Constitutive and Substantive Representation: Sex, Gender and Party in the UK Parliament

In the UK Parliament women’s descriptive representation remains far short of parity; women constitute less than 20 percent of all MPs. The overwhelming majority of MPs are representatives of political parties; the question of who our representatives are, is one of whom our political parties select as their candidates. Of the 126 women MPs, 97 are Labour. Political parties’ selection procedures and any equality strategies they adopt are key to understanding the DRW. With a general election less than a year away, 2009 may constitute a fortuitous year for women’s descriptive representation. A parliamentary ‘expenses’ scandal looks likely to result in a higher than usual number of MPs resigning their seats. These provide new opportunities for the selection of women candidates in seats that, all other things being equal, their party are likely to hold. Hence, if the parties, especially the Conservative party, were to select women in at least half of these, then concerns that the percentage of women in the House of Commons overall might decline in 2010 could be somewhat assuaged. Moreover, 2009 saw the sitting of a Speaker’s Conference – a special committee of the House – established to look into, inter alia, the under-representation of women. Its interim report recognizes that an unexpected window of opportunity has arisen and calls on the parties to select higher numbers of women candidates in the coming months. Reviewing the current state of play, this paper outlines the main parties’ selection procedures and considers what effect both the expenses scandal and the Speaker’s Conference may have on the descriptive representation of women at Westminster.