As part of the coalition deal, the Liberal Democrats were rewarded with five cabinet positions. However, not a single one of these was given to a woman.
And instead, over the past year, we have seen David Laws having to resign over expenses, Vince Cable being stripped of many of his responsibilities after saying he would ‘declare war’ on Rupert Murdoch, and Chris Huhne last week challenge David Cameron over the No to AV campaign with both the Conservatives and his own party slamming him for diverting attention from the more important issue at hand.
Can we say that the situation would have been different if any of the Liberal Democrat’s seven female MPs had been in this position themselves? No, we cannot, but perhaps it is time at the next reshuffle to give some of those women a chance to do a better job than the men they will be replacing.
The Conservative party have not fared much better themselves. The appointment of Chris Myers as Hague’s special adviser and the ensuing rumours led to Myers’ resignation and Andrew Lansley allowed the NHS to once again become a political issue, halting the health bill’s progression to ‘pause, listen and reflect’.
Given these mishaps, this was the perfect opportunity for those women who did make it into the cabinet to show that they deserved it more than the men.
However, Baroness Warsi raised many eyebrows when she said that Islamophobia had become socially acceptable and had passed the ‘dinner table test’ and Caroline Spelman allowed her department to get caught up in a political nightmare, with the government having to abandon their plans to sell off the forests.
At the same time, Cheryl Gillan has largely remained invisible, quietly managing the Wales brief.
While many of the men in cabinet have not done themselves any favours, neither have the women. It should not have to be the case that women have to be better than men to secure a job equivalent to theirs, but there remains the idea that women are only in their jobs ‘because they are women’ and are not truly worthy of the positions that they hold.
Those women who are in the cabinet should be taking this opportunity to show that they are more capable than their counterparts.
In all of this Theresa May deserves credit. She has shown that women deserve their place in the Cabinet and should be given more opportunity to do so. As the second female home secretary she deserves recognition that she is doing a good job, not necessarily policy-wise, but politically. She has managed to keep her department from getting drawn into political battles, and successfully managed to navigate through without any blunders.
Whether we will see more women have the opportunity to join Theresa May in the cabinet as great advocates for what women MPs can be, we will have to wait and see. But, at the present time, it appears it might be the time to give women to the chance to show that they are as good as the men.