Following the 2005 General Election, women MPs numbered 128 – 19.7% of all MPs. However, there were significant differences between the parties in the number of women elected. Ie: 98 Labour MPs, 17 Conservative MPs and 10 Liberal Democrat MPs were women. There were only 2 minority ethnic female MPs and both of them were Labour MPs.

Paradoxically it was the Conservatives who gave Britain its first (and, so far, only) female prime minister in Margaret Thatcher. Currently, the office of Home Secretary – one of the highest in the UK – is occupied by Theresa May. No woman since Thatcher has held such a high position in government.

Why so few women MPs?

In their 2007 book ‘Women in Parliament’ Sarah Childs & Rosie Campbell examine the reasons for the low numbers of women MPs in the House of Commons. They focus on the way parliamentary candidates are selected.

In the UK each political party selects its own parliamentary candidate. All political parties have more male applicants than female. This would seem to indicate that fewer women than men want to become MPs. However, all parties have enough females to fill half their winnable seats. If a party selected female candidates to stand for election in safe seats, this would ensure equal representation of women and men among the new intakes of MPs.

Childs & Campbell note that women tend not to contest winnable seats. This suggests a lack of demand among political parties for female candidates. It also suggests discrimination against women by the local panels that select candidates in the constituencies.

The Labour Party used some all-women short lists in 1997 and 2005. This guaranteed an increase in the number of females elected as MPs  – positive discrimination – because women were selected for the party’s winnable seats. Childs & Campbell argue that female candidates in the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties were more likely to be selected as candidates in unwinnable and less winnable seats.