Women should make up at least 45% of MPs by law says Britain's equality committee

[Tennis]

Political parties who fail to take steps to ensure at least 45 per cent of all representatives in Parliament are women should be forced to do so by new legislation, a Commons select committee has concluded.

In a report, which highlights a glaring lack of representation in politics, the Women and Equalities Committee says the UK has dropped to 48th place – from 25th in 1999 – in the global rankings of the representation of women in a country’s lower or single legislative chamber. Just 30 per cent of MPs are women.

According to the report by the recently established committee – led by former cabinet minister Maria Miller – political parties “must be held to account for reducing this democratic deficit”.

“A global ranking of 48th is shockingly low,” Ms Miller said. “We must rise to the challenge of being a world leader on women’s parliamentary representation.”

The committee, which launched its inquiry in the summer of 2016, concluded that all political parties should set out how they intend to increase the proportion of women in Parliament by 2020.

If they failed to do so, the Government should set a domestic target of 45 per cent of all representatives in Parliament and local government by 2030, the committee said. It said the goal should be backed by legislation setting a statutory minimum proportion of female parliamentary candidates in general elections for each political party, with fines or other sanctions for those that failed to comply.

“While the goal is equality, we recognise the difficulty inherent in setting this statutory minimum at 50 per cent; such a precise target would be difficult to meet while also ensuring that men did not become under-represented. A minimum of 45 per cent would therefore be acceptable,” it said.

It urged the Government to bring forward legislation in the current Parliament so that the new requirements could be brought into force if the proportion of women MPs does not increase significantly at the next general election in 2020.

Ms Miller said: “Political parties bear the lion’s share of the responsibility for improvement. Trusting in long-term trends is not enough: we need intervention to accelerate their pace. We look to the leaders of those parties to give these efforts the urgency and priority they require.”

It has been almost 100 years since Constance Markievicz and Nancy Astor became the first female MPs to take their seats in the Commons, but the report says: “It is a shocking reality that there have only ever been as many women MPs as there are men sitting in the House of Commons today.

“Since 1918, there have been only 455 women elected to the Commons. Putting these numbers into perspective, the number of men in the Commons today is the same as the total number of women ever elected to the House.”

The backdrop of the inquiry is the recently published Boundary Commission proposals, which aim to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600. The Women and Equalities Committee believes that without intervention from the political parties an unintended consequence of the boundary review could be a lower proportion of MPs in Parliament.

Ms Miller added: “We are calling on political parties to publicly set out the measures they plan to take to increase the proportion and number of women parliamentary candidates in 2020. We must ensure that previous positive trends do not stagnate or reverse. There is no room for complacency.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a7517121.html

It sure seems like politics is changing. No longer is it an old boy's club in many countries.

The question at hand may be just what % should the threshold be set at.

[Knaar]

There should be no % at all. Who is the best for the job, regarless of gender.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

There shouldn't be a required % of a certain person based on race/gender. Those should never factor when hiring people.

[Serpha]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a7517121.html

It sure seems like politics is changing. No longer is it an old boy's club in many countries.

The question at hand may be just what % should the threshold be set at.

How about 0. You should not be voted for or elected/appointed just because you have a pussy.

[sheggaro]

No, let's not force people to adhere to some idealistic quota that doesn't correlate with reality. If there aren't many women in politics it's because of a lack of interest or qualification, no one's barring them from it.

[grexly75]

I mean who would want to be a pollie anyway, a fair percentage eventually end up in hot water over something they did while in office..

[Jtbrig7390]

The question at hand may be just what % should the threshold be set at.

That's a stupid ass question, the threshold should be 0%.

Best person for the job, Doesn't matter if they are black,white,male or female.

[Wyrt]

Well, they are supposed to be representative of the people are they not?

[Thalassian Bob]

Enforcing equality of outcome is dumb (regardless of profession and the minority genders within it) and is likely to lead to less competent people taking up the job.

I'm all for equality of opportunity and thoroughly support ensuring it is maintained, but people should be free to pursue whatever professions they wish without the government playing the numbers.

There are no barriers to entry for women in politics in Britain. We are on our second female prime minister now (funnily enough both of them have been Tory). Women are just less likely to pursue a career in politics.

[Kronik85]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a7517121.html

It sure seems like politics is changing. No longer is it an old boy's club in many countries.

The question at hand may be just what % should the threshold be set at.

Actually it changed in 1996 when Tony Blair's Labour party used all women short lists. Since then progress has completely stagnated although the Conservative party is slowly beginning to catch up with women MPs over the past few years.

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That's a stupid ass question, the threshold should be 0%.

Best person for the job, Doesn't matter if they are black,white,male or female.

They're mostly back bench MPs. You will find detritus in your bath tub that is generally more useful.

[Logwyn]

100%. Men got the first 10,000 years. Women should get the next 10,000 years. It's only fair.

Yeah lets just throw out the whole list of women that have been in charge over that 10,000 years!!!!

https://www.google.com/search?q=list...hrome&ie=UTF-8

Lets also discount such cultures such as the Cherokee where they had a material hierarchy. It hasn't been 100% male for 10,000 years.


So much for Democracy in the UK.

[Tommi]

I think that 23% of MP's should be disabled by law. Cripples for Prime Minister!!

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

Been a thing in Scandinavia for years, even for university/collage entries you're given a easier time being accepted if your education path is gender unequal.
Example:
Nurse school - men get inn easier.
Police school - women get inn easier.
*note that they still have to produce equal results in tests and exams to graduate.

I work in a school and when I started there there was around 6 times as many female workers there, now (2 years later) it's almost half and half. I'm not surprised if better applicants were thrown aside to get more men.

[stomination]

Been a thing in Scandinavia for years, even for university/collage entries you're given a easier time being accepted if your education path is gender unequal.
Example:
Nurse school - men get inn easier.
Police school - women get inn easier.
*note that they still have to produce equal results in tests and exams to graduate.

I work in a school and when I started there there was around 6 times as many female workers there, now (2 years later) it's almost half and half. I'm not surprised if better applicants were thrown aside to get more men.

We have something like that in the U.S

[Super Kami Dende]

MP's should be made up of the people best for the Job, regardless of which/any ratio imbalance there is one way or the other.

[Dhrizzle]

MP's should be made up of the people best for the Job, regardless of which/any ratio imbalance there is one way or the other.

Making sure MPs are "the best people for the job" would require a complete overhaul of the entire political system, probably starting with the removal of democracy in exchange for some sort of competency test.

[Super Kami Dende]

Making sure MPs are "the best people for the job" would require a complete overhaul of the entire political system, probably starting with the removal of democracy in exchange for some sort of competency test.

You can see their competency during their political careers as they rise to MP's

[WskyDK]

100%. Men got the first 10,000 years. Women should get the next 10,000 years. It's only fair.

12,000. We did a good job fucking things up, so I'm gonna spot y'all two thousand years to get back to 0.

[Lady Dragonheart]

100%. Men got the first 10,000 years. Women should get the next 10,000 years. It's only fair.

I giggled, but in all honesty, if we can do the job, then I say, "why not?"

[Dhrizzle]

You can see there competency during their political careers as they rise to MP's

Which would make little to no difference as the vast majority of the electorate vote for a party regardless of the actual person standing in their constituency.