By: Carolin Eitner, Pii-Tuulia Nikula , Nina Toukoluoto, Johanna Vehmas

(please send your comments on this essay to pii-tuulia.nikula@helsinki.fi)

Great Britain is a prosperous West European country, home of liberalism and an important center in women’s movement with long traditions going back to the Enlightenment. One expects to find many women in power, not only in the state sector, but also in business. Women would as well be found in the highest places of society. The state of British women’s education is expected to be similar to the men, because there is comprehensive education available to all. We set out to explore the reality, which looks quite different.

The essay is divided in two parts: history and present. The first part, the development of women’s political rights and women’s involvement in the political scene before and after Second World War. In the first part is also a history of the women’s movement in Great Britain, its various phases.

The second part illustrates women’s situation in decision-making today. Political parties are important in the recruitment of decision-makers as well as sources of power. Women in the parties are discussed on a national level.

The second part also describes women’s position in the decision-making of the administrative bodies, on the national and local level as well as equal-opportunity policies that have been recently implemented. Along with positive action measures, gender-equality legislation is touched upon.

The Internet, various sites

Abrar, Stefania: Survey of Research on Women in Political, Economic and Social Decision-making in England

Banks, Olive: The Politics of British Feminism,1918-1970. Cambridge.1993.

Gaves, Pamela: Labour Women.Women in the British Working-Class Politics 1918 – 1939.-Cambridge.1994.

Jalland, Pat: Women, Marriage and Politics 1860-1914. Oxford.1986.

Lovenduski, Joni: The Rules of the Political Game: Feminism and Politics in Great Britain

Maynard, Mary & Purvis, June: Researching Women’s Lives from a Feminist Perspective

Michell, Juliet & Oakley, Ann: What is Feminism? Oxford.1986.

Smith,Harold: British Feminism in the Twentieth Century. London.1990.

Suffrages and women´s movement

Feminism and social movements emerged already in the 19th century. Some associations of women´s enfranchisement were formed in the late 1860.But the foundation of the Women´s Social and Potitical Union (WSPU) by Emmeline Punkhurst in 1903, and the introduction of a self-styled `militant`strategy in 1905 can be seen as an indication of a new temper and a growing turmoil among conventional women organisations and their constitutional tactics, which were e.g. petitioning, production of pamphlets and public meetings.The main aim of the WSPU members was to provoke publicity. When fines for attacking buildings, arson, vandalizing or window-smashing were left unpaid, the suffrages were arrested for a short prison sentence. From 1909 the WSPU prisoners restorted to a hunger-strike to protest against the government´s refusal to grant them political prisoner status. The answer was forciable feeding.It was the Government that could give the women the right to vote. But in the WSPU´s opinion "the natural enemy of the people was the government which did not maintain its own legitimacy". They had always tried to suppress the reform movement and to destroy ideas. Every militant act was only taken after some acts of repression by the government.At the end the WSPU leadership realized, that the Government of men was not be moved by the suffering of women. But nevertheless it was a big advance in the progress of women´s rigths.

Political wives during the women´s movement

The majority of wives in political families did not take interest in campaigns for vote for women at the beginning of the twenteeth century or were even against it. One of the reasons was, that they enjoyed the protection of class, wealth and privilege. Some political wives also possessed more important indirect influence than the vote could give them. Although, many women believed that they should have the right to vote, they thought that social and economic improvement of the working- class women was more fundamental.The first step to involve women in politics was at the end of the nineteenth centuary, when women´s auxiliary political associations, as for instance the Women´s Liberal Foundation and the Women´s Liberal Unionist Association, sought for women as unpaid party workers. This played an important role in politicizing women and served as a training ground in political activities and organisations. The role of political wives altered significantly during the 1910´s, when they were expected to participate activly in electioneering.The women´s movement was partly responsible for these changes, since they helped to educate upper class-women about the sufferage question.

Women in Parliament

In 1918 women 30 years and older granted the right to vote. But the government gave the vote as a reward for services rendered during the first wold war, not in recognition of their equal rights to citizenship. In 1919 women allowed to stand up for elections. In 1928 the vote for women was secured on the same terms as men.The years following the suffrage grant of 1918, working -class women surged into the Labour Party and political movements. An atmosphere of optimism and self-confidence was developed and the new women members expected to join the fight for class justice on equal terms with their male comrades. By 1922, one houndred thousend women had joined the women´s section of local labour parties, helping to create the local network of constituency parties. But at the decade progressed, it become clear that they lacked the necessary power to achieve an equal partnership. The expected surge of women into leading position in local government councils and in Parliament did not occure. The gap between candidacy of political women in local councils, in national executive comittees and in the parliament was extrem. Nomore than a handful of women were elected as delegrates to annual conferences. Only nine women became Labour Members of Parliament in the period between the wars. The small number of female MPs was completely ineffectual that even concering to women´s issues they depended on the male support and vote. Dicision-making power remained firmly in the hands of those who were already held it- the male members.

Women in Politics or Politics for Women

Women activists thought of themselves as social reformers. The main political focus insisted on domestic and female-centered concerns, for instance birth control, family allowances, more and better education and peace.On the issue of equal pay the unity among women MP was most obvious and forceful. Nevertheless did it take until 1970 with several stages till equal pay became law. Other topics, which interested especially women were for instance the Sex Disqualification in 1919 or the claim of Equal Guardianship Right in the 1920´s, as well as the Matrimonial Act in 1923 or Widows´Pension in 1925.

Aftter the Second World War

Right after the Second World War the people were mostly forced to concentrate on reconstruction and getting the life back to the normal. At that time Labour party had the political power. One positive action was that in 1946 equal pay for women was instituted in schools, local government and the civil service.

The Second Wave Feminism

The ‘second wave’ of the organised women’s movement started not until in the late 1960s, when the feminists began to analyse all the oppression and inequalities that was found in the society. Some improvement in the legislation happened. In 1967 Parliament passed Davis Steel’s Abortion Law Reform Act, The Equal Pay Act became a law in 1970 and The Sex Discrimination Act, which introduced the notion of equal opportunities into employment, education, and the provision of goods, facilities and services, in 1975.

Women were mostly politicised by different social movements, which were prepared to prioritize feminist issues. Important themes were for example free abortion, sexual rights, right to work and equal pay. Many feminists believed that attempts to join male elite only harm women, this view also came up in the last conference of Britain’s national women’s liberation in 1978. After that radical and socialist feminists divided and major tensions arose between the groups. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher (New Right) became a Prime Minister, the first woman prime minister in Europe, but although she provided a powerful female image, she did not promoted other women politicians.

From the 1980s to the 1990s

Neither the Labour Party nor the Conservative Parties paid much attention to women until the beginning of the 1980s. There have always been feminists in the Labour Party, but in the 1981 there was an increase in the number of women. They organised within the party and in 1981 set up the Women’s Action Committee, which launched a campaign to seek political equality. Throughout the 1980s progress toward increasing women’s representation was apparent in all the parties, and quotas for women on parliamentary shortlist were introduced, but altogether, there was considerably less activity in the Conservative Parties – the Tories had no policies to promote women’s situation in their 1987 election manifesto, and women made up only 6.6 percent of their candidates in comparison with 15 percent of Labour candidates. Labour Party was perhaps more open to women, because it had gone through a long period as the political opposition.

Even by the beginning of the 1990s clear patterns of women’s political involvement had not emerged. Most of the women’s organisations have skills and knowledge, but not yet the access to alter the political agenda. The new feminists have been able to enter the political arena, but it has cost a lot of time and personal sacrifices, and still their political influence as women is minimal. A lot of traditional recruitment practises exist, and among European societies Great Britain has most resisted including women in the political elite. To understand the political situation of British women, one should be able to handle gender, race and class together.

Women in Party Politic in United Kingdom

In United Kingdom the 1997 election was a real victory for women. Besides that Labour took power after 18 years, women broke records with the number of women elected ( 18 % ), as well as with the number of women Ministers ( 21 % ) and women Cabinet Ministers ( 23 % ). Two Sinn Fein members were also elected, but they refused to take seats. In the national Parliaments women`s proportions were 18.4 % for United Kingdom, 13 % for Northern Ireland, 37.3 % for Scotland and 40 % for Wales. The total number of women in Parliament has been increasing year after another: from 23 in 1983 to 41 in 1987 and 60 in 1992. Compared to other European countries the number of women has been relatively low, however. The proportion of women in the governmental elections was 29.6 % in United Kingdom ( 1999 ), 18.2 % in Northern Ireland ( 1998 ), 27.3 % in Scotland ( 1999 ) and 44.4 % in Wales ( 1999 ). In 1997 the 658 members in House of Commons were directly elected and women constituted 18.36 % of the seats. House of Commons`s President is a woman, Betty Boothroyd. 658 single-member constituencies were divided; United Kingdom had 529, Scotland 72, Wales 40 and Northern Ireland 18 constituencies. Women`s portion of House of Lords´s 666 members was 15.62 %. Five of United Kingdom`s 22 political parties use regulation promoting women`s participation. Labour Party`s quota was declared unlawful in 1996, but the policy is abandoned. Liberal Democrats reserve one third of seats on party committees for men and one third for women. For local or national elections each short list must observe the same proportion of at least one third men and one third women. Northern Ireland women`s Coalition`s members are almost all female ( 95 % ), and they use quotas as well. Sinn Fein covers whole of island of Ireland, and at least one third of places on all committees and National Executive are reserved for women. Sinn Fein`s quotapolicy encourages women to stand in local and national elections although there is no written policy about the issue. Social Democratic and Labour Party reserve 40 % of seats on Party Executive for women. If sufficient women are not elected, the number is made up by nomination. SDLP has no policy for selection or election in local or national elections. When asked different party members, there is overwhelming support among both sexes for increasing female representation. The problem is, which reform measures would be most effective within the context of the British political system. In the 1980`s and 1990`s parties started to search for methods that would facilitate women`s participation in political sphere. The Labour Party members came up with three proposals: there should be party training programmes for women, better childcare facilities within Parliament and changing the hours of Parliamentary sittings. A majority of Conservatives supported these measures as well. Labour Party members and candidates also favoured the use of positive quotas and financial support to women candidates, but these measures found little or no support among Conservatives. Generally, Labour Party promoted women more succesfully than Conservative Party. Labour women organized to increase women`s representation more forcefully and their actions have influenced the official party policy. Conservative women in turn were not so eager to raise demands for promoting women candidates.At the higher level there are fewer women and one of the explanations has been that women tend to be less politically confident than men. Nowadays the gender gap is not so huge, because the public atmosphere tolerates women`s participation in politics to a larger extent. There has been changes in political culture as well, that increase women`s opportunities to seek elected office. If the final selection is left to local selectorate, there is not much the national organizations can do to promote women`s representation. The number of women in the Local Councils in United Kingdom was 6164 ( 26.4 % ) out of 23325. In United Kingdom women are better represented in local than national level. One factor is the majoritarian voting system, that does not guarantee relativity to same extent that proportional representation. In the European level 21 women ( 24.1 % ) from United Kingdom were elected members of European Parliament in the June 1999 election. Their share was a little less ( ca. 6 % ) than the average percentage of women elected from other EU-countries. There are about 238 women in United Kingdom who are working in European, national and regional levels as central decision-makers. 173 women were nearly all representatives of House of Commons. 47 women operate in Scotland, all of them are representatives in the Scottish Parliament. 14 of the women are from Northern Ireland and they mainly work in Parliament Buildings. All of the four women holding the desicion-making position in Wales are in National Association for Wales. The imperatives of internal party politics are a major factor in the success women have had in getting and securing party and parliamentary positions. Although women`s position in politics has become more powerful over years, there still is a lot to do to get actual equal opportunities for women. There has been discussion about many ideas and methods that could improve women`s position in the higher levels of politics, too. Parties can do a great deal to promote women`s representation in the public eye, for example. Besides having quotas or rules for the participation of women on their electoral lists, political parties could implement awareness raising measures, too. To encourage male and female voters to vote for female candidates, governments and non-governmental organizations could use awareness campaigns as well. It would be important to develop networks of women in decision-making positions. Women`s access ( as visible contributors to the desicion-making processes ) to traditional male dominated networks should be improved, we should create equal opportunities in all sectors of the labour market to facilitate the access of women to decision-makingpositions in the economic hierarchies. Legislation must be developed to strengthen women`s participation in politics generally. These measures might contribute the possibility to the full participation of women in decision-making, both quantitatively as well as qualitatively, thus giving opportunities to integrate women`s talents and expertise into the policy process.

Women in Administration: The National Level

In the lower house of the Parliament, the share of women after the 1997 election was 18,4%, which is a large increase from 1992’s 9,2%. In spite of the increase women are still severely under- represented. Of the government, 29 of the 98 members (29,6%) are female.

In the administration, there are 45 000 places, of which women have 19% (1987). On the top three grades of the civil service, 10% are held by women (1995). Women are concentrated in traditionally "female" areas of administration, such as social services. Some departments of central administration ("soft" departments) have women in important places, but women are absent in areas of government such as taxation and treasury. Horizontal segregation is visible in the concentration of women in certain areas, generally the lowest levels of hierarchy (eg. working as secretaries rather than heads of department or in technical jobs) and in regional and local rather than central administrative bodies.

-The local level

There is little information on women in leading positions on the local level, but the percentage is according to one study (mid 1980’s) much less than one per cent. There is evidence of vertical and horizontal segregation, as women in local administration are at the bottom of the salary scales and non-existent in high offices.

-Women in business

The private sector has even a lower representation of women than the public sector. Members (about 70 000) of the British Institute of Management are middle and senior managers, of them women only 3,6% (1989). Of the senior managers of the 100 top companies 6,7% are women, only three of the 100 companies had (in 1990) women on their executive boards. No company had a female top executive.Women in business work mostly in services and small companies. The public sector and education account for 27% of female workforce. There is a stability in the horizontal and vertical segregation.Professional women are also centered at the bottom of the ladder: 40% of schoolteachers but only 3% of university professors are women. Of doctors are women 54% in general practice, 10% in hospitals and 3% work as researchers in universities.

-Positive action:

During the 1980’s and 1990’s there have been several programs to train women as decision-makers and executives, by companies and universities. One government campaign in the 80’s was aimed in interesting women in engineering and science, for instance.

The EU plan of 1994 to correct imbalances in the participation of men and women in politics is enacted by government monitoring. The Equal Opportunies Unit of the Cabinet Office coordinates the process.

Opportunity 2000, started in 1991 is a plan to encourage women’s participation in organisations. Companies participating are to set targets to the woman employees and encourage them to pursue them. Opportunity 2000 provides information and networking services. In 1996 over a quarter of the working population were in member companies.

There is no unified childcare policy in Great Britain. The area has traditionally been considered a private matter, which has led to fragmented policies. Some policy measures have been made, like tax allowances for single and working mothers of low income. Still the government does not seem to be willing to create a national strategy. The situation is better in the public than the private sector.

In the civil service some progressive gender policies have been adopted, some parts, such as the National Health Service, have joined Opportunity 2000. Most local authorities have equal- opportunity policies, but there has been little success in abolishing vertical and horizontal segregation.

-Equal-opportunity legislation

1970 Equal Pay Act and 1975 Sex Discrimination Act are the core of Britain’s gender legislation. They prohibit direct and indirect discrimination in employment, education, etc. The laws apply to both men and women. Yet the Sex Discrimination Act permits discrimination in favor of women. The role of the law of the European Community has been substantial for enforcing equal rights.Still British legislation on equality issues is fragmented and its impact in securing equal treatment has been arguable.

Our aim in this assignment was to make an informative description of the history and present situation in Great Britain and to form a good basis for deeper research in the subject.

It is important to be aware of the historical development, because otherwise one can’t understand the current situation. Women in the United Kingdom had a lot of problems in the beginning of the 20^th century. Throughout the engagement of the suffrages and other women´s movement and through the grant to vote, women got the possibility to influence in social and political life. Women achieved a large number in local parties and comittees, but female members were very scarce concerning leading positiones in national comittees or in the parliament, so that they were mostly dependent on the male support. The second wave feminism started the discussion about the different recruitment practises, and some development has been achieved since then. The legislation has been renewed and more women have entered the political arena, but the process has been exhaustingly slow and laborious.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s parties have tried more actively to find out different methods that would facilitate women’s participation in the political sphere. Labour has promoted women more succesfully and when Labour (1997) took the power, records were broken with the number of women elected (18%), but it is still few in the European context. Women are better represented in the local level (Local Counsils :26%) and in the European Parliament (24%), but the share of women is by no means too much. Furthermore, the same situation is also to be noticed in the administration, where women are besides all this, generally working in the lowest levels of the hierarchy.

We expected that women in Great Britain would have had remarkably more power in the society than they have. It seems strange that in such a highly developed country, the question of equality is still a big problem. As early as in 1918 women were granted the right to vote, but after that the progress hasn’t been too flattering. Although in the recent years women’s position in the society and in the politics has become more powerful, there is still a lot to do to get actual equal opportunities for women. Compared to other European countries the number of women in politcs has been relatively low, and also in the private sector women are severely under-represented in the leading positions.