MP selection process still favours men

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Women are still finding it difficult to break into politics, a new study has found, although a 'tipping point' has finally been achieved for ethnic minorities.

A recent survey of parliamentary candidates found that women are still only being selected in around a quarter of constituencies, and in a glaring anomaly, out of 16 recent contests within the Labour party, only one female candidate was chosen.

As it currently stands, there are 125 female MPs in parliament, out of total of 646. In contrast, there are 15 non-white MPs, a figure which needs to rise to 60 to be representative of the general population (needless to say, we need 323 women MPs for the male/female ratio to be reflective of the working-age population at large).

The Fabian Society believes the ethnic balance will be achieved far more quickly than the gender balance.

'We seem to be making more progress on race than achieving equal chances for women in politics,' the society's general secretary, Sunder Katwala, tells The Telegraph.

'Gender is a much more stubborn penalty than race. The gender penalty, though reducing, is still in place.

'It is not so difficult for a political establishment to give up 7.5 per cent of its seats to ethnic minority candidates. This can be done by finding those black and Asian candidates who fit the mould – the Oxbridge graduates, lawyers and accountants.

'Giving up 50% of the seats [to women] is more difficult and may demand more cultural change.'

Thursday 6 November 2008

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