Tag: Women

Online abuse is driving women out of public life. It’s time to act

Online abuse is driving women out of public life. It’s time to act

Public scrutiny is one thing, but the degree of online abuse now suffered by female political candidates is another. The Independent Committee for Standards in Public Life has recommended that platforms be held liable for hate speech and incitement to violence – but, writes María Rún Bjarnadóttir (University of Sussex), domestic UK law currently does not […]

‘Desperately seeking an elderly gentleman with a large majority … to persuade Parliament to allow MPs to job-share’

‘Desperately seeking an elderly gentleman with a large majority … to persuade Parliament to allow MPs to job-share’

Or a woman MP for that matter, write Rosie Campbell and Sarah Childs (Birkbeck). But they must be adored by their parliamentary and local constituency party so that both will be happy for them to stand as half of one of the first MP job-shares at the next General Election. We think it might take […]

Broken up and hollowed out: how the north-east lost its powers and influence

Broken up and hollowed out: how the north-east lost its powers and influence

Following its heyday of political influence during the New Labour era, the north-east has seen much of its regional democracy decline or disappear – with the loss of 13 councils, nearly 500 councillors and the North East Assembly. Sue Regan, Fred Robinson and Keith Shaw have examined the approximately 100 elected and unelected bodies that […]

Metro mayors: the all-male club presiding over boards that are just 4% female

Metro mayors: the all-male club presiding over boards that are just 4% female

The six new metro mayors are all male. This might be less of a problem, writes Chris Game, if the Combined Authority boards they led were not overwhelmingly male too. Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has tried to create a more balanced gender split, but attempts to do so elsewhere have met with resistance. Photo: Mikey […]

Eleanor Mills: women are still portrayed through the lens of a male, pale and stale establishment

Eleanor Mills: women are still portrayed through the lens of a male, pale and stale establishment

A new report by Women in Journalism, “The Tycoon and the Escort: The business of portraying women in newspapers”, shines a light on the extent to which British media offer a male-dominated interpretation of society. The title refers to the description used in the coverage of the murder by a businessman of his lover, which as the […]

Rising violence against women in politics threatens democracy itself

Rising violence against women in politics threatens democracy itself

Violence against female politicians – and the threat of it – is becoming much more common, and not only in Britain. Mona Lena Krook looks at how social media has opened up new channels for harassment, what distinguishes misogynistic attacks, and how other countries are responding to them. Ignoring or playing down the problem is not an […]

The Remainers who now chair select committees will harry the government over Brexit

The Remainers who now chair select committees will harry the government over Brexit

The new cohort of select committee chairs will be scrutinising the work of a weakened government, write Mark Goodwin, Stephen Bates and Marc Geddes. Nine of the 28 are women, reflecting the advantage female MPs enjoy when they stand for committee elections. The current line-up also includes some well-known figures who have clashed with their party […]

Macron’s 50:50 gender-balanced cabinet: building on a concrete floor

Macron’s 50:50 gender-balanced cabinet: building on a concrete floor

The first cabinet appointed by new French President Emmanuel Macron has a 50-50 gender balance, with eleven of the 22 cabinet members being women. Karen Beckwith writes that Macron’s decision to appoint a gender-balanced cabinet should not have come as a surprise. Drawing on research in seven separate democracies with her colleagues Susan Franceschet and Claire Annesley, she […]

‘Mum-of-two, 40’: but women rise to the top in Northern Irish politics

‘Mum-of-two, 40’: but women rise to the top in Northern Irish politics

Women now lead three of the five main parties in Northern Ireland and make up 30% of the Assembly. Danielle Roberts looks at the sea-change in women’s participation in Northern Irish politics since the Good Friday Agreement, which has happened in spite of the lack of Unionist female politicians. While a number of BME and LGBT […]

Never mind NICs: gender budgeting reveals the Spring Budget’s true impact on poorer women

Never mind NICs: gender budgeting reveals the Spring Budget’s true impact on poorer women

Last week’s Spring Budget failed to reverse a series of cuts that effectively take away money from poorer women and give it to better-off men. The Treasury has a duty to pay due regard to the impact of its policies on women, but it is not doing so. Mary-Ann Stephenson and her colleagues at the […]