Abstract
ABSTRACT This article explores research findings regarding the possibilities offered by remote attendance at council meetings as implemented during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, and reflects upon how this may improve women local councillors’ experiences, as well as women’s political participation and the accessibility of Welsh local government going forward. Influenced by feminist institutionalist theory, this paper examines how councils’ formal organisational norms and practices pre-pandemic privileged presenteeism, and explores participants’ perceptions and experiences of the accessibility of local councils, especially for younger women with families and/or in other forms of employment. Presenting data from 19 semi-structured interviews with women local councillors in Wales (UK), both in-person and subsequently online during the pandemic, the paper discusses how remote attendance in local council meetings was considered an enabling shift in formal organisational practices, especially for rural councils. Despite some dissenting opinions and voiced dubiousness (mostly concerning future hybrid implementation), through easing the time costs of being a local councillor, particularly for women balancing a gendered ‘triple duty’ of the political, personal, and professional, remote meeting attendance is an organisational solution, albeit somewhat forced in implementation, which presents clear means of improving women’s political participation and representation in local government.
Highlights
Feminist institutionalist research has found that political arenas and institutions are highly gendered workplaces with gendered ‘rules of the game’ (Lowndes, 2020) maintaining and privileging masculine political cultures and ways of ‘doing politics’ (Erikson & Josefsson, 2019, 2020)
Through discussing just one structural barrier and its possible solution – inaccessible meetings and the remote attendance solutions seen throughout the Covid-19 pandemic – this paper highlights how one simple shift in organisational practice could enable women elected representa tives to participate in a fuller capacity in Welsh local government
A third burden – the professional – is unique to local government and leaves women local councillors with the often-insurmountable task of balancing the political with the personal and professional – referred to here as a ‘triple duty’. Whilst this is clearly an issue for all councillors, regardless of gender, it is the interaction of the ‘rules with gendered effects’ (Lowndes, 2020) within Welsh councils with continued gendered social division of domestic labour and caring responsibilities (Mannay, 2014; Warren, 2011) which creates an environment in Welsh local government which is not family, nor women, friendly
Summary
Feminist institutionalist research has found that political arenas and institutions are highly gendered workplaces with gendered ‘rules of the game’ (Lowndes, 2020) maintaining and privileging masculine political cultures and ways of ‘doing politics’ (Erikson & Josefsson, 2019, 2020). Through examining the informal and formal norms, cultures, contexts and practices of our political institutions, feminist institutionalist scholars have presented much evidence to support the assertion that political workplaces remain organised in such a way that can form structural barriers to women’s political participation (Erikson & Josefsson, 2020; Lowndes, 2014, 2020). This paper furthers this field through applying. Through discussing just one structural barrier and its possible solution – inaccessible meetings and the remote attendance solutions seen throughout the Covid-19 pandemic – this paper highlights how one simple shift in organisational practice could enable women elected representa tives to participate in a fuller capacity in Welsh local government
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