The Young Fabians Blog

Today is International Women’s Day and its been really interesting to see the debate being generated by the guest editorship of Gaby Hinsliff over at Labourlist. Reading the posts made me think of two questions we need to tackle more seriously:

1) Why aren’t there more women writing online? Gaby says the attraction of guest editing Labourlist was the chance to ”the chance to give new writers and fresh perspectives an airing” and that ”…there are too many women waiting to be invited to blog, where men just pile in.”

If women are not ‘piling in’ then maybe it’s down to the nasty reaction they get when they do take the plunge. Just have a look at some of the comments Stella Creasy‘s been left! Those of you who have read the latest edition of Anticipations will have read Jessica Asato talking about exactly the same thing.

Online debate is one place where those parts of society that usually struggle to be heard should be able to find their voice. But changing that won’t happen by chance. What can we do to improve that situation?

2) Actually taking part in political/policy debates is probably harder than we like to admit. I had recently talked to a first-time voter, a 2nd year university student studying Business and French at Durham and right from the start she was at pains to emphasise that “I’m not ‘Political’” and “I know very little about those kinds of things”.

Now people are always saying that, but what shocked me was what she said next:

“I’m really not political, I know it’s really bad to say this but I kinda leave that up to the boys. I don’t feel that I know enough to contribute and they all seem to know what they are talking about.”

Despite this we had a 30mins discussion where it was obvious she did know what she was talking about. In fact it was probably the most intelligent political discussion I had all week! Why should anything be ‘left up to the boys’?

Your average politico?

We need to encourage more women and young people in general to see politics not as a niche activity for all-male social elites or just the ‘geeky’.

We obviously welcome any ideas people want to throw our way.

It is also why we’re encouraging Young Fabians to take part in a first time voters telephone campaigning session tomorrow afternoon at Labour HQ in Victoria. (This is more like telephone research about what first time voters actually care about than canvassing as usual.)

Contact me, Vincenzo Rampulla, for more details at: vrampulla@youngfabians.org.uk

Don’t forget – Young Fabians New Members’ Reception this Tuesday at the Old Star.

You’ll be able to meet other YF members, this year’s Exec and Rt Hon John Healey MP will be joining us to give us his take on why youth engagement in politics is so important. More importantly you’ll be able to find out how you can get more involved in the debates we are going to be having over the coming year.

We will also be raffling a specially signed (probably with one of his clunking fists!) copy of the Fabian’s recently published Solidarity Society and a signed copy of Alastair Campbell’s diaries.

Contact me if you’d like to attend – vrampulla@youngfabians.org.uk

On International Women’s day, it is time to celebrate Women’s achievements all over the world. But it is also time to take stock of where we are in our fight for equality.

In the UK alone, only 10% of FTSE 100 companies have a female director; 25 of these companies have no women at all on their board. Out of the 646 Members of Parliament, only 126 are women. And although the Gender Pay Gap has, according to the Office for National Statistics, narrowed between 2008 and 2009, women in full time employment still earn 17.4% less than men.

Yes, we have come a long way since the Viscountess Nancy Astor in 1919 was the first women to take her seat in Parliament. It’s probably no coincidence that the extension of the franchise to women in 1918 preceded this milestone.

I would like to be clear on this: there are a lot of men out there doing fantastic work to support gender equality in the work place. But every major achievement for women has been brought about by other women. To make our voice heard, we need to stand together, fight for each other, with each other. International Women’s day should not only be an occasion to celebrate what we have achieved so far, but should serve as a reminder that we still have a long way to go to achieve equal representation.

The Guardian today quotes a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which likens the progress of women to positions of power to snail’s pace. According to the report, it be take 73 years before the number of women becoming directors of FTSE 100 companies was the same as men. In this time the snail could have crawled from Land’s End to John O’Groats and halfway back again. The snail would have to cross the length of the Great Wall of China, taking 212 years, before women would be equally represented in parliament.

It is time we gave that snail a little push. Launching YF Women on 18th March will be small step – come and join us to make it bigger. It is up to us.