The Hindu : International : Sexism in U.K. Parliament

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Wednesday, Dec 08, 2004

International

International

Sexism in U.K. Parliament

London: The most comprehensive survey of female British MPs ever conducted has laid bare the British Parliament's antediluvian attitude to women. Based on interviews with 83 current and recent female MPs, it contains startlingly frank testimony about the problems faced by them in the House of Commons. Amid a stream of claims of sexist remarks, one MP reveals she was pinned against a wall and screamed at by a Minister, furious that female MPs had banded together to vote women on to a Labour committee. The study, Whose Secretary Are You, Minister? was carried out by Professor Joni Lovenduski of Birkbeck College London, Margaret Moran, MP, and researcher Boni Sones. They have gathered more than 100 hours of taped interviews. When scores of young female MPs arrived in the Commons in 1997, Labour's Claire Curtis-Thomas assumed the red ribbons tied to coat hangers were for AIDS day, only to be told they were for members to hang up their swords. Another new MP, Yvette Cooper, found it hard to persuade Commons officials that she was an MP, not a researcher or secretary. But the research suggests that Britain's politics have been dramatically changed by the arrival of more female MPs.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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