The general election in the United Kingdom is coming up on Dec. 12, and an alarming number of women have announced they are stepping down from Parliament. According to a poll conducted in September, there are currently 211 women in the House of Commons. Standing at an all-time high of 32 percent, it’s a hopeful number. As of late, though, there is fear that these numbers may begin to slide backward. The question becomes, why?
It can be argued that in today’s current state of affairs, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the government and corporate chains to explicitly deploy sexist mechanisms in the employment process. However, the males in Parliament are working within the system to push women out. They allow women to have a place in the House, but they are simultaneously making it such a miserable experience that women feel inclined to quit. This makes it appear as though the reason more women are not in government is because of their own personal choices, and it pushes the blame off of the patriarchy.
The leader of the Women’s Equality Party, Mandu Reid, said, “Politics has become a hostile environment for women–in which we are harassed, demeaned and threatened as a matter of course. Not only does this affect the individual women targeted, but it also contributes to a culture in which women’s voices are not welcomed or respected.”
The impact of these toxic settings ranges from women MP’s such as Heidi Allen installing panic alarms into her home to Jo Cox getting murdered on her way to meet with constituents by a politically motivated gunman claiming, “Britain first.” Politics has always been a coldhearted field but these women are facing abuse and unbearable working conditions. To add fuel to the fire, women in Parliament also suffer from the lack of maternity leave, extraneous work hours and as MP Maria Miller puts it, “…[it’s] like working in the 18th century.”
Westminster has a terrible reputation when it comes to women’s treatment. The root of the problem is grounded in Parliament itself, making it increasingly challenging for these practices to be abolished. Sexual harassment cases are not uncommon within their government as one in five women working at Westminster have filed a report. More and more so, men are leaving Parliament when they retire, while women are leaving when they have at least 10 more years worth of work ahead of them and opting to pursue another path where they can avoid such abuse.
Parliament has made it unrealistic and unappealing for women to join the House, and this sets a dangerous precedent that normalizes homogeneous bodies of men dictating and creating the framework that society functions within.
It is not enough to merely enable women to attain a position that has been male-dominated throughout history. Rather, the focus should be on changing the perceived beliefs about women in society. Any governmental modes of conduct set without this are going to be useless, serving as “lip service” to appease marginalized groups but failing to facilitate major changes.
We cannot hope to break this framework without first changing how its creators perceive the picture of society within.
