Reports published by the Hansard Society and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Sex Equality claim that gender and where they live influence how much political power individuals feel they are able to exert.
Research conducted by Lawrence McKay of Manchester University using data from the Hansard Society’s Audit of Political Engagement shows the influence geography had on how people relate to politics, particularly how much influence they feel themselves to have over decision making.
McKay found that people living in London felt they had most influence, whilst those living in Wales and Scotland felt they had the least. Out of the English regions people in the North East felt they had the least influence over the political process.
Where voters live, McKay suggests, nay have a greater influence on how people engage with politics than factors such as income or education.
This distancing of people outside London from the political process could, he suggests, by their physical distance from the seat of power and the fact that people living in the regions seldom see people who are like them represented as members of the political class.
Gender and health, both physical and mental, are also powerful indicators of how influential individuals are likely to feel. A point made by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sex Equality in the report ‘Invisible Women’ written in partnership with the Fawcett Society and the Young Women’s Trust.
Launching the report Chair of the group Jess Phillips MP said, ‘millions of women are invisible in Westminster’s evidence and thinking', adding that ‘unless we see women in all their diversity, we will make the wrong decisions and will not achieve equality'.
The report shows that women and particularly women of colour are often overlooked by policy makers and those responsible for designing services. This is especially evident in relation to employment support and mental health services, creating what the group describe as a climate of ‘multiple discrimination’.
The report calls for improved data collection to allow policy makers to understand the experience of diverse groups of women and for a review of how services respond to the needs of women and members of other protected groups. It also recommends that it be made easier for individuals to bring claims of bring discriminated against on the grounds of more than one characteristic.
At the launch of the report Fawcett Society chief executive Sam Smithers said that policy makers ‘repeatedly overlook the women who are in the most need and who experience the greatest disadvantage; that has to change’.
Dr Carole Easton, chief executive of the Young Women’s Trust, said that ‘more needs to be done to improve young women’s prospects,’ particularly those from groups that face disadvantage if they are not to face ‘a lifetime of inequality’.
The aim of the report was, Jess Phillips said to work towards a situation where the UK has ‘data, policy, the law and services’ capable of recognising ‘women’s diverse experiences’ and furthering their interests.
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