Harriet Harman: the guilt of working mothers

Posted by on Sep 25, 2010 in Women MPs | 13 comments Harriet Harman should be congratulated for keeping together a tight-knit Labour Party for almost 5 months. She hands over her reigns this evening when the new Labour leader is announced. In an interview in today’s Times, she is credited with forcing through equalities law to improve maternity leave and childcare provision. Yet Harman feels that women’s equality is slipping backwards,...
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Should we have part-time MPs?

Posted by on Sep 12, 2010 in Women MPs | 3 comments Should we have part-time MPs to encourage more women parliamentarians? It is not the first time I have heard this suggestion, and it was one of the ideas given in evidence at the latest Speaker’s Conference which considered how to modernise and attract more diverse members. Green MP Caroline Lucas has now made the suggestion at her party’s autumn conference saying it would enable MPs...
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Czech women MPs display their sex appeal

Posted by on Sep 4, 2010 in Women MPs | 5 comments Newly elected women MPs in the Czech Republic proudly display their femininity and sex appeal in come-to-bed poses for a racy new 2011 calendar. In the May election, women won more seats than every before during their national elections in late May when 44 women were voted into the lower house, a proportional increase from 17% to 22%. The calendar was produced by the Public Affairs party, a new...
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Will John Bercow’s reform plans for parliament include more women MPs?

Posted by on Jun 6, 2010 in Women MPs | 5 comments I know I won’t be the only person keen to hear what John Bercow says in the Hansard Society’s Speaker’s Lecture this week entitled “Reform in a new Parliament: Reviving the Chamber“.I want to see if he will keep his word about the need to increase women parliamentarians which was reviewed recently for Speaker’s Conference – only the sixth to have taken place...
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A small increase of women MPs

Posted by on May 8, 2010 in 2010 general election, Women MPs | 2 comments  Because I believe you are all longing to know how many women were elected into Parliament, this is the breakdown, courtesy of the Centre for Women and Democracy. Don’t hold your breath, it’s not earth shattering: a total of 142 women were elected (22%), a small increase of the 126 women in situ before the election (19.5%) – a net gain of just 16, or 2.5%. The biggest...
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Whatever the result, we will not get the change we really need in parliament – more women MPs

Posted by on Apr 26, 2010 in 2010 general election, Women MPs | 9 comments Whatever the outcome of the general election, we will not see the change we really need in parliament – many more women MPs to reflect our true society. Data shows that although the three main political parties are fielding a record number of women candidates for the 2010 general election, the results are unlikely to result in a dramatic increase of women MPs, perhaps around 5% or even...
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All female parliamentarians are “tissue paper”

Posted by on Jan 27, 2010 in Women MPs | 2 comments This is what has been said about women parliamentarians in the Punjab Assembly. I sympathise with the struggles they  face to be taken seriously by their male counterparts. Here is the report when the derogatory remark about all female parliamentarians being “tissue paper” was made, which went unreprimanded, despite strong protests from the women. Disappointingly, support from fellow...
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Will only quotas increase women MPs?

Posted by on Jan 11, 2010 in 2010 general election, Politics, Women MPs | 23 comments I know there is all party support for more women MPs, the problem is getting women candidates selected by associations in winnable seats. Of course women want to be stand alongside men and be chosen on merit, but it doesn’t necessarily work that way, which is why there are currently 126 women in the House of Commons compared to 519 men, and 15 MPs from ethnic minorities: it would have been...
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