Newport politician calls for more women AMs (From South Wales Argus)
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Newport politician, Rosemary Butler calls for more women AMs
11:40am Monday 28th January 2013 in News
CONCERN: Rosemary Butler AM
NEWPORT West AM Rosemary Butler has written to leaders of all four Welsh political parties calling for more work to halt the decline in the number of women AMs.
Ms Butler, in her role as Assembly presiding officer, said despite the Assembly achieving 52 per cent representation in 2006, the number of women in the Assembly declined after the 2007 and 2011 elections.
She said: “It concerns me that we will see a further drift if political parties do not address the issue in advance of the elections in 2016.”
Chairwoman of Plaid Cymru Helen Mary Jones said her party shares Ms Butler’s concerns.
She said: “Our party and the National Assembly have taken positive steps in the past to address this imbalance, but it is not easy to do because we need to ensure equality in the candidates we put forward and representation in elected office.”
Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Lib Dems, concurred: “Half of Wales’ population is made up of women, therefore it is only right that our National Assembly reflects that.”
She said the Lib Dems have a strong and proud record on female representation in Wales, but there is more that can be done.
Comments(6)
mal92
says...
4:41pm Mon 28 Jan 13
smokintheweed
says...
5:18pm Mon 28 Jan 13
mal92 wrote:I did say competent did I not?
I'm more concerned with what's between their ears!!
mal92
says...
5:53pm Mon 28 Jan 13
Katie Re-Registered
says...
8:11am Tue 29 Jan 13
And how many non-privately educated MPs?
To Jo/e Public, politicians may as well belong to a totally different species! What was that about 'no taxation without representation'?
smokintheweed
says...
8:26am Tue 29 Jan 13
Katie Re-Registered wrote:I think the reason there are very few trans-gendered people in politics is not down to oppression but the fact that there are very few of them around.
I agree with Rosemary Butler that it's important that the composition of a government adequately reflects a representative cross section of the people who elected it. It is a pity that when the assembly first opened there was near enough equal representation of male and female with regard to AMs and now the numbers are on the decline. I also think, though, that it is a failure on the part of the assembly and further evidence of its heterosexist reactionary nature that there is not one openly LGBT AM in the whole Welsh government. Moreover, there is not one openly transgender MP in either the House of Commons or the Lords. It's no wonder that people feel alienated from their elected representatives when we turn around and don't see anyone remotely like us in government.
And how many non-privately educated MPs?
To Jo/e Public, politicians may as well belong to a totally different species! What was that about 'no taxation without representation'?
" It's no wonder that people feel alienated from their elected representatives when we turn around and don't see anyone remotely like us in government."
I don't see that this is a gender issue and claiming it to be one is misguided.
smokintheweed says...
3:17pm Mon 28 Jan 13