Jac Larner In 2003, the National Assembly for Wales made waves worldwide as the first legislature to achieve 50:50 gender balance. Having shown such swift progress on equal representation, the Assembly has enjoyed a reputation as an institution more progressive – and representative – than Westminster. Yet in the years since, we’ve already begun to […]
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Wales gets exciting: some comments on the impasse in Cardiff Bay…
Laura McAllister Last week’s National Assembly election was a strange one alright. The campaign was dominated by UK-wide issues like the Tata Steel crisis and party leadership rows in London until almost its last gasp. Then, at one level at least, the results that came in last Friday morning looked as if nothing much had actually […]
Gender on the agenda? Women AMs in the Fifth Assembly
Laura McAllister Wales and its democratic institution has enjoyed an unexpected and unprecedented global reputation for equality. The four Assemblies since 1999 have never had fewer than 25 women (out of 60). Consistently above 40% female representation is remarkable for a country that, prior to last year’s General Election, had only ever elected thirteen female […]
Welsh and Scottish political representation
Diana S. Stirbu Westminster can learn a lot about gender equality by looking at Welsh and Scottish levels of political representation. The assumption that today’s British society provides a level playfield for men and women is shared by many young women who genuinely cannot relate to the idea of gender inequality; at least not in […]
Winning Women’s Votes: What’s on offer for women in #GE2015?
Claire Annesley and Francesca Gains As the UK party manifestos are launched this week, ahead of a tightly fought election battle, pay close attention to the direct pitch that all parties are making to women in an attempt to capture their votes. They do this for good reason: women form 52% of the electorate, so […]
Gender Gaps and Conservative Women: Sitting to the Left of their Men
Rosie Campbell and Sarah Childs There has been plenty of media copy over this Parliament apparently documenting the Conservative party’s trouble in keeping the woman voter happy. Many of these stories are on rather shaky ground.1 The gender gap in voting intention in the UK is far from that observed in the US; where more […]