Comparative Analysis of Women in State and Local Politics in the United States of America and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Although not a numerical minority, women have faced with the same kinds of constraints of racial minorities in their quest for equal political opportunities both in the United States of America and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Women have had to wage political struggles – in the courts and the legislatures, as well as in the streets and the forums of public opinion – for the right to vote and to be elected to public office. Feminist Movements such as Women Social Movements are movements for social, cultural, political and economic equality of men and women. It is a campaign against gender inequalities and it strives for equal rights for women. Feminism can be also defined as the right to enough information available to every single woman so that she can make a choice to live a life which is not discriminatory and which works within the principles of social, cultural, political and economic equality and independence (Kali, 2010).

In the United States of America, women activists known as suffragettes sponsored a number of similar conventions and undertook extensive speaking tours in an attempt to foster support for their cause. The suffragettes moved into high gear and grew more militant – holding massive rallies and demonstrations in Washington, D.C. and other cities, staging boycotts and hunger strikes, destroying property, chaining themselves to public buildings, and carrying out other acts of civil disobedience after 15^th amendment to constitution granted voting rights to the freed male slaves but not to women. During the outbreak of World War I, the suffragettes turned their energies to the war effort and in 1920 after the war; Congress approved the 19^th Amendment granting American Women the right to vote (Left & Levine, 1997, p. 444).

For the case of Great Britain, the campaign for universal women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland moved into high gear with the turn of the century. Led by Emmeline Pankhurst, Lydia Baker and others, mobs of suffragettes disrupted Parliament, destroyed property, staged hunger strikes and used other militant tactics to draw attention to their demands. Following the World War I, large numbers of these women in Great Britain turned their energies to the war effort – driving ambulances, working in munitions planes, and performing many other traditionally male duties. When the war ended in 1918, somewhat in recognition of their tremendous contribution to the war effort, Parliament granted voting rights to women over the age 30. In 1928, suffrage was extended to all women over 21, giving them complete political equality with men (Left & Levine, 1997, p. 429).

What progress has been made after storming the statehouses and national legislatures? Where do women stand now in State and Local Governments? These questions will be the heart of this paper, Comparative Analysis of Women in State and Local Politics in the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Table 1.1 Percentages of Women in Statewide Elective Offices and Legislature

Source: Center for American Women and Politics, 2010

In the United States of America, Women have fared somewhat better in State Elective and Legislatures than they have in Congress. Table 1.1 shows the percentage of women in Statewide Elective Office and Legislature. From the year 1979 until 1997, there has been a steady increase in Women Getting Elected in Statewide Elective Office from 11% to 25.4%. However, starting in 1999 until the year 2000, the number has decreased from 27.6% to 22.5%. On the other hand, the number of women seated in State Legislatures is steadily increasing from 10% in 1979 to 24.5% in 2010.

Table 1.2 Women Candidates for Governors 1970 - 2008 Major Party Nominees

Source: Center for American Women and Politics, 2008

As we can see in the Chart, a total of 113 women have been Nominees of Major Parties in US for the Office of the Governor since 1974 of which 34 were able to win the Major Party Nominations. However, Only 32 women have ever been elected governor. In 2010, 71 women hold statewide executive offices across the country which includes the position of the governors, lieutenant governors, Attorney General, Secretary of State and among others; women hold 22.5% of the 325 available positions (Center for American Women and Politics 2010, 1)

As of August 2010, among the 100 largest cities in the US, 7 had women mayors. Of the 249 mayors of US Cities with populations 100,000 and over, 33 or 13.3% were women. Of the 1156 mayors of US Cities with populations 30,000 and above, 202 or 17.5% were women (Center for American Women and Politics 2010, 2).

The Number of American Women in State Legislatures nationwide has increased slowly but steadily over the past decades. However, there is an uneven distribution across state legislatures. Like for example, in 1995 women constituted only 4.3 percent of the state legislature in Alabama but nearly 40 percent of the legislature in Washington. Another example would be from 1964-1994 wherein women were most numerous in legislatures in the Northeast and the West and least numerous in the South and the mid-Atlantic region (Thomas & Wilcox, 1998, p. 104)

In the General Election is Great Britain in 2010, there were a total of 3223 candidates of which 2488 (77) were males and 735 (23%) were females. From this data, we can see a large difference between men and women running for public offices in Great Britain. British women have fared slightly better in the Local Government. In 1985 the proposition of women in county, district and municipal councils was 19%. By 1993 it had risen to 25% (Left & Levine, 1997, p. 430).

	Year	Women	Men	Total	% women
England	1997	5614	14591	20205	27.8
Scotland	1999	276	946	1222	22.6
Wales	1997	259	1013	1272	20.4
Northern Ireland	2000	91	582	673	15.6

Table 1.3 Numbers of Men and Women Local Councilors

Source: Women’s Political Participation in the UK

Table 1.2 shows the percentage of women elected into the different Local Councils in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England has the highest percentage with 27.8% while Northern Ireland got the lowest with only 15.6%.

	Women	Men	% of Women
Northern Ireland City Councilors	29	101	22
Northern Ireland Borough Councilors	9	51	15
Northern Ireland County Councilors	122	632	16

Table 1.4 Breakdown by Gender in 2004 UK Elections

Source: Center for Advance of Women in Politics

Table 1.3 shows the breakdown by Gender in the different UK Council Elections in 2004. Comparing it with the percentage of Women Elected in Northern Ireland in 2000, there has been a small increase in number of women in Local Councils. Northern Ireland has a better percentage of women getting elected in City Councils with 22% while it has lower percentage both in Borough and County Councils with 15% and 16% respectively. The 122 (16 per cent) women elected to Ireland county councils in 2004 was only a slight improvement over the figures from 1999 but almost double the number elected in 1985. In total, 151 women were elected to the 884 counties and city council seats, giving women a 17 per cent share in local government.

As we can see from the numbers, women seated in public offices are increasing. However, women still are underrepresented in State and Local Politics though they were already granted the right to vote and be elected to public office decades ago. There are several factors which can explain the small number of women winning seats in State and Local Elections as compared to men. I would divide it into three stages: 1) Deciding to run 2) Getting Selected by Political Parties and 3) Getting selected by the Voters.

The first stage consists of a person deciding that she wants to run for elected office. Between 1972 and 1992, women made up only 6 percent of gubernatorial candidates in USA (Wisconsin Women’s Council 2007, 1). In the Lake Study in USA, women are less than half likely (8% to 18% respectively) to have considered running for office. Within the recruitment period, only 36% had ever considered public office (Thomas and Wilcox 1998, 22). If women in one state are more likely to run for state legislative office, it seems likely that more women in that state will be elected.

Another example would be the case of fewer Conservative women candidates and MPs in Great Britain considering that that women are the backbone of Conservative Party and play a major role as voters, members and local leaders. This is because fewer women apply as candidates to the political party (Lovenduski & Norris, 1993, p. 57).

Another factor could be the size of the state. Women may be relatively more likely to seek office in states where districts are small, thereby allowing more efficient personal campaigning rather than other forms of campaign which costs more money. Generally, women earn less than men in America. Thus, they will consider the costs of campaigning and this may be one of the barriers to entry into elected politics. (Lovenduski and Norris 1993, 299)

Second stage is to get selected by the party. The process of nominating candidates is one of the critical roles played by political parties. Party Leaders consider the Viability of these Women Candidates. Under any system an important consideration for parties is presenting candidates that the party believes will get the most out of their vote. If certain types of candidates are seen as a burden, gatekeepers will shy away from nominating them.

Thinking about women’s electability differs across states. In Iowa, for example, both parties have extensive recruitment efforts and permanent, paid staff. Many respondents in both Alabama and Iowa including party leaders and staff deem that some voters are less likely to support women candidates than men candidates which gives them a net electoral disadvantage (Sanbonmatsu 2003, 42).Thus, the candidate recruitment process means that party leader evaluations of potential candidates can shape who in the end runs for Public Office.

The Parties have even been viewed as more of an impediment to women’s achieving elective office than the antagonism of voters. Examples of this are the experiences of Harriet Woods in 1982 and of Betty Tamposi in 1988. Woods was remarked that when she entered the Missouri Democratic Primary, the state Democratic leaders discarded her because she was too liberal, too urban and even worse, a woman. Tamposi was scolded by her state’s US Senator Gordon Humphrey to stay home with her children (Lovenduski and Norris 1993, 293).

The size of the party also affects the probability of Women getting nominated. Women may have more opportunities for office in the minority party than in the majority party.In the Iowa, Alabama and Massachusetts, the parties were often thought to have comparable records.However, some respondents argued that there are more opportunities for women candidates in the minority party because there are more openings in general.This seems to be the case in Massachusetts and Iowa, but not Alabama (Sanbonmatsu 2003, 43).There may be less intraparty rivalry for the nomination in the minority party than in the majority party.

Party rules and norms will affect the way in which a party carries out the actual process of nomination. Some degree of affirmative action has been practiced within the UK parties for more than 10 years. The use of such action in selection of candidates for elected office began with the Labour Party in 1988. In the United Kingdom, only the Labour Party has used candidate quotas requiring that a certain percentage of parliamentary candidates must be women. Other parties particularly the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru have adopted quotas at an earlier stage in the selection process, most usually through shortlisting (Squires & Jones, 2001, p. 5).

We can see the positive results of the action taken by the Labour Party at the 1997 general election in terms of the percentage of women candidates who were successful in being elected. There has been a striking disparity between the Labour Party, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Labour nominated 158 women, 101 of whom won (63.9 per cent); the Conservatives 67 women of whom 13 were successful (19.4 per cent); the Liberal Democrats 142 women of whom 3 were successful (2 per cent). Nomination was a key barrier in the case of the Conservative Party: just 10 per cent of their candidates were female (Squires & Jones, 2001, p. 3).

Lastly, one of the most widely accepted factors which explain differences in the representation of women is the electoral system. Comparative studies suggest three factors in electoral systems affect women’s representation, namely, in order of priority; the ballot structure (whether party list or single candidate), the district magnitude (number of seats per district) and the degree of proportionality (allocation of vote to seats) (Lovenduski & Norris, 1993, p. 313).

Because incumbents and community leaders are disproportionately male, these criteria can hurt women. A study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) found further that almost three-quarters of incumbents in Congressional races in the United States received more than 60 percent of the vote against a challenger. As a result, access to these high level elected offices is slow.IWPR also found that “women’s likelihood of winning influences their decisions to become candidates - even more so, it seems, than it does for men (Wisconsin Women’s Council, 4).

Proportional Representation and Adoption of a List System was obliged to be observed in the elections in Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and European Parliament since it was anticipated that it would boost the representation of women. However, it never turned out that way. The explanation for this is that some of the parties winning seats in the Scottish, Welsh and European elections did not place women sufficiently highly on their lists (Squires & Jones, 2001, p. 4).

Even though women were already granted the right to vote and be elected into office, women’s movement should not end in there. Women’s Movements must keep on fighting for Equal Representation not only in State and Local Politics but in National Politics as well. One of the most imperative factors that can help boost the number of women seriously considering running for office is the degree to which a country has a women’s movement or organizations focusing particularly on women’s issues. Women’s organizations offer women with experience in public settings, help put up their self-confidence and give a support base if a woman decides to run for office. A woman who can draw on resources from a woman’s organization to help support her campaign is more likely to run and is more likely to be seen as a viable candidate by the party apparatus. Parties committed to gender equality should make certain equal access to incoming resources for both women and men and allocate a particular amount of resources for women candidates as a positive action.

To resolve the predicament in the selection process, the women legislators, women leaders, and women’s organizations should smooth the improvement of the election of women and help augment their chances of getting nominated by their political parties.Women may be more likely than men to enlist women to run:they are more likely than men to know women and they are more likely to yearn for more women in office. Women within the legislature can be of help by raising the concern of the recruitment of women candidates and may shape who is recruited.Women’s networks and organizations can themselves recruit women or channel names to party leaders.

Another considerable political factor also which could have an effect on the number of women in the selection process is the use of quotas for women. Quotas can be set at diverse levels and can be implemented either by law or by internal party rules. France has implemented quotas by law. These were introduced for local, regional and European elections and were used for the first time in March 2001. The number of women representatives in the cities increased from 22 per cent to 47.5 per cent following the first elections. Political Parties in Germany, Sweden, Australia and Spain also implement Quotas for Women (Squires & Jones, 2001, p. 2). Political parties must have the dedication to revolutionize, take affirmative action such as trainings and include the use of quotas, zipping and twinning if the existing selection process employed by them discriminates women.

Last but not least, to guarantee votes for women’s representation, of particular significance is the electoral system. The use of proportional representation (PR), multi-member constituencies and party lists were found to be more favorable to higher levels of female representation than majoritarian electoral systems (Squires & Jones, 2001, p. 2). The Government and Political Parties too must make certain that women are not discriminated against in the electoral system of candidate election. Nonetheless, the focus to increase women’s representation should not be exclusively on the electoral system in view of the fact that there could also be other internal factors to the political parties which impinges on the chances of women getting elected to Public Office. An example of this would be the case of Great Britain wherein they employed Proportional Representation but did not get the anticipated results (Squires & Jones, 2001, p. 5). Political Parties should also put into action a variety of strategies to amplify the level of representation of women in Elections. One method of achieving higher representation for women is zipping. This can be applied within a party list system whereby women and men are placed alternatively on the party list of candidates. Another constructive action would be twinning. The Labour Party adopted twinning for the constituency seats, a system that can be applied within a constituency majoritarian system. Neighboring seats are twinned taking into account their winnability. The man and woman with the most votes are selected and an arrangement is reached as to who should have which seat.

With all these problems identified and solutions I have suggested, it is the Government of both the United States of America and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland which should concentrate on this concern on Women being underrepresented not only in the National Level but also in State and Local Politics. Once the law is changed, parties should be encouraged to implement forms of positive actions in order to increase the number of female candidates they pick.

Equal Representation of Women in State and Local Politics matters so much for numerous reasons. First, a government that is democratically structured cannot be truly justifiable if all citizens from all races and classes and both sexes do not have a potential interest in and an opportunity for serving their community and nation. Second, if all citizens are seen to have an equal opportunity to involve them in the decision making that affects their lives, there is greater probability that the polity will be secured and that citizens will have a rational degree of confidence and support for it. It is recognized that the balanced involvement of women and men in the decision making procedures should be a building block in achieving equality in a strictly democratic society. Only when the gender balance of our national legislature reflects more precisely than at present the composition of society is there likely to be genuine incorporation of equality issues into government policy making. Third, women comprise a big pool of gifted leaders, and their abilities, points of view, and ideas can only be utilized by a society that selects its leaders from among both men and women.