Who Runs the World? Gender and Politics in the UK and Beyond
| Date | 01 September 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905817726904 |
| Author | Meryl Kenny |
| Published date | 01 September 2017 |
30 POLITICAL INSIGHT • SEPTEMBER 2017
‘Record-breaking’,
‘unprecedented’, ‘historic’
– these were the headlines
after the snap 2017 UK
General Election. The articles attached to
these celebratory proclamations heralded
the fact that more female MPs had been
elected than ever before, with many
highlighting that the ‘200 women’ mark
had been breached for the first time, along
with rising numbers of black and minority
ethnic (BME) and LGBTQ MPs, as well as
MPs with disabilities. As the dust settled in
the aftermath of the election result, many
of the key power players left standing (at
time of writing) were women – including
Britain’s second-ever female Prime Minister,
Theresa May, DUP leader Arlene Foster, SNP
leader and Scottish First Minister, Nicola
Sturgeon, and Scottish Conservative leader,
Ruth Davidson.
Do these gains signal a potential fracturing
of the political glass ceiling? Looking past
the headlines, the House of Commons is still
unrepresentative. Despite the increasingly
female face of political leadership in
the United Kingdom, gains in women’s
representation have been incremental overall
Who Runs the World?
Gender and Politics in
the UK and Beyond
For the first time, there are more than 200 female MPs in the House of
Commons. Yet while the cracks in the glass ceiling are widening, UK
politics still lags far behind on gender equality. Meryl Kenny reports.
(with signicant party dierences), and
gender parity remains a long way from reach.
Meanwhile, beyond the UK, global progress
on women’s representation continues to
be slow. Men from majority racial, ethnic,
and religious groups continue to dominate
electoral politics in most countries – almost
80 per cent of parliamentarians worldwide
are men. And while the number of countries
that have had a female leader continue to
grow, women are still a comparatively small
‘club’ at the top, with only 18 female prime
ministers and presidents currently in oce
around the world.
Nor has progress on women’s
representation been straightforward. In 2016,
Brazilian President Dilma Rousse and South
Korean President Park Geun-hye were ousted
from oce after corruption scandals. The
Women in National Parliaments
Percentage in Single or Lower House as of 1 June 2017
RWANDA
61.3%
BOLIVIA
53.1%
CUBA
48.9%
ICELAND
47.6%
NICARAGUA
45.7%
SWEDEN
43.6%
SENEGAL
42.7%
MEXICO
42.6%
FINLAND
42%
S. AFRICA
41.5%
UK
32%
© Press Association
Political Insight Sept2017.indd 30 21/07/2017 11:58
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