(Page 2 of 20) - Gender Imbalance in Representative Democracy: Women Candidates and Councillors in English Local Government, 1973-2001 authored by Borisyuk, Galina. and Thrasher, Michael.

Women and Local Elections

Although women comprise over half of the UK electorate their relatively low level of representation to
elected office remains an issue. The House of Commons, elected in 1992, contained just 60 women
MPs, or 9.2 per cent of the total membership. That figure doubled at the 1997 election, falling back
slightly to 118 (17.9%) for the current Parliament. The UK is currently ranked 49

in the Inter-

Parliamentary Union’s league table of female representation. The situation regarding women’s
representation for the supra-national European Parliament (EP) is little better and the UK lies below
the EU average. Following the 1999 EP elections, the first in Britain to use PR-List voting, women
occupy 21 out of 87 seats, 24.1%, compared with 31% overall for the parliament. Women’s
representation, however, improves at the sub-national level of government. Currently, approximately
slightly more than a quarter of local councillors are women, although the proportions vary between
different types of local authority. The statistics appear to confirm the ‘law of minority attrition’, whereby
the proportion of women holding elected office decreases as the perceived importance of political
office increases (Taagepera 1994).

To an extent local government has been enlightened in its attitudes, both in terms of voting rights and
allowing women to sit on locally elected bodies. As early as the 1830s, women are able to vote for
various local boards as long as they are unmarried and pay local taxes. By 1875, some time before
they are permitted to vote at parliamentary elections, women are successfully standing for election to
such authorities as Boards of Guardians. Unfortunately, detailed information about the gender of
candidates contesting these and subsequent local elections is currently unavailable

. However one of

the few published studies noted that at the 1964 local elections women candidates comprised about
16% of the total and that they did not perform as well as male candidates (Fletcher 1967).

However, following the compilation of comprehensive election results from 1973 onwards it is possible
to analyse different aspects of the change in the proportion of women candidates and councillors over
three decades. Our primary purpose in taking this approach is to identify those factors that appear to
explain why the proportions of women contesting and winning local elections should vary. A review of
existing research, which is largely, though not exclusively concerned with the issues of women’s
under-representation in national legislatures, will serve to identify the key research questions. We
shall then address some of these questions with specific reference to English local elections held
between 1973-2002.

Determinants of women’s (under) representation to elected office

An international comparative analysis of women in national parliaments reveals the importance of a
range of political, socio-economic and cultural factors in explaining the relative proportions of elected
women as well as specific effects associated with voting systems, the strength of left-wing parties and
the timing of women’s suffrage (Kenworthy and Malami 1999). Darcy (Darcy 1992)considers, but then
rejects, two possible explanations for the under-representation of women. First, is there a male-
dominated, party establishment conspiracy, to restrict political challenges by women? On the
contrary, the evidence shows that in some countries quotas have been introduced for candidate
selection procedures by some party organisations in order to redress gender imbalance (Caul 2001
Darcy, 1994). Moreover, it does not appear in any party’s interest to be seen to discriminate against
women by only selecting them for the most difficult to win seats, since women in most democracies
comprise a significant proportion of the electorate. Does that mean, therefore, that women fail to
achieve equality of representation because of antipathy from voters? Much, though not all, research
evidence shows that voters respond positively towards female candidates (Black and Erickson 2003;
Darcy, Welch, and Clark 1994; Kelley and McAllister 1984). This is an area for investigation in the
English local government context, although without survey data we shall rely upon elections returns to
inform our analysis.

The situation is, however, improving. We have published the first four volumes in a series of historical local

elections, which cover the cities of London and Birmingham from the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries respectively. Additional volumes are planned because of a grant from the Arts and Humanities
Research Board. These will cover post world war two local elections for the major urban areas. In a small
number of cases it will be possible to cover elections for more rural authorities.