Gender and Ethnicity in the House of Commons - Essay Example

House of Commons representation of Great Britain The Great Britain has two houses of legislature; the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Commons is the lower house in the British Parliament. The House comprises elected members of Parliament, who represent the interests of the constituencies they are elected from. The House of Commons wields an immense power on the control of the government, since it is the one responsible for making legislations, while the upper house, the House of Lords, has an oversight role over the House of Commons, without any powers to reject the legislations done by the lower house, but only to delay such actions (History Learning Site, 2013 n.p.). Thus the government with the prime minister is highly dependent on the cooperation with the House of Commons, to execute its mandates (History Learning Site, 2013 n.p.). Despite all the attempts that have been made to have the House of Commons that is representative of the minority, ethnic and gender balance, the situation has not completely borne fruits. By 2009, the House of Lords was found to be more representative of the social diversity in the British society, having reasonable numbers of women and ethnic minorities, compared to the House of Commons (Philips, 2009 n.p.). The number of ethnic minorities in the British House of Commons by the year 2009 was a meager 15, which is however a notable improvement from the previous periods, where the representation for women and the ethnic minority was significantly less (Philips, 2009 n.p). Therefore, based on this trend, it is prudent to conclude that the House of Commons is not representative of the gender and ethnic minorities. However, there is a great hope that the situation will keep improving with time, to generate a House of Common with a social make-up, which is highly diversified and representative of gender balance and ethnic equality. Because it is not possible that each member of the society can voice their needs to the government, democracy supports such modes of representation where the members of the House of Commons act as a bridge between the citizens and the government (History Learning Site, 2013 n.p.). Such members are able to speak on behalf of the people through debates and passing of bills on the floor of the House, to address their concerns and make their voice be heard, through voting for or against the bills. The British law requires that the Parliament represents the interest of the people, both demographically and geographically. While geographic representation refers to the representation of the people based on the designated parliamentary constituencies, the demographic representation focuses on the different social groups. These groups may include the ethnic minorities and the females, which have always got lesser representations in the Parliament (History Learning Site, 2013 n.p.). Nevertheless, considering the fact that the House of Commons comprises 647 members, only 143 women and only 27 members from ethnic minorities were elected to the Parliament in the 2010 general elections (History Learning Site, 2013 n.p.), then, there is no doubt that the House of Commons is not balanced in gender and ethnic representation. Despite the unbalanced and meager representation of the gender and ethnic minority in the House of Commons, the fair representation of each group in the House in terms of all the demographic elements is necessary given that the groups have special interests and issues that need to be addressed through political and governance policy formulation. It therefore indicates that such are the groups that require significant representation in the House of Commons, which plays a major role in influencing the legislations and government policy formulations (Cranknell, 2010 n.p.). However, the case is different since the gender and ethnic minority in the House of Commons is insufficient to give them the requisite numbers to push their agendas through. By the fall of 2010, both the women and the ethnic minorities’ members of Parliament constituted only 170 MPs, which make only 26% of the House of Commons representation (Cranknell, 2010 n.p.). This percentage is not sufficient to have their issues pushed through, thus making the gender and the ethnic representations in the House of Commons insufficient. However, the house has experienced significant changes in the social-make-up of the representatives elected for the last 100 years, with an increased gender, ethnicity and occupational diversity (Cranknell, 2010 n.p.). The female gender has traditionally endured meager representation in the House of Commons, with the first woman being elected to the House in 1918 (Cranknell, 2010 n.p.). However, this scenario has consistently changed, with the rise of the women elected to the House of Commons from an insignificant percentage in 1918 to a 10% representation by the fall of 1997. Better still, the situation improved further in the 1997 election, when 120 women were elected to the House, increasing their representation in the House to 18% (Cranknell, 2010 n.p.). The situation improved by the end of the last decade, when 143 women were elected to the House, raising their percentage representation to 22% (Cranknell, 2010 n.p.). This trend serves to show that despite the fact that women are considered as a marginalized group when it comes to political representation, the situation has continuously improved, and there is hope that such trends will continue to be experienced, until at least the women representation hits one-third of the total house representation. Nevertheless, it is certain that now women have their voices in the House of Commons, with a reasonable number of women , to a tune of 143 in 2010, who are now capable of articulating the female gender issues, and thus influencing political and governance policies in their favor (History Learning Site, 2013 n.p.). Ethnic diversity is yet another notable positive change that has been registered in the House of Commons (Cranknell, 2010 n.p.). In the period before 1900, there were very few numbers of minority and black Members of Parliament that were elected to the House of Commons, with the house being mainly dominated by the whites (Cranknell, 2010 n.p.). However, this situation has now improved, with an improvement being registered in the 1987 general elections, when the number of such minority MPs elected into the House increased. By the end of the last decade, the situation had changed significantly, with the election of 27 minority ethnic members of Parliament to the house, during the 2010 general elections (Cranknell, 2010 n.p.). However, despite the fact that improvements in the representation of ethnic minorities is continuously being registered, the situation is still wanting, with the ethnic representation in the House making only 0.04% of the full house by 2010 (Cranknell, 2010 n.p.). Despite the changes and the advances made by the people’s representatives in terms of policies, amendments and debates in the House, there are still a number of obstacles, which need to be cleared. Issues of pluralism of the society need to be addressed to create an ample environment for the members across the divide to get into a position of addressing challenges of the people they represent adequately (Cracknell, 2010 n.p.). The political, economic and social policies of any electoral district have to be streamlined as well, since their current existence presents a great difficulty for the members to articulate them adequately. These are the challenges that have limited the election of both women and ethnic minorities to the House of Commons representation. Gender stereotypes have also played a major role in hindering the election of women into the house, thus hampering the hopes of attaining gender balance and equality in the House of Commons representation (Breitenbach, 2006 n.p.). The number of women representatives has been recorded to increase for different parties, with the conservative party recording the highest increase of over 7% from the initial percentage making the strength of women in terms of numbers in the House of Representatives rise (Cracknell 2005 n.p.). The level of ethnicity representation also recorded an increment for the last 5 decades, and most especially in 2010, with 22 Members of Parliament from the ethnic minority being elected, which is the largest increase of the ethnic minority ever elected. The elections saw the number of MPs elected from the non-white improved drastically, despite the fact that only around 8% of the population comes from the non-white community in the Great Britain (Raphael, Donald, & McKay, 2004 p77). The improvement was uniformly registered, with both the Conservative party and the Labor Parties emerging as the greatest beneficiaries of realizing a non-ethnic legislator’s constitution (Geddes, 2008 p122). This is good for the progress of the country due to the recent harsh discussions regarding the issue of ethnicity and unfair representation of the minor tribes in the House of Representatives. However, women representation for the ethnic minority is the worst, since the women from the minority ethnic groups are hardly represented. In the 2010 elections, only 2 women from the Asian community were elected, which constitutes an insignificant percentage of the House of Commons (Cracknell, 2010 n.p.). However, this is considered a significant improvement, since in the previous elections none of women from the ethnic minority was elected. The House of Commons still does not reflect equality, even after the number of women is noted to have increased in the most recent polls (Cracknell 2005 n.p.). This calls for an improvement in the political policies, to enhance the balanced representation of both gender and ethnicity in the House of Commons. This can be achieved through legislations that require a certain percentage of the House to constitute of a certain gender or ethnicity. The correction of the underrepresentation in the House of Commons in terms of gender and ethnicity calls for the urgent measures, like the overhaul of the policies guiding the election conduct, which may require that a certain percentage of the contestants should be drawn from a certain gender or ethnicity, while also entrenching affirmative action that would see certain positions in the House of Commons reserved for the disadvantaged groups, such as women and ethnic minorities. The Equalities review is one such policy that advocates for a change in strategy, which would incorporate more efficient and competent modes of handling the ethnic and gender imbalance representation. This procedure starts by identifying what has led to the increased levels of underrepresentation for these two demographic factors, and after actions to eliminate the bottlenecks are established (Breitenbach, 2006 n.p.). Several factors account for the gender and ethnic minority underrepresentation. Women and tribes, which are not well represented, have in the past been disadvantaged by culture and economic power (Cracknell 2005 n.p.). The British culture has always placed the male gender as dominant over the female (Childs, 2008 p12). Such negative cultures have made it difficult for women to be empowered both politically and economically. The culture of ethnic undermining has made it difficult for the ethnic minorities to maneuver their way into the political powerhouses (Cracknell 2005 n.p.). Thus, considering that fair representation for both gender and ethnicity is lacking in the House of Commons, it is recommended that strategies such as the gender and ethnic quotas representation, as well as party or legislative quotas, which has worked worldwide, be adopted(Great Britain, 2004 p33). Party quotas are dependent on the parties’ constitution and willingness to adopt a balanced representation approach, thus it is more of a voluntary move, which makes it less dependable as a strategy for achieving gender and ethnic representation balance in the House of Commons (Cass, Shove and Urry 2005 p552). However, the legislative quotas strategy can easily be achieved, since these can be entrenched on the constitution, based on the fundamental rights of equality of all. Nevertheless, the achievement of the legislative quota strategy is dependent on the popularity of the candidates (Cass, Shove and Urry 2005 p547). This also makes it difficult to achieve, since the women and the ethnic minorities lack the numbers to push such legislations through. In conclusion, fair and equal representation for gender and ethnicity in the House of Commons is lacking, and the issue needs to be addressed to achieve a balanced representation for all. References Breitenbach, E, 2006, Gender Statistics: An Evaluation. Equal Opportunities Commission Working Paper Series no. 51. Manchester: EOC. Cass, N, Shove, E, and Urry, J, 2005, ‘Social exclusion, mobility and access, Sociological Review, 53, 3: 539-55. Childs, S, 2008, Women and British Party Politics: Descriptive, Substantive and Symbolic Representation. London: Routledge. Cracknell, R, 2005, Social Background of MPs. House of Commons Library, Standard Note 1528 Cracknell, R, 2010, Women in Parliament and Government. House of Common Library, Standard Note SN/SG/01250 Geddes, A, 2008, ‘Explaining Ethnic Minority Representation: Contemporary Trends in the Shadow of the Past’, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 11 (1), 119–135. Great Britain. (2004). The British Parliament. London, H.M. Stationery Off. History Learning Site. 2013. The House of Commons. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/house_of_commons.htm Philips, T, 2009, Trevor Phillips damns minority representation in Commons. The Guardian. Raphael, D., Donald, L, & McKay, W. R., 2004. Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice, 23rd ed. London: Butterworths Tolley Read More