‘Where are the women?' asks the Hansard Society

No female MPs on vital Cabinet Committees

Ahead of this afternoon’s backbench business debate to mark international women’s day, the Hansard Society has compiled a Briefing Paper, Women at the Top 2011: Politics and public life in the UK highlighting some current issues and statistics.

Key facts include:

• The machinery of government has been reorganised by the Coalition government but there are no women on the new Coalition Committee or the Coalition Operation & Strategic Planning Group
• Of 184 Cabinet Committee and Sub-Committee seats, just 32 are occupied by women
• There are no women at all on the Economic Affairs Committee, the Banking Reform Committee and the Public Expenditure Committee

Women at the Top 2011: Politics and public life also provides facts and figures on women’s role in last year’s general election, the prospects for women’s representation in the forthcoming elections to the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales.

In addition, Women at the Top 2011: Politics and public life examines the likely impact on women of the ongoing parliamentary and constitutional reform agenda and highlights the fact that the recommendations in the 2010 Speaker’s Conference report on parliamentary representation have not been acted on.

Dr Ruth Fox, Director of the Hansard Society’s Parliament & Government programme and joint author of Women at the Top 2011: Politics and public life, commented:

‘When the country is facing enormous economic challenges it is very worrying that women are completely absent from the Cabinet committees that are making vital decisions about economic and banking reform and public expenditure. How the economy is shaped for the future will impact on the lives of women across the country yet the voice of women is not being heard around the decision-making table.’

For further information, contact Virginia Gibbons on 020 7438 1225 or mediaprog@hansard.lse.ac.uk

Editors’ Notes

• The Hansard Society is the UK's leading independent, non-partisan political research and education charity. We aim to strengthen parliamentary democracy and encourage greater public involvement in politics.