It is 37 years since Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister. This is literally a lifetime ago for around half the United Kingdom population, so it is depressing that Alison McGovern opened the seminar following the International Women’s Day edition of Progress magazine, with the assertion that little has changed in politics. A female politician can either be seen as strong and effective but face the same accusation as Thatcher – that she is ‘not a proper woman’. Alternatively, she can be nicer but have (to borrow from Rihanna) ‘all of your kindness taken for weakness’. Much of the rest of the world has moved on. Increasingly businesses see the value of ‘feminine’ qualities – communication skills, team-building, more collaborative styles of management – without seeing any of this as weakness – provided, of course, that it delivers results

The problem with politics is that success is more intangible than in the outside world. Particularly in opposition, ‘delivering results’ consists mainly of establishing credibility and trust with voters. Sadly, we seem to be stuck with the idea that credibility and trust must come from acting like a traditional white, straight male even if you are none of those things. This is odd, given that the majority of electorate is not white, straight and male either.

Labour does have a relatively good record of getting women into parliament. Though as guest-editor Ayesha Hazarika pointed out in her editorial, women – together with BME, LGBT and disabled people – are poorly represented in the powerful positions behind the scenes. This means that even when female members of parliament front up a policy, the input into its creation might have come from a worryingly narrow range of voices. Meanwhile, the fact that 43 per cent of Labour MPs are women is simply not reflected in the senior positions in the shadow cabinet. Labour has a fantastic record of fighting for the rights of disadvantaged groups but seems to be unable to move beyond seeing women, ethnic minority and gay people as homogenous members of an oppressed community, who ultimately need to be looked after by a bunch of white men.

This can make Labour seem old-fashioned, particularly when compared to the Tories, whose message of individual aspiration does not make the assumption that there is no diversity within diverse communities. Part of the problem lies in numbers. There are enough men in politics that between them they can represent a wide range of political opinions, lifestyles, interests and attitudes. But when there is only one woman on a panel in a TV news discussion programme, or in a policy forum, this one person can find themselves as being seen to represent the whole of womanhood. It is not entirely surprising that other women feel angry, betrayed or simply uninterested if their sole representative turns out to have nothing in common with them.

Many media outlets instinctively default to inviting men onto political programmes – except of course, when there are issues of ‘female interest’ interest to discuss. If we saw greater numbers of women commenting on issues other than tampons and breastfeeding then more ordinary women would be more likely to find someone in politics who represented their particular point of view. It would make political discussion more reflective of the real world. It would introduce different ways of building credibility with voters other than the ‘strong, white male’ template. It would allow politicians to be judged by their competence, without reference to which loo they go into. In this, Scotland is ahead of Westminster – now that being openly gay or bisexual is not unusual for party leaders, we can stop marvelling at the fact that Ruth Davidson is a lesbian, kickboxing Tory, and get on with dealing with her simply as a Tory.

So what needs to be done?

Alison was clear that men need to actively step aside to make way for greater female involvement in politics. But if this does not happen voluntarily, then should we force the issue? Bonnie Greer was the only panellist at the seminar to have personal experience of positive discrimination when she grew up in the United States. She questioned whether the British sense of fair play would ever accept a policy that seems too much like ‘queue-jumping’. Positive discrimination can also leave its beneficiaries questioning whether their own achievements are really based on merit and arguably it goes back to a view of women as belonging to an oppressed group who cannot do things for themselves.

But the whole purpose of representative politics is to represent, and politicians are therefore failing in their primary responsibility if they do not reflect the full diversity of the electorate. A party which only gives a voice to a narrow demographic in its policy making, risks making bad policy. This argues for direct and positive action. It is worth remembering that all-women shortlists were once hugely controversial, but are now an accepted part of the selection process for candidates.

However, achieving further change is the responsibility of women as well as men. Women need to be willing to actively engage in politics. This can be hard – the perception of politics as an aggressive environment and the appalling abuse that women have received on social media (including from other women), undoubtedly put people off. But Bonnie repeatedly made the point that we must not allow ourselves to be erased from existence. Her response to internet nastiness has been to ignore it, not to take herself offline. In the end if men have a responsibility to stand aside, then women also have a responsibility to step up and be right there to take their place.

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Christabel Cooper is a member of the Labour party

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Cartoon: Adrian Teal