Feminizing Politics and Power in the UK: Voice, Access and Accountability

The participation and representation of women in politics remains highly topical in UK politics, as it does globally, as women rarely achieve parity of presence or see women's issues and perspectives fully integrated into government policy-making. The next few years are critical as the UK faces a series of electoral moments: the Scottish Independence referendum, a General Election in 2015, and devolved elections in 2016. The nature and outcomes of these will be significant for the inclusion of women in elected politics, and for the substantive representation of women, that is, the inclusion of women's concerns and perspectives. The Seminars are organized under the headings of 'Voice', 'Access' and 'Accountability', and explore academic and practitioner views of representation.
Women remain out-numbered proportionately in all UK elected institutions, most especially in Stormont and Westminster. At 81 and 78% male the N. Ireland Assembly and the House of Commons, respectively, remain a long way from parity. The UK Parliament is currently mired in debate about women-unfriendly political culture, with critics demanding that women 'man up' in the face of sexual harassment and work/life (in)balance. In Scotland and Wales the decline in the number of AMs and MSPs since 1999 begs questions of the certainty of women's representation increasing over time. It might well be the case that the causes of women's under-representation are known: women have fewer of the resources conducive to party political participation (e.g. time, money and interest), and face party gate-keepers, who for the most part, reject the global evidence that supports sex quotas. Nevertheless, it remains necessary to examine UK political parties' arguments for their (in)action, and to empower those working for parity to campaign for party and parliamentary reform.
If women's access to politics is one part of the problem of the feminization of political power, the inclusion of women's voices is another. Women's issues and perspectives are frequently said to be marginalized or trumped in electoral politics: e.g. Scottish women's groups are currently mobilizing to re-gender the independence debate. Nationally, austerity politics has been decried, as bad for women, at least according to feminist and left-wing critics: the Coalition appears to regard gender equality as acceptable collateral damage, as women are disproportionately and negatively affected by cuts to services, benefits and public sector employment. Against this backdrop, elected representative claims 'for women', evaluation of governments' policies for women, and the state of gender (in)equality demand interrogation. Just how well are women in the UK represented substantively? And how will parties compete for the 'women's vote' in 2014-16? How will women and gender relations be depicted in their manifestos and campaigns? What will be constituted as 'women's interests'? What difference do differences between women, for example of race, class, sexuality or geography, make to their experiences and opportunities? Will there be a gender gap in the referendum, and 2015 and 2016 elections? Finally, given a contemporary feminist mobilization in the UK that is focused less on representative democracy and more on (social media) activism, it is important -for representational theory and practice - to explore links between elected and non-elected representatives. Such connections have not been systematically studied in the UK to-date. However, a more comprehensive assessment of the quality of women's substantive representation is possible only by examining the congruence between the attitudes of women and elected and non-elected representatives' claims and actions. In other words, if we want to know whether women in the UK are well represented through parliamentary politics, we need to know both women's mass attitudes and the concerns and perspectives of all representatives who claim to act for women.

There are three main non-academic beneficiaries: (1) party/parliamentary actors; (2) civil society actors; and (3) the media. Involvement begins prior to the first seminar. Extant contacts, enhanced via snowballing, will help develop Seminar sub-themes. We are explicitly committed to ensuring that the content of our Seminars speak directly to the concerns of our non-academic participants. We want to know what they consider the key issues relating to women's representation in the UK are, and to make sure that academic presenters, as well as practitioner contributions, address them. Prior to individual seminars, participants will circulate draft papers. This enables paper-givers, discussants and/or round table participants to revise or extend their analysis to address practitioner concerns. Throughout the Series a dedicated website will act as an additional platform for dissemination, dialogue and deliberation between academic contributors (both the CIs and other participants) and practitioners. A closed section will allow us to exchange in a 'safe space' work in progress and 'think pieces' which are frequently beneficial to agenda-setting research. The website, alongside twitter feeds and blogs, will also maintain contact over time, in particular via notifications of publications and seminar summaries.
beneficiaries 1. Party and Parliamentary actors. Leading gender and equality activists within political parties in England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland will become familiar with cutting-edge academic research on women's political representation - the extent and determinants of women's access to elected politics; women's mass political attitudes and women activists' perspectives and activities - voice; and academic indicators of 'good' representation, for example, the kinds of relationships that might need to be established between representatives and those they claim to represent - what we term accountability. Enhanced knowledge, developed in a safe environment, should also permit robust discussion of the strategies that party/parliamentary actors might undertake to change politics in ways that are more conducive to the inclusion of women and women's perspectives. This will also be achieved via seminar briefings and 'best practice' briefings that will detail practical strategies for reform. More indirectly we expect to contribute to a transformed party political landscape in which women are more likely to be recruited into the UK's parliaments.
Beneficiaries 2. Civil Society actors will benefit directly from the engagement with academic and party politics actors, as outlined above, in terms of knowledge and the deepening of networks. And with all seminars also including non-parliamentary representatives of women, relations between these groups of representatives should be facilitated and enhanced. Civil society actors should consequently see their views given greater attention by parliamentary representatives, thereby improving the nature and quality of the debates and activities relating to gender and representation. The 'popular' book should, moreover, increase the range of women familiar with this issue, and this in turn may encourage more, and diverse, women to participate to a greater extent in politics, whether in campaigning or parliamentary politics.
Beneficiaries 3. The Media. By specifically including representatives from the political, and women's media, the Series seeks to improve the quality of media coverage, shifting it from an emphasis on numbers in parliaments to a more comprehensive consideration of the nature and quality of women's representation. By targeting the more popular women's media, and supported by our activities using twitter and blogs, we also aim to connect to more women in society - including those who are already active, but perhaps not in elected politics - transforming their knowledge of politics, and encouraging them to participate in political discussion