Glass Ceiling for Women on Councils

As it's International Women's Day I thought it would be interesting to look at gender balance on our local councils:

Hedge End Town Council  

Women
Men

At the moment (with one vacancy to be filled) Hedge End Town Council is perfectly balanced with ten women and ten men.  The Council and three of its committees are chaired by women, with men chairing two committees.

West End Parish Council

Women
Men

In neighbouring West End, women parish councillors outnumber men eight to six (with five of the women having been elected as independents).

Botley Parish Council

Women
Men

There are four women and seven men serving on Botley Parish Council.

HEWEB Local Area Committee 

Women
Men

Although Hedge End elects three women out of seven councillors to serve on the Local Area Committee, and Botley has one woman and one man, all four West End borough councillors are men, which gives men a 2:1 majority on the committee.

Eastleigh Borough Council

Women
Men

Of the 44 Eastleigh Borough councillors, only 13 are women (twelve Lib Dems and one Conservative).

Hampshire County Council

Women
Men

Things get even worse for women at the County Council.  Of the seven councillors elected locally in Eastleigh divisions, only one is a woman.

Glass Ceiling

There would seem to be a form of glass ceiling in our local government in so far as it seems to be easier for women to serve at the most local level, on parish and town councils, but as the council gets more remote, the proportion of women councillors decreases.

It is notoriously difficult to fix these imbalances with our current electoral system.  It is desirable that local councils reflect the demographics of the population they represent, in terms of gender and age at least, but the members of the councils are elected as individuals with particular skills and experience, not as representatives of a particular cross section of society.

One answer is, of course, for the political parties to select more women as candidates, but the example of West End Parish Council shows that women can stand as independents and get elected.  After all, 50% of voters are women, and that's more than enough to win most local elections.



(IWD logo courtesy of internationalwomensday.com)