Electoral Reform Society report into women’s representation in politics

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Today sees the launch of  “Sex and Power 2014: Who runs Britain?” which shows just how little progress has been made on gender equality in the UK’s political institutions and suggests what the UK’s governments, parliaments, political parties and media should do about it.

Among the report’s key findings is that the House of Commons has slipped from 59th (in early 2010) to 65th (today) in the world ranking of parliaments for gender equality.

Just 22.7% of our MPs are women. And whilst the figure for some of the devolved parliaments is better – 41.7% of Welsh Assembly members are women, for example – the situation amongst political journalists is even worse. Over 91% of print and broadcast political editors are male.

Today’s report makes six recommendations for what must happen to change this situation. It was written by Counting Women In, a coalition of organisations including the Electoral Reform Society, the Centre for Women & Democracy, the Fawcett Society, the Hansard Society and Unlock Democracy.

Read the report (pdf)

Visit the Electoral Reform Society website