Less than a third of councillors and MEPs are women.
According to the Fawcett Society just 32 per cent of England’s councillors and MEPs, only 13 per cent of elected mayors and just 12 per cent of council leaders are women.
The proportion of female councillors has not increased in the last ten years.
The figure for council leaders has dropped from 16 per cent in 2004.
The situation is even worse in Wales, where only 27 per cent of councillors are women, and in Scotland, where women account for less than a quarter of councillors; 24 per cent.
But even this is an better than women’s representation in the UK Parliament, which currently stands at 22 per cent.
This means the UK was ranked 65 out of 147 in a recent list of women in national parliaments compiled by the Interparliamentary Union. Only Ireland and Italy have a lower number of women in the European
Parliament than Britain.
On 22 May elections will take place across the UK to elect 73 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
There will also be Local Elections in 162 English local authorities including 32 London boroughs, 36 metropolitan boroughs, 74 shire districts and 20 unitary districts.
Mayoral elections will take place in Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Watford.
There are no local elections in Scotland or Wales, but, following a major reorganisation of local government, there will be elections for 11 new shadow councils in Northern Ireland on the same day.
So how are women likely to fare?
The Hansard Society says the number of UK female MEPs should increase after the election because women have been placed high up on the main party’s lists.
According to Paola Buonadonna, writing in the Feminist Times 44 per cent of Labour and of Green Party candidates in the forthcoming European elections are women, 26 per cent of the Liberal Democrats' candidates, 22 per cent of the Conservative party's candidates and 18 per cent of UKIPs.
The European Union has been promoting equality between men and women since its inception, enshrining the goal of equal pay for men and women in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, Buonadonna, who is
Media Director for the pro-EU membership campaign British Influence, pointed out.
A Directive on Equal Pay, she continued, was finally passed in 1975 to be followed by dozens of other pieces of EU legislation – against discrimination at work or in accessing services, combating violence, sexual harassment and people trafficking, establishing maternity rights and parental leave.
The EU funds national campaigns against gender-based violence and, in the last 7 years, has spent some €3.2 billion on Structural Funds to provide childcare and promote women’s participation in the labour market in Europe’s most economically depressed areas.
And, she added, the EU also promotes gender equality all over the wold with its humanitarian actions and through its trade agreements.
Regarding the local elections, WVoN contacted all four main political parties and none of them could tell us what proportion of their candidates in the council elections were women, so they are clearly not monitoring and tracking the numbers of women coming through at local level.
This is disappointing, because, as the Fawcett Society says, local government wields a lot of power.
“Not only is it [local council election] one of the key routes into Westminster, local government spending makes up a quarter of all public spending – over a £100 billion,” Fawcett has pointed out.
“Ongoing cuts to local government spending are having hugely disproportionate impact on women, undermining access to key services such as childcare, social care and special services for victims of violence against women.
“A lack of female voices around local decision-making tables will only exacerbate this situation.”
Fawcett argues that most councillors do not earn enough to live on from their local authority roles, so they must also have a job, unless they are retired or independently wealthy.
But council meetings take place at difficult times, making it hard for those in work or with caring responsibilities to fit them in.
Fawcett believes this current system should change, and councillors should have access to more flexible working arrangements.
And since the abolition of the Standards Board in 2012, councillors have no independent body to report allegations of sexism to, and so councillors are left to 'investigate' themselves.
Fawcett is calling on the government to establish an independent body to ensure some moral code for elected officials is upheld.
Fawcett is also urging its supporters to vote.
To help you find out more about the elections in your locality, Fawcett has set up a link to help you find your local authority website, and see who is standing for election.
Fawcett has also put together a list of #vote4equality questions which you can Tweet or email if you want to find out what each candidate, or the candidate you might choose, has to say on issues which include asking for a commitment that they will defend specialist women only services like Rape Crisis centres, and asking them to re-open Surestart Centres that have been closed in recent years.
Story published on Women's Views on News, 16 May 2014.
