Fawcett comments on Cabinet reshuffle

10 JANUARY 2018

This week, Theresa May announced a new years cabinet reshuffle, which saw a big increase in the number of female and ethnic minority ministers.

Fawcett Society Chief Executive Sam Smethers says:

"With more women and minority ethnic MPs promoted into government the PM has begun to present a more representative line-up, that's to be welcomed.

"But the party still has a long way to go to get more women into politics. Just 21% of Tory MPs are women. And we have to transform the culture in Westminster which has normalised sexual harassment.

"We're looking forward to all those female whips' conversations with some of their male colleagues. But a woman Chief Whip would have been even better.

"We welcome Amber Rudd's appointment as Minister for Women and Equalities but a reshuffle innovation would be to announce this post first, not leave it until the end so it looks like an afterthought."

As The Guardian reports, four of the 10 women attending meetings are not full members of cabinet, which means May’s leading team has a gender pay gap with men earning on average £138,688, 11% more than the women at £124,758.

We campaign to secure equal power at all levels of government. Help us make change happen by joining Fawcett today.

Want to join our efforts to campaign for more women in power? In politics, the lack of women in Westminster is increasingly reported yet the dearth of women in local government is very often forgotten.

Our Local Government Commission report revealed that women’s representation at a local level is stagnating with virtually no change in the level of female councillors in the last twenty years. Women face many hurdles both in the workplace and in local government, including sexist comments and harassment, maternity discrimination, and inflexible working hours.

Find out more about how you can support our Local and Equal campaign.

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