exact have a huge amount of life experience and valuable insight into how society could be run better. Look at the mumsnet campaigns.
This knowledge is completely under-estimated and over-looked because of all the dick-swinging that goes on in politics.