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IN THE ABSENCE OF ELECTORAL SEX QUOTAS: REGULATING POLITICAL PARTIES FOR WOMEN'S REPRESENTATION

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 49; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00344893.2013.850320

1749-4001

Sarah Childs,

Electoral Systems and Political Participation

AbstractIn the comparative parties literature, party regulation is rarely considered to be gendered or to have gendered effects, limited analysis of candidate selection excepted. A review of the more policy and activist oriented literature on women and democratic politics identifies, however, an array of existing feminised regulations in place around the globe. This suggests the possibility of reforming party registration, financing, organisation and functions, in ways that explicitly redress the exclusion of women from electoral politics. From these extant regulatory practices, this article first draws up ideal type regulatory models, and second, applies this new framework to the UK case. In the British parliament women's representation languishes at 22%; the 2010 general election saw only a 4.5% increase on 1997, a watershed election for women's descriptive representation. In the absence of the likely adoption of legislative quotas in the UK the argument is made for the re-gendering of party politics via party regulation to achieve parity of women's representation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI would like to thank Peter Allen, Rosie Campbell, Richard Heffernan, Joni Lovenduski and Marian Sawer, as well as the attendees of the ERC-funded Gender and Party Regulation workshop in Leiden 2012, especially Ekaterina Rashkova and Ingrid van Biezen, and the Birkbeck Gender and Politics seminar group, for comments on an earlier draft of this article.Notes1. The Electoral Commission defines third parties as 'individuals or organisations other than political parties or candidates which campaign at an election' (www.electoralcommission.org.uk/party-finance/legislation/third-partiespermitted-participants/third-parties).2. Electoral administration is one of the foci of political regulation identified by Gauja (Citation2010: 5) that is not addressed here. In this article, political campaigns are covered under the party organisation umbrella.3. This claim is based on the literature in English, where the focus has been much more on women's legislative rather than party presence, even before our attention turns towards party regulation more specifically. This is not to say that there has not been research on women and parties (Childs and Webb 2012; Kittilson Citation2006; Lovenduski and Norris 1993; Williarty Citation2010).4. This review draws upon a desk-based secondary review of English publications.5. In other words, such regulation might be felt to 'rule out of court' an ideological position over which one might expect political parties to compete.6. I was the Gender Special Adviser to the Speaker's Conference.7. These are detailed in Table 5.8. House of Commons, 12 January 2012: Column 440. In their evidence to the Speaker's Conference, all three main party leaders at the time (Brown, Cameron and Clegg) agreed to provide this information.9. More openings for new MPs following the parliamentary expenses scandal, with higher turnover than normal; Speaker's Conference had placed the issue higher up the Westminster agenda and; lastly, party efforts to increase candidate diversity.10. When there is strong intra-party competition for seats women (and other candidates different from the 'typical' politician) do not usually fare well.11. For reasons of (1) the new expenses regime; (2) misperceptions that MPs will be afforded 'bedsit' accommodation; (3) media and public scrutiny of MPs' costs, especially those with families; (4) gendered representations by the media; (5) the masculinised Commons; and (6) lack of work/life balance.12. This could of course be one part of a 'two-pronged' strategy—quotas plus (www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-rosie-campbell/gender-equality-womens-representation-parliament_b_2773333.html). Advocates of other under-represented groups might also find this a fruitful strategy.13. Sidhu and Meena (Citation2007: 32) talk of hidden and indirect costs, 'in kind contributions'.14. The number is determined by BBC and OFCOM on an ad hoc basis; parties are prohibited from buying broadcasting time on radio and TV.15. For example, www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/11/party-funding-overhaul-talks-continue, and in 2003 the Electoral Commission reviewed funding but concluded that the time for change had not yet come.16. As Morris (Citation2012: 116) warns, one should not 'elide' the 'trappings of employment with employment as traditionally and legally understood'.17. Personal correspondence, Lovenduski.18. A sunset clause is 'a provision in a Bill that gives it an "expiry date"'. They are 'included in legislation when it is felt that Parliament should have the chance to decide on its merits again after a fixed period'. www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/sunset-clause/.19. Caveats about the lack of regulatory force of the Conference, noted.20. The author's view. Lovenduski (Citation2010: 442) notes that the Conference was unable to hold parties and parliament to account.21. Personal reflection. Indeed, there was a lack of political imagination in considering the potential of this approach, or indeed the varieties of ways in which it might have been achieved. NB: Speaker's Conference overlapped with the 'expenses scandal' which made extending state funding something of a political hot potato.22. One exception is Anika Gauja (Citation2010).23. In this, of course, I risk the charge of reformism.24. NB: neither model includes the introduction of legislative quotas, reflecting aforementioned apparent public and political antipathy.Additional informationSarah Childs is Professor of Politics and Gender at the University of Bristol, UK. She has published widely on women, representation and party politics and parliament over the last decade or so. Key articles on New Labour's women MPs, descriptive and substantive representation, the concept of critical mass, and conservatism, gender and representation, have been published in, among other journals, Political Studies, Politics and Gender, Government and Parliamentary Affairs and Party Politics. Her latest book, Sex, Gender and the Conservative Party: From Iron Lady to Kitten Heels, with Paul Webb, was published in 2012. She is currently researching gender and political parties, and the UK parliament as a gendered institution. In 2009–10 she was the gender Special Adviser to the UK parliament's 'Speaker's Conference' on Representation.