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

妇女在政治中的参与和代表性在英国政治中仍然是高度热门的问题，就像在全球范围内一样，因为妇女很少实现平等的存在，也很少看到妇女的问题和观点完全融入政府决策。未来几年至关重要，因为英国将面临一系列选举时刻：苏格兰独立公投，2015年大选，以及2016年的权力下放选举。这些问题的性质和结果将对妇女参与选举产生的政治以及妇女的实质性代表性，即纳入妇女的关切和观点具有重要意义。这些研讨会以“声音”、“准入”和“责任”为标题，探讨学术界和实践者对代表权的看法。在英国所有民选机构中，女性比例仍然超过女性，尤其是在斯托蒙特和威斯敏斯特。北爱尔兰议会和下议院的男性比例分别为81%和78%，距离平等还有很长的路要走。英国议会目前正深陷对女性不友好的政治文化的辩论之中，批评者要求女性在性骚扰和工作/生活(平衡)面前表现出男子汉气概。在苏格兰和威尔士，自1999年以来，AM和MSP的数量下降，这使人们不禁要问，妇女的代表性是否会随着时间的推移而增加。情况很可能是这样的，妇女代表不足的原因是众所周知的：妇女拥有更少的有利于政党政治参与的资源(例如时间、金钱和兴趣)，并且面对政党的看门人，后者在很大程度上拒绝接受支持性别配额的全球证据。尽管如此，仍有必要审视英国政党对其行动的理由，并授权那些致力于平等的人为政党和议会改革而竞选。如果说妇女参政是政治权力女性化问题的一部分，那么纳入妇女的声音则是另一部分。妇女问题和观点经常被认为在选举政治中被边缘化或压倒一切：例如，苏格兰妇女团体目前正在动员起来，对独立辩论进行性别调整。在全国范围内，至少在女权主义者和左翼批评人士看来，紧缩政策被谴责为对女性不利：联盟似乎认为性别平等是可以接受的附带损害，因为削减服务、福利和公共部门就业对女性的负面影响不成比例。在这种背景下，民选代表声称“为了妇女”，对政府妇女政策的评估，以及性别平等的状况都需要审问。在英国，女性的代表性到底有多强？各政党将如何争夺2014-16年度的“女性选票”？妇女和性别关系将如何在他们的宣言和运动中得到描述？什么将被定义为‘妇女的利益’？女性之间的差异，例如种族、阶级、性取向或地理位置，会对她们的经历和机会产生什么影响？在公投以及2015年和2016年的选举中，会不会出现性别差异？最后，鉴于当代英国的女权主义运动不那么关注代议制民主，而更多地关注(社交媒体)激进主义，探索民选代表和非民选代表之间的联系对于代表性理论和实践来说是很重要的。到目前为止，这种联系在英国还没有得到系统的研究。然而，只有审查妇女的态度与民选和非民选代表的主张和行动之间的一致性，才有可能更全面地评估妇女实质性代表的质量。换句话说，如果我们想知道英国女性在议会政治中是否得到了很好的代表，我们需要了解女性的大众态度，以及所有声称代表女性行事的代表的关切和观点。

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.