Political

Local councils and female representation: the 2008 figures

The newly published Thrasher & Rallings analysis of May’s local election results once again gives a breakdown of candidates and councillors by gender.

Here they are, with 2007’s figures in brackets:

31% (30%) of Conservative candidates were female
31% (30%) of Labour candidates were female
34% (34) of Liberal Democrat candidates were female

“28-29%” (29%) of Conservative councillors are female
“28-29%” (31%) of Labour councillors are female
“A third” (34%) of Liberal Democrats councillors are female

They conclude that:

The proportion of men and women candidates contesting local elections now appears fixed in the ratio 2:1 and the rapid rise in women candidates during the second half of the 1980s has stopped … There is just one authority, Purbeck district council, where women candidates outnumbered the men. By contrast, there are three local authorities in Wales where the proportion of women is fewer than one in five candidates.

Another trend that continues is for the percentage of women elected to be slightly less than the percentage of women candidates.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All comments and data you submit with them will be handled in line with the privacy and moderation policies.