Where are all the women in the cabinet?

[fruitstick]

I'll try again with a completed thread title this time!

Given that this was supposed to be the Mumsnet election, is there any hope that there might be one, just one woman in the cabinet?

Although Samantha Cameron looked lovely in her maternity wear and heels, I was hoping for slightly more representation than that.

Despite Labour's faults, at least they had women in important and influential positions, not just window dressing.

are we surprised though?

oh and on her "equality" record, here we go.

analysis by PinkNews.co.uk reveals that Mrs May's has voted consistently against gay and transgendered rights.

Mrs May's voting record on LGBT rights is mixed.

In 1998 she voted against equalising the age of consent and in 2000, she voted against the repeal of section 28, legislation that banned the 'promotion' of homosexuality by local government and schools.

In 2001 and 2002 she voted against gay couples jointly adopting children.

In 2004, like much of the Conservative front bench, Mrs May did vote in favour of civil partnerships.

But in the same year, Mrs May didn't attend Parliament for any of the four votes that led to the Gender Recognition Act.

In 2008 she voted in favour of a defeated bill which said that IVF rights should require a male role model- effectively discriminating against lesbian fertility rights.

It is a complicated issue as to why there are so few women in politics and even fewer rise to ministerial positions. One of many factors is the ludicrous working hours, which are in no way family friendly. Interesting to note that in the Scottish Parliament - which mainly works 9 to 5 - and is within one hours travel for most MSPs we have more females in positions of power

1 party leader, 2 deputy party leaders
5 cabinet members - Culture and external affairs, Health & Welfare, Environment, Public Health & Sport and Lord Advocate.

I would not suggest that Scottish women in politics are in any way superior to their, rest of UK, counterparts, therefore it would appear that the family friendly working practises do contribute to enabling more women to commit themselves.

Perhaps we, as feminists, should be directing our energies at this time, when parliamentary reform is on the agenda, to promoting sensible working hours/practices which would allow more family orientated women (and men) to enter the political sphere.

I have also been thinking it would be fun to include Caroline Lucas too to show parties can work together. Whilst the green tax policies would not work for tories lots of the green economy ideas could be used. Maybe it would be too risky at this stage with the far right tories still trying to get used to being nice to the lib dems and vice versa.

I wish Sarah Teather was there somewhere. She is very bright and quite nice too from what one sees on TV.

Conservative/Lib Dems have 55 women or 15% female MP's. Purely on a statistical basis this means that there should be at least 3 in the cabinet. The PM should increase this number as at present only positive discrimination ensures fair representation.

Did David Cameron really promise a third of the cabinet would be female when on the campaign trail? here

I've been trying to convince Green Party supporters that appealing for Lib Dem members to come join them is not the way to show the country that PR will work here and that offering the coalition their support would be far better.

Maybe some labour supporters could swell the ranks of the greens.

I hope Lynn Featherstone has a role - as someone commented on Lib Dem Voice just now, she's good at making things happen.

The Lib Dems had quite a few good women candidates who either lost their seats or were expected to win new ones and unfortunately didn't (like Sal Brinton in Watford).

or they're quite young, like Jenny Willott and Jo Swinson.

Where are all the women in the cabinet?

In the kitchen, making tea and arranging digestives on doilies.

I wish I was joking.

Surely Theresa May will have enough to do as Home Secretary? Would it not be better to have another Minister for women and equality? Or is it too much to ask for to have two women in the cabinet??

fruitstick - you are absolutely right.

Just watched the first prime minister's press conference in the Rose Garden. Men in suits talking to men in suits.

I like both of them - but how depressing is this?

this is symptomatic of our new political elite
cameron - eton, oxford
clegg - westminister, cambridge

white, male. the reasons for lower participation are, as has been said are complex but we are going backwards. that is what our daughters will see men in suits talking to men in suits. Tis depressing.

Theresa M frightens me.

I can appreciate the need for more women but why does everyone keep on going on about the fact cameron and clegg had a decent education.
Would you rather we had poorly educated people running the country?

As for the white male bit Cameron went out of his way to get a more diverse set of tory MPs and ruffled a lot of feathers in the process.

But yes it would be nice to see more able women in politics. Not the blair babe types though.

It is shocking and depressing that there is only one woman in the cabinet.

It's not about giving a woman a job just cause she's a woman.

It's about having a politics (and a media) that is representative of and reflective of the society we live in.

In Sweden, for instance, the government consists of an equal number of men and women. This balance was deliberately chosen because Swedes believe in the principles of gender equality.

We don't, and we have a poorer society and more inequality as a result.

Baroness Warsi is the second confirmed woman in the cabinet - Party Chairman I think.

oh those BNP voters must be devastated - not just a "foreign" (well she is to them) woman in the cabinet but a muslim woman

I loved seeing Baroness Warsi on question time with Nick Griffin. She was formidable, and won the respect of many non-Tory voters, including me.

When PR was introduced for the European Parliament a lot more women were elected. The Lib Dem lists order candidates male, female, male female - and in half the Euro seats a woman's name is first on the list, so about half the Lib Dem MEPs are women.

Maybe the same will happen for Westminster?

Theresa May too - she was the one with the animal print clothes as I remember. Wasn't Theresa Villiers a spokesperson on something and what has happened to Sarah Teather?

There are 51 Conservative female mps, not sure how many lib-dems. But a think a large number were new in this time, and cabinet roles are usually given to those with some parliamentary experience. But do bear in mind that there are many 'ministerial' positions that aren't in the Cabinet... and those jobs are still all being sorted out, and assigned.

We're also doing men sometimes a bit of a dis-serice here... much like MintHumbug arguing that women are about more than "women's issues" I think men are capable of also considering the same issues.

Why not think of them as people; whether male or female - how does this really effect their judgement?

Caroline Spelman has got Environment, and Cheryl Gillian has got Welsh Secretary.

So 20%, which is higher than the proportion of women MPs in the Government.

I hope we will see more appointed to junior ministerial posts and allowed to rise up through the ranks as they gain experience.

think there are 7 female lib dem MP's (irrc correctly I posted it futher up the thread)

That's a good point about experience imagine if we had a cabinet of brand newly elected MP's (of either sex) - not sure that would help to ease nerves in the slightest

I am annoyed about this

And Theresa May - home secretary AND minister for women and equality??

Don't make me laugh

It means that

1. The 'women and equality' bit of the portfolio will just not get done, because home secretary is more than a full time job anyway

1. It is sheer tokenism - she does not stand for equality in any way, and when she was interviewed on PM today she couldn't even bring herself to say that she thought there should be more women in senior positions in politics

Don't want to rock the boat now you've got a nice seat up the front eh?

women make up 50% of the population

there are 130 women mps

but only one is worthy of being in cabinet whilst the same old face, ken clarke, ian duncan smith et al trot out iwth the same old idea s -

does not bode well for childcare vouchers, child tax credits, free nursery places for 3 year olds etc - never mind only 5 more years till the next election !"!