Federal Conference September 2001

Improving Gender Balance in Politics

Conference notes:

i) The inadequate proportion of women, in all political parties,

seeking and gaining election to the House of Commons.

ii) That less than 10% of the current Liberal Democrat parliamentary party are women, and that women made up less than 15% of our candidates in our 70 held or most winnable parliamentary seats.

iii) The gross under-representation of women in posts, including

ministerial appointments, in public bodies.

iv) That fewer than 25% of people on the list of approved candidates are women.

Conference believes that this under-representation is:

A. Bad for the effectiveness of the Party because it is failing to make the best use of all available skills and abilities.

B. Bad for the Party because it projects a predominantly male image which deters women.

C. Bad for the health of democracy because representative bodies should seek to reflect more accurately the diversity of the population that they serve.

Conference calls for:

I Continued support for the proposed legislation which would allow political parties to take proportionate positive action on a temporary basis to redress the imbalance in the representation of women at all levels of government, and which would allow the Government to take such action to redress the imbalance in the representation of women appointed to public bodies.

II Pressure to be put on the Government for such legislation to be

passed as soon as possible to ensure that changes take place in time for the next General Election.

III Urgent enhancement at all levels of the Party of existing measures (including the required, dedicated staff time, and senior staff responsibility) to ensure that:

a) Women in the party are identified, encouraged, trained and supported in being approved, seeking and gaining selection in all types of seats, and winning and defending seats on representative bodies.

b) Approval panels and selection committees receive any guidance and training they need to ensure fairness.

IV Targets to be set and publicised for State and (in England) Regional Parties to dramatically increase the number of women on the list of approved candidates, with a target of 500 extra women on the list of approved candidates to be achieved by Autumn 2004;

Conference resolves:

1. That a target of 40% of held seats where the sitting MP

stands down, and seats requiring a swing of les than 7.5% to win, be fought by women candidates at the next election; that a taskforce be established by the Federal Executive including members from the States Candidates Committees, the Campaigns Department and all relevant SAOs, with reasonable staff time and funding allocated to it, that reports to every meeting of the Federal Executive and to every Federal Conference on progress towards that target.

2. That the Joint States Candidates Committee, in consultation

with relevant SAOs, undertake an immediate and urgent review of the processes by which parliamentary candidates are sought and approved, specifically including post-selection support and training for candidates.

(Such a review should include surveying those already approved, all Liberal Democrat principal councillors, and others to ascertain reasons for so few women and people from other under-represented groups being on the list of approved candidates, and to recommend relevant changes to the approval and candidate recruitment processes)

3. The Federal Executive and the Joint States Candidates

Committee should as a matter of priority develop the mechanisms for achieving the above, taking account of the evolving legal situation, and the Federal Executive should table any necessary constitutional amendments.

1. Such provisions should be temporary and proportionate and will cease when, in line with our constitutional provision governing election to party committees, the proportion of each gender elected to the House of Commons reaches at least one third.