Survey shows massive gulf between parties on women's equality

Fawcett’s survey of election candidates shows massive gulf between the parties on women’s equality

The Fawcett Society have today released the results of a survey of parliamentary candidates, including the party leaders,  asking whether they would support action on women’s inequality in their constituencies and nationally (1)

Of the 3 major parties 23.1 per cent of Labour candidates and 19.9 per cent of Lib Dems and 2.6 per cent of the Conservatives committed their support. (2)

Candidates were asked to say yes or no to whether they would support local and national action on tackling the gender pay gap, improving support for women rape victims and assessing the impact of deficit cutting proposals on women. Both Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg are amongst those candidates that answered yes to all three questions. David Cameron responded with the Tories policy position in the relevant areas ( 3)

Ceri Goddard, Chief Executive of Fawcett said:

“These figures speak for themselves. All the parties have been campaigning on the issue of fairness but less than a third of candidates are prepared to say they would make the move from words to action.

“The results also show a clear gap between some party leaders’ equality rhetoric and the reality of their candidates’ views.

“It’s not as if we have asked for anything controversial or with significant resource implications attached, just support on action on basic issues of fairness such as tackling the gender pay gap.

“We were already very concerned by the near invisibility of women in this election, but it seems this may be the least of their worries after May 6th – whichever party gets in, achieving equality for women is still far from the cross-party and uncontroversial issue it should be.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1) The Fawcett Society is the UK’s Leading campaign for equality between women and men. Fawcett asked parliamentary candidates in England the following question:

“ If elected as an MP will you:

1. Support local and national action to tackle the gender pay gap?
2. Increase support services for women victims of rape as well as address the low levels of reported rapes that end in a conviction?
3. Work with Fawcett and others to ensure that both local and national deficit cutting proposals are assessed in terms of how they would impact on women – both regarding access to public services and women’s income’s?

2)The full breakdown of the results to date is as follows:

Out of the 2285 PPCs emailed in total, 385 responded to say yes to all our questions. The breakdown along party lines as follows:

Labour – 114 out of 493 candidates= 23.1%
Tories – 15 out of 568 candidates = 2.6%
Lib Dems – 91 out 456 candidates = 19.9%
Greens – 149 out 279 candidates = 53.4%

Further information on and the names and comments from those PPC’s that have replied can be found on our website from Monday 3rd May. Alternatively, call 07767 297 812 www.fawcettsociety.org.uk

3) David Cameron’s answers can be obtained on request

4) Fawcett is leading a coalition of more than 60 organisations in a campaign called What About Women, seeking to raise the profile of women during this election and get answers from all the parties about how their proposed policies would impact on women’s lives and women’s equality.

The Fawcett Society and the LSE this week held a pre-election “ What About Women” debate with Harriet Harman, Theresa May and Lynne Featherstone. A 450 strong audience drawn from the What About Women? Campaign, Fawcett supporters and the general public quizzed panelists on everything from how best to achieve a fairer division of parenting responsibilities to who would be in their ‘fantasy cabinet.’

The women clashed on everything from increases when and how to cut the deficit, electoral reform, and ideal cabinet colleagues!

To read a summary of the event, click here, or listen to the podcast, view the video.

Earlier in the election Fawcett issued a set of questions for all the parties on their policies and women – their answers can be found here