Welsh Government bid to revive gender-balanced Senedd plan provokes new row

Martin Shipton

The Welsh Government is trying to salvage its bid to make the Senedd a gender-balanced body by encouraging political parties to develop relevant candidate selection criteria on a voluntary basis.

But the move has led a gender-critical feminist group to allege that an attempt is being made to allow biological males to identify as women by stealth.

The Senedd reform package that will see the number of MSs increase from 60 to 96 and the electoral system changed to the “closed list” system of proportional representation originally included plans to enforce gender balance by law. But that element of the proposals was abandoned following legal advice that the Senedd did not have the legal power to pursue such a course as equality matters are reserved to Westminster.

Draft guidance issued by the Welsh Government to political parties about how to create a gender-balanced Senedd voluntarily is now out for consultation until January 7 2025.

Review

The document states: “Political parties may need to review and revise their arrangements for selecting candidates for the scheduled 2026 and future Senedd elections in light of changes to the voting system. In doing so, they should consider whether in their circumstances they may incorporate provisions about the inclusion and placement of women candidates on their candidate lists and what any such provisions should be.

“Political parties may also wish to consider whether other groups of people who share protected characteristics are under-represented amongst their elected representatives (if they have that information) and, if so, what steps they may be able to take to address it.

“In designing any selection processes aimed at increasing the representation of women, political parties should consider the following factors as they are widely recognised as being the three important dimensions that make up an effective quota for a closed list proportional voting system, namely:

* Representation threshold – this is setting a minimum proportion of women candidates for a party’s candidate lists, eg. minimum 50% women on each candidate list (a minimum 50% threshold was the model proposed in the Senedd Cymru (Electoral Candidate Lists) Bill which was withdrawn at Stage 2 [of the Senedd’s legal process];

* Vertical criteria – this is criteria as to the placement of women within a candidate list for a constituency e.g. placing women in alternating positions on the list;

* Horizontal criteria – this is criteria as to the proportion of lists that are to have a woman in the first or only position on the list, eg ensuring that at least half of a party’s candidate lists across Wales start with a woman.

Frustrating

Cathy Larkman of the Women’s Rights Network in Wales said: “While this proposed guidance to political parties in Wales is entirely voluntary, which avoids the previous shambolic embarrassment of their attempt to lever in so-called ‘gender quotas’ without having the legislative competence to do so, it is disappointing and frustrating to note that Welsh Government has apparently learnt little from that humiliation.

“ Once again, there is a move to introduce ‘gender quotas’ which purport to improve the representation of women in political life, but with no clear definition of ‘woman’ and a failure to link this clearly to the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act 2010.

“Instead of using the precise and unambiguous term of sex, they have once again thrown the vague word ‘gender’ around repeatedly. We believe that this is deliberate. On the face of this proposed guidance as it stands, there would be nothing to prevent a party selecting up to 100% ‘women’ candidates, all of whom are actually men, and then claiming success in ensuring increased representation of women. This is an insult to the women of Wales who deserve better.

“Given that various policy positions of Welsh Labour support their belief in a right of men to self-identify as women and that self ID is also within the manifesto of Plaid Cymru, it does not take a genius to realise what is going on here. Once again, we remind them that self ID is not the law in the UK and we strongly suggest that they review this guidance and ensure this is addressed immediately.

“Candidates for political parties should be chosen on the basis of skills and ability. There are many brilliant and motivated women out there who would make excellent candidates within politics and we would like to see barriers removed to enable those women to come forward. We hope that the Welsh public respond to the consultation and make their views clear.”