Abstract
The First-Past-the-Post electoral system is recognised as one of the major factors perpetuating white, male, middle-class predominance and adversarial politics in the UK. Recent innovations on the Westminster fringe (in the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and in New Zealand) have provided compelling evidence that hybrid electoral systems can have a rapid and significant impact on the numbers of women elected. The recent AV referendum was frequently hailed as ‘a once in a lifetime opportunity’ to fix the system, and improve the quality of representation (by reducing sleaze, holding MPs to account, broadening the range of parties in parliament). This paper asks to what extent women’s representation was incorporated into the debate. It shows that there was little synergy between feminist and electoral reform groups and that institutional partners failed to respond to those groups who addressed the issue of gender, consequently missing parallel opportunities to improve political representation and gender balance.
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