by Mohsina Alam and River Quinn Mayne
The recent UK General Election, held on the 4th July 2024, brought about a significant achievement marking the most women to make up a government ever.
Keir Starmer’s Labour party achieved a landslide majority, winning 411 seats in total which brought about a swift end to 14 years of Tory rule in Britain.
Smaller parties, including the left-wing Green party and right-wing Reform party, did surprisingly well at the polls. These two parties won over 20% of the aggregate vote share, which translated to around 9 out of a possible 650 seats. This outcome has led to debates about whether the First-Past-the-Post (FPP) electoral system is democratic, and there has been an increase in support for drastic restructuring of the voting process.
What seems to have garnered less media attention though is the success of women at the polls. A record 264 women have been elected as MPs, representing just over 40% of the seats available in Westminster. In comparison, 2019 saw female MPs make up 210 less seats. The achievement that female representatives made demonstrates the rapid growth of women’s power in politics.
What’s more, we are seeing an increased amount of women taking on highly influential positions.
Rachel Reeves, the MP for Leeds West and Pudsey, has become the nation’s first female Chancellor.
Angela Rayner, the MP for Ashton-Under-Lyne, became the Deputy Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Leveling Up, Housing, and Communities. Rayner, growing up on a council estate and working in the social care sector, understands the importance of social housing more than many of us. In the run up to the election, she promised that Labour will create the biggest increase in affordable housing "in a generation.”
Including Rayner, Keir Starmer's Cabinet additionally has the lowest percentage of privately educated members ever with just 1 person (4%) compared to 63% in Rishi Sunak's Cabinet.
There has also been a much-needed increase in women of colour taking seats in Westminster. Of the 264 women elected, 50 women come from ethnic minority backgrounds. Making up almost 20%, ethnic minority women in parliament is now proportional to the population of the nation as a 2021 census found that 18% of the population of England and Wales is made up of Black, Asian, mixed, or other ethnic groups aside from White British.
So, what does this mean in practice?
With the growing number of female MPs, we can hope that issues faced predominantly by women will become more of a priority within parliament.
Labour’s manifesto outlines a number of pledges they have made in order to uplift and protect women. These include improving childcare options (free breakfast clubs in primary schools and extending parental leave), ensuring equal pay and protection against maternity and menopause discrimination, more resources allocated to investigating rapes, and greater support for domestic violence victims.
More generally, they plan to introduce two million more NHS appointments per year - which will hopefully improve the support for women’s health issues. Within the UK, women’s physical and mental pain is regularly ignored or minimised due to gender-based prejudice. The Gender Pain Gap Index Report carried out by Nurofen found that 48% of women and men in the UK believe there is a gap in the identification and treatment of pain between genders. The introduction of more appointments and training thousands of additional midwives should allow for women to seek help and speedy referrals.
Labour has pledged to try and close the Black and Asian maternal mortality gap through the introduction of more midwives, although it is unclear how exactly they will address the unconscious bias that Black and Asian women experience by healthcare professionals.
While Labour’s manifesto creates a hopeful vision for the future of women in Britain and the fact that the overwhelming majority of female MPs belong to the Labour party, the mistreatment of female candidates and trans-women by the party cannot be ignored.
Faiza Shaheen, a potential Labour candidate for the Chingford and Woodford Green seat in North East London, was barred from running as a Labour candidate due to her criticism of the Israeli government and her willingness to be vocal about experiencing Islamophobia within the Labour party.
Diane Abbott, the first black woman elected to parliament and the current MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, had a comparable experience to Shaheen. Abbott was suspended from the Labour party in April 2023, due to comments she made about the racial prejudice experienced by Irish, Jewish, and Traveller people. It then became unclear whether she would be barred from standing as a Labour candidate despite being readmitted into the party. On the 4th July, she won her seat and she remains a member of the Labour party, but she acknowledged the internal party’s mistreatment of many running candidates, particularly women of colour.
The Prime Minister has also targeted trans-women, stating that they “do not have a right” to female-only spaces including public toilets and wards in hospitals. He has also been responsible for Labour’s decision to scrap a promise to implement self-ID amendments to the Gender Recognition Act, seen as a ‘betrayal’ by the trans-community.
However, when speaking about the transgender community as a whole, Angela Rayner stated, “It’s about not demonising people. [...] these are human beings. Transgender people are some of the most vulnerable people in society and they deserve dignity and respect.” Consequently, there is a ray of hope for the protection and freedom of transgender people in the UK.
To quote Sunder Katwala, director of UK-based think-tank and charity British Future, “Better representation doesn’t guarantee better policies on inclusion. Our race debates can often feel as polarised as ever. But a stronger share of voice matters.”
More women in parliament doesn’t directly correlate with an improvement in the lives of British women. But it does mean that women can contribute their experiences, stories, and knowledge, to the laws that affect us. There is still work required to make politics and more broadly, society, a safe space particularly for women of colour, disabled women, and LGBTQ+ women.
Now is when the real work begins.
Edited by Emily Duff