Why Reserved Places for Women?

AGM Recommendations 701 and 702

Why should we vote for recommendations 701 and 702 at NUS National Conference 2014

 

“Experience has taught us that democratic ideals of inclusiveness, accountability and transparency cannot be achieved without laws, policies, measures and practices that address inequalities”

Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the UN

Historically NUS and the student movement has led the way in shaping a better, fairer society leading the fight for example on LGBT liberation and widening access to education. On the issue of women’s representation however, we are behind the curve as is the UK as a whole. At the current rate of progress, a girl child will be drawing her pension before she has any chance of being equally represented in the UK Parliament. The idea of reserved places for women in representative structures is an extremely common solution to the problem of women’s underrepresentation. Half of the countries of the world today use some type of electoral quota for women to be elected to their parliament. All new democracies have reserved places for women because they recognise that without them, gender equality wont be achieved.

At 2012 NUS National Conference, 2 of the 6 national positions had NO women running in the elections. For the Block of 15 which sit on the National Executive Council, out of 33 candidates (not including RON), only 10 were self defining women. For Student Trustees there was only 1 woman out or 16 candidates running (Not including RON). For Democratic Procedures Committee only 3 out of 16 people running were women (not including RON). At NUS Conference 2013 , only 7 out of 25 candidates for Block of 15 are women and at of the open places on block only 1/10 candidates elected was a woman. 

In the UK, The number of women in senior levels of the judiciary, education, the arts, finance, the civil service and government is not only not increasing but is plummeting, according to a new report, Sex and Power 2013. Women’s representation has gone into reverse, with damaging effects on our country’s social, cultural and political life. The Education Sector is dominated by men in power, where only 14.2% of University Vice Chancellors are women.

There is evidence to suggest that the presence of women changes what is debated in the public realm as well as what decision making bodies actually do. Research carried out by the Hansard Society found that women can and do bring issues to the table which may not otherwise be debated, or which might wrongly be considered to be of less significance. Excluding women thus has the effect of making the legislature less relevant to the whole population, to everyone, not just women than it has the potential to be.

The right for women to participate as political equals has been formally recognised for over 50 years. Yet women are still today an oppressed group. In order for Students’ Unions and NUS to be fully democratic and representative we cannot continue to be complicit in oppressing women and their ability to express their concerns and interests.

Without representatives from oppressed groups, we lose the opportunity to gain alternative perspectives which may shed an important light on how certain policies and discussions hamper the interests of a large group in society. An unrepresentative NUS means that we are not as relevant to the majority of our members as we should be.

Voting for this recommendation will mean that Students’ Unions start to take the under representation of women seriously, that Students’ Unions will have to start making a strong effort to get more women running for elections. Hopefully it will mean we will get more women interested in NUS.

Its time for us to step up and start taking women seriously. A lack of representation is not just a democratic deficit, but also ignores a pool of talent and a diversity of views that enrich our movement.

This has to be about equality, the type of society we want and putting women’s participation and representation at the heart of our democracy

This is our chance to secure fair representation of women in NUS. It is not an idea whose time has come, but an idea that has gone ahead without us, and its time for us to catch up.

Join us and vote for #fairrepresentation

Supported by:

Election Candidates:
Toni Pearce – NUS President (standing for re-election)
Daniel Cooper – Candidate, NUS President
Aaron Kiely – NUS Black Students Officer and Candidate, NUS President
Colum McGuire – NUS Vice President Welfare (standing for re-election)
Charlotte Bennett – Candidate, NUS Vice President Welfare
Kelly Rogers – Candidate, NUS Vice President Welfare
Megan Dunn – Candidate, NUS Vice President Higher Education
Tom Flynn – Candidate, NUS Vice President Higher Education
Jesse Dodkins – Candidate, NUS Vice President Further Education
Joe Vinson – NUS Vice President Further Education (standing for re-election)
Raechel Mattey – NUS Vice President Union Development (standing for re-election)
Hannah Webb – Candidate, NUS Vice President Union Development
Sky Yarlett – Candidate, NUS Vice President Society & Citizenship
Hugh Murdoch – Candidate, NUS Vice President Society & Citizenship
Piers Telemacque – Candidate, NUS Vice President Society & Citizenship
Charlie Agran – Standing for Block of 15
Nathan Akehurst – Standing for Block of 15
Caitlin Bloom – Standing for Block of 15
Charlotte Butler – Standing for Block of 15
Sebastiaan Debrouwere – Standing for Block of 15
Clifford Fleming – Standing for Block of 15
Aisling Gallagher – NUS-USI Women’s Officer, Standing for Block of 15
Charley Hasted – Standing for Block of 15
Curtis Hoy – Standing for Block of 15
Shakira Martin – Standing for Block of 15
James McAsh – Standing for Block of 15
Beth Redmond – Standing for Block of 15
Tom Renhard – Standing for Block of 15
Michael Rubin – Standing for Block of 15
Edward Sainsbury – Standing for Block of 15
Vonnie Sandlan – Standing for Block of 15
Amy Smith – Standing for Block of 15
Abdi-Aziz Suleiman – Standing for Block of 15
Zarah Sultana – Standing for Block of 15
Michaela Vyse – Standing for Block of 15
Poppy Wilkinson – Standing for Block of 15

NEC
Rachel Wenstone
Robert Foster
Malia Bouattia
Rosie Huzzard
Hannah Paterson
Emma barnes
Daniel Stevens
Paul Abernathy
Nosheen Dad
Ben Dilks
Rhiannon Durrans
Tabz O’Brien-Butcher
Gordon Maloney
Finn McGoldrick
Steph Lloyd
Rhiannon Hedge
Tom Flynn
Jessica Goldstone
Fergal McFerran
Josh Rowlands
Beth Button
Rebecca Hall
Marc McCorkell

References:

http://www.countingwomenin.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Sex-and-Power-2013-FINALv2.-pdf.pdfu

http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/publications/archive/2012/01/12/representation-of-women-in-politics.aspx