'Man Enough For The Job?' Explodes Myths About Women In Politics

A new report, published today by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), explodes the myths often used to explain the shortage of women in politics and reveals the extent of discrimination across the political parties. Man enough for the job? A study of Parliamentary candidates, was carried out for the EOC by the MORI Social Research Institute.

• Myth 1 Women don't have the right experience to be selected as candidates.
• Truth 1 The research reveals that male and female potential candidates have very similar levels of political experience, and yet in every party fewer women than men are selected for winnable seats.

• Myth 2 Women don't put themselves forward for selection.
• Truth 2 The research shows that women who put themselves forward are more likely to have stood in unwinnable seats (66%, compared to 54% of men) and less likely to have stood in safe seats (6%, compared with 16% of men). Although there is a need for more women to put themselves forward, this won't necessarily improve the situation until attitudes and practices change in the parties and in Parliament.

• Myth 3 Women don't go into politics because of their family responsibilities.
• Truth 3 Both women and men say that family responsibilities can be a barrier to entering politics and say there should be more support for people with children, but it is women who report being asked about how they will manage to juggle family and political life.

The study found that 81% of Conservative women and 60% of Labour women agreed that selection committees in their party tended to look more favourably on male than on female candidates, compared with a third of Liberal Democrat and a quarter of SNP and Plaid Cymru women.

Half of Conservative men agreed that selection committees favoured men, compared with just over a quarter of Labour and Liberal Democrat men. In Plaid Cymru 23% of men and in the SNP 15% of men agreed.

More than three quarters of the candidates, including a majority of men in all parties, supported equal opportunities training for selection committees.

Speaking at the launch of the report, Julie Mellor, Chair of the EOC, said that the findings revealed how urgently all the political parties needed to find ways of addressing the shortage of women.

"Our research explodes the myth of the level playing field. Parties can no longer afford to fall back on the familiar old explanations for the shortage of women in their party. Women do have the necessary experience; women do put themselves forward; family responsibilities are not just an issue for women, but for potential candidates of both sexes."

"Parties must listen to their own candidates. We found overwhelming support for training for selection panels. Over half of the candidates also supported the principle of positive action. The reform of parliamentary working practices would also encourage more women and men, particularly those with family responsibilities, to put themselves forward."

"All Britain's political parties desperately need to reconnect with the public, as low turnout at the last election clearly showed. Having candidates whose experiences help them understand a broad range of issues can only be a good thing for every party."

The EOC recommends a range of measures political parties can take to address the gender imbalance, including:

1. Introduce or review strategies designed to address sex discrimination in the selection process (such as equal opportunities training for selection committees and knowledge of equality guidelines).
2. Use positive action methods to ensure a greater number of women are selected to stand in constituencies; this will be an option open to all parties under new legislation designed to help them boost the number of women they select.
3. Monitor the balance of male and female candidates within the party to ensure that where women are selected to stand for a constituency, they are not over-represented in seats that are deemed 'unwinnable';
4. Provide women-only training or women's networks to support women candidates;
5. Push for further changes to parliamentary practice in order to assist MPs with caring responsibilities.

Technical details

1. Man enough for the job? A study of Parliamentary candidates is available on the EOC website or can be requested from the numbers below. A research summary is also available.
2. The research was conducted in two stages:
   • Twelve qualitative, in-depth interviews, conducted between 3 and 22 August 2001;
   • Four hundred and eight quantitative telephone interviews among parliamentary candidates, conducted between 10 September and 19 October 2001. The 408 interviewees included 51 new MPs, 204 unsuccessful candidates, and 153 approved candidates who were not selected for any constituency in 2001/1997. Fifty-five per cent of the interviewees were male, 45% were female.
3. Only 18% of MPs at Westminster are women.
4. Westminster stands in 33rd place in the world in a 'league table' of women's representation.
5. The Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Bill, which will allow political parties to use positive action measures such as twinning, zipping or all-women shortlists to increase the number of women candidates, received its first reading on 17 October 2001.