“Sexism is endemic in Westminster”

As our select semipublic representatives, you’d think MPs could take place with respect at all times.

But as accusations abound just well-nigh the alleged improper behaviour of Lord Rennard, so to a greater extent women come forward to reveal their experiences of the sexism they faced, representing their electorate in the UK’s Houses of Parliament.

“ awakenism is autochthonic in Westminster”, Cathy Newman, Channel 4 news presenter and cause political correspondent  remarked  recently.

It is a story that is sadly truly familiar to many an(prenominal) women in the workplace.

At the present time, up to five women are infrastood to macrocosm utterance to officers from Scotland Yard in connection with complaints against Rennard, the former swelled Democrat chief executive.

But many more permit now come forward to secernate incidents of sexism that Brid film Harris, former special advisor to the deputy prime minister, describes as ‘depressingly familiar’.

In an extended feature by the Guardian, which enlarge experiences from a number of female politicians past and present, Labour MP Joan Ruddock described the routine sexual objectification of women.

“When I was speaking in an army debate about Northern Ireland, single Tory said, in a voice that could be heard across the chamber, “I would strip search you any day”. No one pulled him up,” she said.

” That’s how they were used to behaving.”

Labour’s Oona King recalled similarly sexualised comments being openly shouted in the House of Commons.

“When we arrived in 1997, it was institutionally sexist. When women would stand up in the chamber, men on the new(prenominal) side would be shouting “Melons! Melons!” while making extend to gestures.”

However unacceptable this kind of sexualised catcalling is, a more insidious and morose side is revealed by former Observer political editor in chief Gaby Hinsliff: “Women MPs would swap notes like “don’t get stuck late in an office with so and so”, and take to task women off working with certain MPs – known as “not safe in cabs”.

Similarly, Edwina Currie explained: “There were always deuce or three men who were notorious.

“You would see them getting into a lift and you would wait for the next lift.

“You didn’t want an lineage and you didn’t want to find that when you got to your floor, you were pushing their hand from under your skirt.”

When Blair’s Labour government came to power in 1997, great hundred women entered Westminster and it had been hoped that this would be a tipping point ending to the commonplace misogynistic sexism.

The sobriquet “Blair’s Babes”, however, is indicative of the way they were actually greeted when they arrived.

An academic pack which has recorded the experiences of 83 of those MPs from the day that they entered Parliament has revealed a bleak picture of widespread vulgar abuse combine with patronising hostility.

When female MPs weren’t being ‘ chimerical’ for secretaries, they were expected to stick to ‘traditionally female’ issues, such as health and education and stay away from the “big guns” both(prenominal) literally and metaphorically speaking.

Glenda Jackson recalled being told by a Conservative MP to “stick to what you know” after speaking on the issue of defence – a subject that that men are qualified to debate on, right?

There were game hopes that “Blair’s Babes” would lead the way for a modernisation of the decrepit orthodoxies operating within Parliament, but the numbers of women MPs have steadily dropped since then.

In Westminster, only 144 of the 648 Members of Parliament are women.

Of those, the Liberal Democrats can claim just s nevertheless.

And the Counting Women In 2013 Sex and Power report found that Britain has fallen behind Iran to sixtieth in the league table of female political power.

We were thirty-third in 2001.

But who can blame women for being reticent about entering this kind of domain when sexist comments have even emanated from the highest echelons of the House?

David Cameron, of course, notoriously described Nadine Dorries MP as “ cross” and told Angela Eagles MP to “calm down dear“.

Yet while sexism in this workplace should not be a greater ramp than that in the media or the legal system, it is.

Jacqui Hunt, London director of the internationalist human rights organisation Equality Now, pointed out: “As elected public representatives, it is essential that MPs communicate with respect and self-worth at all times.

“It is their responsibility to help eliminate sooner than reflect harmful gender stereotypes.”

Sadly, however, this is something that many of our “elected public representatives” need reminding about.

 

Materials taken from Womens Views on News