In a welcome move, Francois Hollande appointed equal numbers of women and men to ministerial posts in his first government in France this week. There has been some discussion about the distribution of the specific jobs – with only one woman in a really senior portfolio as justice minister. However, this is still an important statement of his commitment to diversity and strength in his team, particularly in a country which does even worse in terms of the representation of women in public life than we do in the UK.
Women MPs made up 18.5 per cent of the last French parliament, compared with 21 per cent in the UK and 46 per cent in Sweden. In French boardrooms, only 15 per cent of executives in large companies are women despite a new law setting a quota of 40 per cent by 2017.
So, importantly, Hollande has defied the argument that you need to ensure a pipeline of women through elected office before you can achieve more equal representation at the top. This is an important argument for the UK too because at the current rate of progress, a child born today would be drawing her pension before there was equal gender representation in parliament. And one of the things which puts women off standing to be selected as candidates in the first place is the lack of visible women role models.
Better representation of women amongst our MPs and candidates delivers opportunity for individual women, but more importantly it makes Labour more likely to be a winning team. We are most likely to win when we field a team which reflects and can connect with voters, so we can’t afford to wait for the glacial rate of progress. The shadow cabinet has 11 women out of 27 – better than the proportion of 31 per cent in the PLP. And far better than the five women in the coalition cabinet – or the four women in Labour’s last cabinet!
But not only is progress not quick, it is not inevitable either. Historically Labour has been the party with the best representation of women and with the greatest internal pressure to ensure a better gender balance amongst candidates. Despite this, in 1945, 21 Labour women were elected. In 1987, 21 Labour women were elected. In 1992, all constituencies were required to have a woman on the shortlist – 36 Labour women were elected. Between 1992 and 1997, a campaign led by Labour women ensured that there were all women shortlists in half of all potentially winnable seats. In 1997, 101 Labour women were elected.
Some then felt that the job was done. However, after a successful industrial tribunal challenge to AWS, it was not used for the 2001 election. Only two new Labour women were elected (and over 30 new men) and by-election candidates replacing women were all men. It was only after Labour legislated to allow positive action and re-introduced AWS for 2005 that the progress began again.
I will be looking closely at what NEC candidates have to say about the use of AWS and other methods to ensure faster progress to equal representation in the future. I will also be continuing my support of the Labour Women’s Network dedicated to supporting Labour women to play a full part in the party, and to securing the election of more Labour women to public office at every level.
Why not join us at our LWN fundraising dinner on Tuesday 12 June – http://lwn.eventbrite.co.uk/
Don’t just look admiringly across the Channel – help to make it happen here too.
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Jacqui Smith is former home secretary, writes the Monday Politics column for Progress, and tweets @smithjj62
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Photo: haykirstin