4365/291

[coughingbear]

white_hart posted yesterday about the anniversary of women first getting the vote in the UK, and one of my colleagues was speaking at an event about this yesterday. She came in today with a big poster showing all the constituencies where women are currently or have ever been elected - and all those where they haven't. It's on the Electoral Reform Society's

Comments

[f4f3]

I'd love to see a graph of that 4365/291 figure over time since 1918 - I wonder where the cut-over point will be, and women will be in the majority? The Scots Parliament/Welsh Assembly are such recent beasts that they won't show much of a trend - yet.

That's a fantastic poster - and very revealing of the nature of the Labour and Tory parties. I'd love to look at the candidates map, too.

[coughingbear]

It's not a linear progression, but there's a list of elections and percentages of women elected on p.6 of this House of Commons factsheet. The big jump of course (9.2% to 18.2%) was 1997. I don't expect to see 50% in my life, though I would love to be wrong.

A candidates map would be fascinating, but I doubt anyone will put one together!

[f4f3]

I'll bet you a magnum of champagne, to be drunk on the terrace of the House, that it will come within my lifetime - not without effort, but it will come. If I had to name a date, I'd say by 2030. We really are living inside the most amazing time for women's rights this country, hell, the whole world, has ever seen. We shouldn't let the distance still to go make us forget the huge leaps that hard work and struggle made possible in the last century.

[white_hart]

the most amazing time for women's rights this country, hell, the whole world, has ever seen

Yes, but given what went before that's not saying much.

[chickenfeet2003]

Information on women in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, where representation is much more equal - there are more women than men in the Welsh Assembly cabinet!

Which may say more about the desirability of a seat in the Welsh Assembly cabinet than it does about women's progress in politics...

[coughingbear]

Though it helps that women are 50% of the WA in the first place. Thinking about (un)desirability though (and numbers of places available), women only average about 29% of local councillors in England. I just looked that up and was definitely expecting it to be higher.