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Draft guidance issued by the Welsh Government to political parties about how to create a gender-balanced Senedd voluntarily is now out for consultation until January 7 2025.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list (a minimum 50% threshold was the model proposed in the Senedd Cymru (Electoral Candidate Lists) Bill which was withdrawn at Stage 2 [of the Senedd’s legal process];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.”
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Wales is the laughing stock of the UK. It has made itself so Woke, so utterly ridiculous, that it’s no wonder it’s governed by Westminster. That’s because it can’t be trusted to look after the citizens it is supposedly representing. Until Wales gets to grip with REAL ISSUES of ‘ ordinary’ hard-working, law abiding, tax paying people with more COMMON SENSE than the Senedd, it will remain a Woke Appendage, oh, and a total laughing Stock.
Although I agree with you that Welsh Labour has an obsession with a gender-balanced Senedd, personally think the ratio of male to female MSs should be based on merit rather than artificially engineered to fit a quota. Anyway the world isn’t a 50/50 split between both sexes. And the fact is there are more men than women in the world, but the aspiration of attracting more women & ethnic minorities into frontline politics should always be paramount to any functioning democracy. Oh , and you are wrong by the way regarding the Senedd being a laughing stock. Don’t confuse the… Read more »
I’m not confusing anything, I’m merely stating the obvious. The Senedd is blatantly out of touch with the man in the street if it thinks they give a toss whether it’s a Male or Female who decides on it’s Policies; they are more concerned with how much more of their hard earned wages will go to pay for it! Wokeness is just a cover for ineptitude, and Wales is singing it’s own praises from the rafters when it comes to it. So no, I’m not confused.
Says who? A bunch of Fascists 😂 FTR woke means awake and if you’re not awake you are asleep. You keep sleeping while we keep expanding democracy and the rights of all. As oppose to giving privileges and get out of jail free cards to Heterosexual men, usually white ones, while taking everybody else’s hard fought for rights away.
I want quality over quantity. Merit rather than manufactured. If the Senedd Cymru was 60/40 split in favour of women MSs, I couldn’t care less. I want the best man (or woman) for the job, be they black , brown or white, Welsh or English speaking, not an artificial quota system although done with good intention. We should encourage those marginalised to stand for office by making the conditions so that he or she want to enter politics to make a difference. To create an environment for the betterment of Wales & Welsh society, not a perpetual begging bowl nation… Read more »
Regardless of the Female to Male ratio across the World, here in Cymru 51% of the population is Female and only 49% are Male. In the history of the Senedd there has only ever been a small majority or a large majority in favour of men. When we look at the caliber of some of those male MSs/AMs compared to some of the Female candidates it’s clear that people don’t vote based on quality. Just look at ARTD for example, almost anybody would be better than him,preferably a woman who’s left wing or Liberal though. Look at the history of… Read more »
…and what are you going to do if not enough women want to be an MS – conscript them? Remember, Labour only ever allowed women-only short lists in safe seats: why do you think that is? Statistically men and women make different choices, largely based on their differing psychological traits. The notion of vocational parity is ridiculous: would you push for more female bricklayers, oil rig workers, refuse collectors?
There’s plenty of women who want to be MSs, it’s just that most men don’t want to vote for them. Ever it was thus. As for your comment on women having different Psychological traits to men, let’s be clear women spend most of their time protecting themselves from men because their assumption is that males will lash out against them when their frustrated or angry.
Well I have voted for women in the past and would happily do so again if they represent my views and concerns. If Liz Truss had remained Prime Minister at the last election, are you telling me that all the right wing gammons would have refused to vote for her because she is a women? Is that why the Tory party just elected a black woman as their leader? Quota systems, affirmative action, positive discrimination etc cause more harm then good. In fact it is itself a sexist policy, because it assumes that men will not vote for women, and… Read more »
I totally agree with your comment, regardless of male or female it should always be the best person not a made up woke culture. No wonder we are laughing stock in devolution!! Work for all of Wales regardless of colour or religion or whatever.
The Women’s Rights Network do have a point. Choosing to use the term gender rather than sex could totally undermine the quota system and favour those men who self identify as women.
In the end I would prefer the Senedd to be concentrating on solving bread and butter issues like poverty, social housing shortages, high energy costs, education etc etc. They are failing Wales on all of these issues while allowing/colluding with Westminster to asset/wealth strip the nation.
I agree
Firstly it’s sex, not gender, that’s relevant here. The word gender has now become so polluted by the ‘gender identity’ fairytale crowd that it no longer has any utility. Regardless of that, equity-based hiring has always been a disaster: we of all people should know this after the Gething fiasco. It’s meritocracy that works best, it always has, and we should stick with it.
If you genuinely want a meritocracy we should start by abolishing inheritance so that everyone starts in the same place.
Meanwhile folks in Cymru go hungry and drown and choke as the cold gets to their lungs, hardly enough food to keep a Sparrow warm, the people of Ynys Mon take one on the chin and these over fed wasters argue the toss over this, rather than earn their wages…
Meanwhile in the real world political parties are already setting their selection rules at autumn meetings as they recognise the time to takes to run free and fair internal processes over such large consitituencies. For draft guidance to come out now with a consultation to January and I assume no publication to the spring shows how rushed this process has been. IF there was a real desire to increase diversity then the voting system would be STV so the public could chose both within and between political parties not see this muddled attempt by Labour to meddle in the internal… Read more »
the RED menace is is already finagling to keep power in 2026 change is needed in the voting system