Women as handbags in the UK General Election campaign?

Female issues are they relevant to life in Britain today? Each of the contesting parties in UK elections have concentrated on NHS,immigration, the economy, but people issues connected to women and children have been sidelined, for some reason or the other.

The pay gap,domestic violence,expensive childcare,child poverty some of the pressing issues in Britain,have not been addressed by the major political parties up to now. The suggestion is that there are more important issues which face the nation for the next Parliament to tackle than women's issues. 

Fawcett Society,an organisation pleading for [Wo-(since 1866)-men] is campaigning for women's rights at the General Election 2015.This organisation states as follows:

"The gradual erosion in women's rights and equality ,combined with cutting public spending, have left women poorer with 74% of £22 bn. of austerity savings coming from women's pockets".

"With more women moving into less equal private sector, the gender gap has increased for the first time in five years".

"With vital support services such as child care and elderly care drain away,women are left carrying the load."

"With benefits that shore up women's financial security are rolled back,women are becoming less independent."

"Key decisions are being made at the highest levels of power, without women participating,with the public body,Women's National Commission having been abolished."

Women in UK

One in five MP's are woman, compared with just over half of the adult population of Britain being women. At the last Parliament there were 148 female MP's out of a total of 650 Members of Parliament. Women account for 22.7% of MP's.

According to Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics: "historically women have found it difficult to be adopted as candidates by the main UK political parties,and when they did find a seat it was likely to be less winnable than those selected for men."

Sexist attitudes

We hear about racial discrimination,but no one mentions too much about sexist attitudes in Britain. We hear about women having joint accounts in banks with their husbands. We hear about gender equality at Sunday dinner, or for that matter at home,We hear about women leading the fashion industry.We hear about journalists questioning the clothes women wear or the twaddle about Theresa May's leopard print kitten heels, or Labour's Caroline Flint's fashion accessories. We hear about women living longer than their husbands in Britain and inheriting their husbands wealth. 

Gender equality when it comes to politics

Predicting how many of women candidates stand a good chance of being elected at the UK Parliamentary General Election on 7 May 2015 is extremely tricky . We hear that the Green Party women candidates have more of a chance of being elected.While the uncertainties of the 2015 elections have made it difficult for forecasters,Kenny & Mackay state in The Guardian, "there is one outcome that we can predict with a high degree of certainty, the majority of MP's that Scotland sends to Westminster as elsewhere in the UK - will still  be men.

There is no genderquake at the General Election 2015, so it will probably be male,pale and stale, with issues other than gender issues taking prominence at the polls.

Victor Cherubim