Representation in public life
The Government is committed to addressing
under-representation in public life and has prioritised this issue
through the Equality PSA.
New Public Appointments Mentoring Schemes sponsored by the
Government Equalities Office.
The About Time Public Leaders courses, sponsored by the
Government Equalities Office, are designed to support the
government’s aim to increase the diversity of public body board
members and the pool of talented individuals ready to take up
public appointments. Boards that have a diverse mix of people and
talent make the best decisions. The schemes will be formally
launched in January 2010.
Playing an active role in civic society through joining the board
of a public body can be extremely rewarding, whether you want to
expand your skills, are looking for a career development
opportunity or simply want to make a positive difference in your
community.
You could be working in the private, public or voluntary sector,
a social or private entrepreneur, a carer or taking a career break.
Whatever your background and achievements so far, we are looking
for people with a passion and commitment for making a contribution
in public life and on our public boards.
To find out more and download application forms - visit:
http://abouttime.commonpurpose.org.uk/public-leaders-courses/.
You can also email, fax or post completed forms or apply
online.
For more information about public appointments generally, or to
find out about current vacancies, please visit: http://www.direct.gov.uk/publicappointments.
You can now register to get email alerts with vacancies in your
region or by areas of interest.
Diversity in Public Appointments
New Government wide targets on new appointments for gender,
ethnicity and disability were launched on 17th June 2009. By 2011
across Government, for all new UK public appointments regulated by
the Commissioner for Public Appointments, our aim is for:
- 50% of public appointments to be women
- 14% of public appointments to be disabled people
- 11% of public appointments to be people from ethnic
minorities.
To underpin this, Ministers announced a cross-Government action
plan 'Opening Doors - Increasing Diversity' which sets out action
over the next year to increase the visibility of the appointments
system, ensure transparency and accountability and tackle the
barriers people face in putting themselves forward.
The GEO has produced two new factsheets setting out the
statistical picture of diversity in public appointments, which you
can download below.
Downloads & related links:
Why equality matters: representation of women in public
life
On 27 November 2008, the Government Equalities Office held the
first in a small series of seminars to consider new findings on key
issues relating to policy on equalities. The purpose of this
seminar was to provide a forum for key academics, policy makers,
campaigners and local councillors to generate new ideas and
research to address gender inequalities in public life.
Joella Hazel from Fawcett Society and Professor Nickie Charles
from University of Warwick presented papers at the seminar . To
view their presentations please click below:
The heart of politics: Ethnic minority women and the drivers
for local participation
Women in Local and Devolved Government: Making
a Difference?
Speakers Conference
On 12 November 2008, MPs agreed to establish a Speaker's
Conference. This enquiry will consider and make recommendations on
how to improve representation of women, disabled, and minority
ethnic people in the House of Commons, so that it better reflects
society. Click the links below for further information:
Public Appointments
On 14th July 2008, Harriet Harman and Ed
Miliband held a reception bringing together equality
organisations, headhunter firms, parliamentarians and those
who hold public appointments. Ministers highlighted the need for
greater diversity in public appointments and measures to make this
change happen, including new targets.
The Women's
National Commission has commenced a project to increase the
numbers of women applying for public appointments by connecting
women to the advertising process through their 500 partner
organisations.
The public appointments
vacancies website provides a single source of information
about public appointments vacancies at national, regional, and
local levels across England and the UK. You can search the site by
area of interest, government department and by location to identify
the vacancies of most interest to you.
Women in Public Life
A key aim is to ensure equal representation of
women and men in public life. Women are currently under-represented
in the majority of the UK’s elected bodies and the Government is
taking action to encourage more women to participate in public
life
Despite making up 51% of the population, only 20%
of MPs are women and 29.3% of local councillors in
England.
At 31 March 2007, women held 34.4% of public
appointments overall. Of the women who currently hold
national public appointments, 5.7% of these are from ethnic
minority backgrounds and 4.9% are disabled. If public
bodies are to reflect the society they represent, then the number
of women, particularly from ethnic minority groups, must
increase. Please see link below for key facts:
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Women Councillors
Taskforce
In May 2008 the Minister for Women and Equality
announced a cross-party taskforce to increase the numbers of BAME
women councillors. To find out more, please click here:
Women Councillors Taskforce.
Women Take Part
Launched in October 2007, the Women Take Part campaign is
looking at what currently exists to help women from
underrepresented groups into decision making roles, and provide
effective models and networks. A conference was held in May 2008 to
explore these issues and a final report was published on 20th
September.
Legislation
The Government believes that it would be wrong to
make positive action compulsory in order to increase the number of
women elected. It is for political parties to decide for themselves
whether they wish to increase the number of women candidates
standing for election for their party and, if so, how to achieve
this increase. What the Government have done, however, is legislate
so that parties can legally use positive measures for this
purpose.
Before the 1997 General Election, women just 9%
of MPs were women. After the 1997 election, this figure rose to
just over 18%. This was largely due to the policy of all-women
shortlists adopted by the Labour Party between 1993 and 1996. This
policy was judged unlawful, in a case brought in 1996 under the Sex
Discrimination Act 1975. Following that, the 2001 General Election
saw a drop in the number of women elected to the UK Parliament for
the first time in twenty years. However, the 2005 General Election
saw the figure rise to 20%.
To facilitate progress towards increasing women’s
representation in government, the Sex Discrimination (Election
Candidates) Act 2002 was introduced. It removed domestic legal
barriers in the 1975 Act and equivalent Northern Ireland Order, to
political parties wishing to adopt positive measures to reduce
inequality between the numbers of men and women elected. The
legislation covers elections to the House of Commons, the Scottish
Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, the Northern Ireland
Assembly, the European Parliament and local government elections
(excluding directly elected mayors and community councils in
Scotland).
Positive measures permitted by the legislation
includes training and mentoring, techniques such as
'twinning'¹ and 'zipping'², and
quotas (i.e. all-women short-lists).
The Minister for Women and Equality
announced in March that the period during which political parties
can use these measures will be extended to 2030. This will be taken
forward in the Equality Bill
¹Twinning:
Constituencies with the same likelihood of being won by a
political party are paired and then a male candidate is placed in
one constituency and a female candidate in the other.
²Zipping: Where a 'list'
electoral system is used, parties alternate male and female
candidates on their list.
The Case for Gender Equality in Elected Institutions in the
UK
An increase in the number of women elected would
lead to a higher quality of decision-making, reflecting the greater
diversity of experience of those making the decisions.
There is evidence in the devolved institutions in
Scotland and Wales that the relatively high number of women have
had a discernable impact on shaping their policy agendas. In both
bodies, women parliamentarians have championed issues such as
childcare, the social economy and equal pay.
In addition, the UK faces a serious problem of
lack of interest in the political system from the electorate. If
politics looks old, white and male, it can seem irrelevant and dull
to many people, and lead to lower participation rates and a
reduction in democracy. Research published by the Electoral
Commission suggests that having more women elected representatives
actually encourages greater participation rates amongst women more
generally.
Representation also plays a symbolic role. It is
important for decision-makers to be effective role models and to be
truly representative of their electors.