Abstract
With the devolved institutions nearing their 20th anniversary, the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly have changed the face of politics within the United Kingdom. The National Assembly for Wales, in particular, has made extensive advances in the field of female representation, notably being the first devolved legislature to achieve perfect gender parity. However, the question remains as to whether this parity was achieved through luck or design. This dissertation draws on the work of Pitkin to identify the importance of the relationship between both substantive and descriptive representation and then explores the concepts and contemporary academia to identify the leading theories within this field. The National Assembly will then be analysed in order to establish the measures that have been put in place by the institution in order to protect and promote a commitment to the equality of representation. Four political parties within the National Assembly for Wales will be assessed including the Welsh Labour Party, Welsh Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Conservatives drawing on evidence from 1999–2016. Both chapters will draw upon semi-structured interviews conducted with the Diversity and Inclusion Team and female Assembly Members from across political parties in order to allow for conclusions to be drawn as to what the most influential factors have been in the success of the National Assembly’s female representation, and whether the Assembly has been successful due to luck or design.
Highlights
In the United Kingdom, women ‘make up 51% of the population’ (Jegede, 2009, p. 12), and yet, despite this, women are still under-represented within political institutions in comparison to their male counterparts
The analysis further demonstrates the success that has been experienced concerning female representation by parties who implement quotas
The Electoral Reform Society (2011, p. 9) identified that ‘Labour’s record in Wales is ... an illustration to all parties of what can be achieved through political will and positive action’ and this can be further be attributed to the work of Plaid Cymru (PC)
Summary
In the United Kingdom, women ‘make up 51% of the population’ (Jegede, 2009, p. 12), and yet, despite this, women are still under-represented within political institutions in comparison to their male counterparts. 12), and yet, despite this, women are still under-represented within political institutions in comparison to their male counterparts. 145), ‘formally recognised gender inequality as one of the major hurdles to development’ with, ‘the position of women [having] changed dramatically over the last century in many countries’ including the UK where progress has been made, albeit slowly. 1) identified, ‘the election of a Labour government in 1997, committed to a programme of constitutional change and modernisation, has provided new opportunities and new structural space in which politics of gender can be pursued’. The graph illustrates some areas of success with the percentage of female MPs increasing steadily. By comparison to other state-level institutions, progress is limited with the UK currently 48th in the world parity league table (‘Women in Parliaments: World Classification’, 2016)
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