Bristol Mayoral & PCC Candidates: representing women’s interests

What are the issues that Mayoral candidates need to be addressing to ensure women’s interests are represented in their vision for Bristol?

Based on previous work by Bristol Fawcett in Cutting Women Out and the survey that supported the establishment of Bristol Women’s Voice last year, Counting Women In proposed that there were four main issues that Mayoral and PCC candidates needed to address to represent women’s interests and support women’s equality effectively:

1. Impact of cuts to public services, within addressing the economy more generally
2. Representation of women in politics, decision-making and public life
3. Women’s safety, violence and abuse against women and girls
4. Childcare and caring responsibilities

Over the last few months Bristol Fawcett has been having very welcome discussions with candidates about the importance of these issues.  We have also been asking women and women’s organisations if these are the issues that matter – or if there are others that the candidates need to be addressing.  In our survey, 85% of respondents agreed that these are the key issues, further comments on these from the survey are set out below.  Those who responded suggested pledges they would like to see from candidates that we have summarised below.  There are a broad range of proposals to be considered – although a number of respondents expressed a concern that they wanted candidates only to make pledges that they are able to keep if they are elected.

The next few weeks see lots of activity as ‘Question Time’ events happen and candidates are out there canvassing even more frenetically.  It is important, therefore, that questions about these issues continue to be asked and the candidates are able to respond. If you want to know what both Mayoral and PCC candidates are going to do to represent women’s interests and support women’s equality you can:

• Ask questions about these issues at a Question Time near you – see our handy guide for details here
• Attend the Women’s Question Time, arranged by Bristol Women’s Voice, on 31^st October – details here
• Ask questions about these issues of the candidates or their supporters if you are canvassed about your vote

Survey Responses: Counting Women in Mayoral and PCC elections in Bristol and Avon & Somerset

Below is a summary of some of the detailed responses received to the survey from individual women and women’s organisations in Bristol.  Bristol Fawcett would like to offer a big thank-you to all those who took the time to provide such valuable and important feedback in relation to the survey.

Suggestions from the survey for pledges by candidates to address women’s interests:

• Prioritise both elder care and affordable, high-quality childcare – places for all who need them, when they need them
• Good, cheap accessible transport infrastructure
• Fund prevention work on violence and abuse against women and girls
• Make Bristol a sex industry free zone
• A clear and transparent structure for women’s interests to be represented in decision-making
• Fund women only night shelter for homeless women
• No cuts to after school clubs
• High profile support and campaign against violence and abuse of women and girls
• Rigorous action on FGM
• No cuts to domestic or sexual violence services
• Strategic approach to understanding women’s needs across all policies
• Solid commitment to funding and engaging with specialist and women’s service providers
• Affordable housing for older women

Impact of the Cuts

Concerns were raised specifically about:

• A high focus on job losses in traditional ‘women’s work’ and the disproportionate impact  on the female, low paid and part-time workforce
• Impact of cuts to legal aid on women experiencing domestic violence
• Impact of cuts on lone parents more likely to be reliant on public services/ in low paid work
• Disproportionate impact of changes to disability and carers benefits
• Changes to care services placing further burden on women  as main carers and greater requirement to ‘arrange and coordinate’ care
• Doubling of food banks in last 12 months – ¾ of those using food banks are women
• Increasing need to raise money to support children to take part in extra-curricular activities
• Cuts to welfare services, transport, high childcare costs and low wages impacting disproportionately on women
• Risk of closure of domestic violence services and fear of the impact of housing benefit changes on the potential closure of refuge provision for those fleeing domestic abuse and violence

“As a woman I am currently experiencing many problems getting employment that is part time and fits around the demands of looking after my family (children and parents).  I have not had this level of difficulty before – it’s been 11 months and I have had short term work and had to take ad hoc very part time hours at a cafe that is much less well paid than my previous work.”

Women and representation

Some specific comments:

• Women not being listened to properly and remaining under-represented amongst decision-makers
• Consultations – double-edged collusion or real opportunity to make a difference?
• Women not coming forward as independent candidates; political parties not taking enough action to identify women candidates
• Disappointingly low number of women candidates in the Mayoral and PCC races
• Structures of local and national politics make it difficult for women to participate – why can’t we have job-share MPs and Councillors?

“”Ordinary” women are poorly represented in government at all levels.  Those of us struggling to manage a job and family commitments simply don’t have the time to get involved.”

 

Women’s safety, violence and abuse against women and girls

Concerns raised about:

• Cuts to public transport twinned with ‘flexible’ working hours leave women at risk and unsafe
• Better responses needed from community and neighbourhood policing to violence and harassment against women and girls
• More action required to address human trafficking in Bristol – police are tackling this but greater awareness of the extent of the issue and links to prostitution is needed
• Women should feel safe to walk about their own city – this is not currently the case for all women
• Bristol should be proud of its efforts to tackle domestic violence and abuse – this work must be maintained and built on
• Lap-dancing clubs make women feel unsafe to walk by; and give a sleazy impression of Bristol
• FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) must be tackled properly

“The newly elected Police Commissioner must be asked to give a public statement that violence and abuse against women will not be countenanced.”

Childcare and caring responsibilities

Some specific comments:

• The state is placing a higher and disproportionate emphasis on women as carers; many women are juggling the joint responsibilities of caring for both children and elderly parents
• Women work hard to bring in a wage for their families but also work hard to raise those families – this needs to be recognised
• Services need to be more flexible to support women and men who have caring and paid work responsibilities
• Unaffordable cost of childcare is resulting in more women being expected to fill the gap free of charge – and give up work to do so
• Women need to know childcare is both affordable and safe for their children

“Women carry a disproportionate burden in areas such as childcare; caring for sick and elderly relatives.”

Other issues that were raised as important:

• Ensuring proper support for women’s mental health
• Jobs and the economy
• The environment and climate change
• Transport
• Women’s health

“It is essential that women are able to make choices.  I feel there is a retrograde process being put in place by stopping women to remain financially independent as they are being pushed back into the domestic sphere.  This is especially prevalent within the lower paid occupations.”

“Integrity and fairness are always of importance, and it is time that women were fully recognised as being a vital part of the work force and were valued as such and remunerated at the correct and fair level pertaining to their role.”

Police & Crime Commissioner for Avon & Somerset – why does it matter to Counting Women In?

So, it’s been a bit quiet on the blog front but that should not be equated with inactivity.

We were busy preparing  for a meeting organised as part of the ‘Everywoman Safe Everywhere Commission’ in Westminster on Monday.  Members of the End Violence Against Women Coalition were invited with Vera Baird to explore how Police & Crime Commissioners (PCCs) should be held to account for tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).   So, it provides a good springboard to outline the key issues that we think need addressing in the campaign and election of a PCC for Avon and Somerset.

Who knows it’s happening?

There has been no referendum, the election of a PCC has been imposed – and although we have until November we are not seeing a significant effort being put in nationally to communicate these changes.  A recent poll conducted on 8th May by Centreground Political Communications and reported in the Guardian revealed that 48% of those polled in the South West knew nothing of the elections.  Women in the poll were significantly (71%) more likely than men (44%) to say that they have not heard anything about the upcoming elections.

Bristol could well be at an advantage with turnout, and possibly awareness – now that we are electing a Mayor on the same date – but we still have no concept of campaigning, communicating or turning out for a regional election of this nature.

Who are the candidates? (sub-title: and are there any women?)

We are glad to see from the Police Foundation that Avon & Somerset finally has some potential candidates (earlier information showed us as 1 of 9 authorities with no candidates at all).  So far there are no independents, 2 on the Labour shortlist (John Savage, Bob Ashford), 2 definite Liberal Democrats (Lisa Brett, Pete Levy) with Gary Hopkins a potential candidate, and 1 definite Conservative (Ken Maddock) with potentially also William Wallace.

On a simplistic level anyone can see this is not a 50:50 representation of women.  Far from it – and nationally women make up fewer than one in four of the candidates listed by the Police Foundation, with 10 areas where no woman is listed.  Given that each party will only put a maximum of one candidate forward the chances of an all-male candidate slate in our area seem high – unless there are independent women candidates who come forward.

As well as this under-representation of women there is a real concern about the quality of candidates that these elections will produce.  This is not a comment on any individual candidates but a reflection that this is a new, untested role with significant implications for crime, safety and justice and inherently it will be a political post, even if a non-party political candidate is successful.  How will one person ensure they are able to represent the diversity of Avon & Somerset – gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality etc – and have the skills to navigate not only the management of a large organisation (3,210 full-time officers alone) but also the political landscape, at a regional level?

Why does it matter to women and women’s organisations?

Crime and safety are issues for everyone; women share common concerns with the rest of the population, e.g.  in relation to crime associated with drugs and alcohol, violent crime, anti-social behaviour and acquisitive crime.

However, the need to continue tackling the harm caused through Violence Against Women and Girls must be a priority for the PCC if they are to serve the needs of women in Avon and Somerset.  In Bristol there has been very good work developed in partnership over recent years to tackle violence against women and girls  – but much more has to be done and what has been achieved must be maintained to tackle this significant issue, across Avon and Somerset.

This is why the election of a PCC matters to women and achieving gender equality.   The election of PCCs presents significant change to decision-making and by extension funding for crime and community safety.  Elected individuals, likely to be politically aligned, will be responsible for setting policing priorities and outcomes and overseeing much of the work of the community safety partnerships – this will include distributing funding to community safety initiatives and services.  This will include funding that provides services, support and initiatives that tackle violence against women and girls – including domestic violence, sexual violence, trafficking and female genital mutilation.

The elected Police & Crime Commissioner must have an understanding of the issues of  Violence Against Women and Girls, including the need to prioritise the delivery of prevention and these issues have to remain a priority in the Police and Crime Plan for Avon & Somerset if the PCC is going to deliver for women, and for society as a whole.

What are we doing about it?

• We have written to all Council Leaders in Avon & Somerset and asked them to ensure that in appointing the new Police & Crime Panel to oversee the PCC they ensure they consider gender representation and expertise in violence against women and girls.
• We have provided input to the ‘Everywoman Safe Everywhere Commission’ on what needs to be in place to ensure PCCs deliver on the VAWG agenda and will share the outcomes of this session.
• We will be providing information on the issues related to Violence Against Women and Girls, and looking to discuss this with potential candidates.
• We are developing a set of key pledges in this area that we will ask candidates to sign up to ahead of the election in November.
• We are working with other local organisations to raise awareness jointly on this issue during the election campaign.

….and that small matter of the Mayoral Referendum

Bristol Fawcett issued a press release setting out our position as part of this Counting Women In campaign.  The campaign may have not officially started yet, and we await the outcome of the selection of candidates by political parties with interest, but we are looking to see that the issues that matter to women are taken into account in these selections.

Bristol Mayor – Good for Women? Bad for Women?

To sum up, it’s unclear.  We are not going to repeat here the general analysis done elsewhere on the referendum pros and cons – both the problem we are attempting to address and the solution we are being offered remain bafflingly unclear on several fronts.  The ‘for’ and ‘against’ camps seem to have some level of agreement on the lack of clarity we have on the powers and accountability that the individual will hold if the people of Bristol vote in favour.   In terms of the potential impact on women and girls though we have determined three key questions:

1. What guarantees are there of more inclusive and democratic politics for Bristol?
2. Whose ‘Vision for Bristol’ is it anyway?
3. Where are the women?

What guarantees are there of more inclusive and democratic politics for Bristol?

There has been much said in favour of a Mayor about the ability of a ‘unifying’ individual to bring the people of Bristol together, and increase the inclusivity and representative nature of local politics.  This was a particular theme at the Mayoral Debate organised by the City Council in February – in a room filled almost exclusively with white Bristolians, the majority of whom were over 55 (although 43% were women the Chair was berated for the failure to actually allow any of those women to ask questions).  Given that we know so little about the powers that the Mayor would have or the accountability and scrutiny frameworks that would be in place, how will we ensure inclusivity is the case for all communities?  The box on the ballot paper that reads, ‘By a mayor who is elected by voters.  This would be a change from how the council is run now’  leaves an awful lot open to question at this point.

Potentially, ‘inclusive and democratic’ risks being lip-service while the elected individual actually spends most of their time working with people they know and feel comfortable with, pursuing their own individual vision and pet projects and not really addressing the concerns of those who are in minorities or (as women are) form a majority but whose major issues are often seen as not being part of the mainstream political debate.   It is clear that ‘soft power’ in terms of networking and influencing will be much more important in getting things done for Bristol with an elected Mayor – how can one individual ensure they are open equally to influence from all?  How can this influence and networking be properly scrutinised?

Whose ‘Vision for Bristol’ is it anyway?

…….which does rather bring us on to the issue of ‘vision’.  The pro-camp is very much in favour of a Mayor for Bristol because it will bring visionary leadership, get things done and ensure Bristol is a major national and international player.  Much of this focuses on the building of a strong economy and business base (see below for feedback from Counting Women In on the largely business attended ‘An Elected Mayor for Bristol?’ event).  Economic success is clearly a matter of major importance if we are to ensure that the people of Bristol have skills and employment opportunities and we are able to invest in the sort of city that we want to live in.  But to what end is this vision for economic development?  Surely, the goal is not to measure success of Bristol purely in economic terms, the current state of the world economy has gone some way to testifying to the failure of that end goal.

We need to ensure that the ‘vision’ for Bristol considers a much more inclusive measure of what success looks like – socially, environmentally as well as economically – and that it specifically addresses the inequalities that exist within Bristol on all these fronts. This sort of vision requires the enabling of people to engage and put forward their ideas, wants and needs.  This sort of vision cannot be developed just by an individual, potentially working with a small part of their network, to decide what will be best for Bristol.  We know currently that the  ‘vision leaders’ are not thinking inclusively in relation to women – for example the ‘Bristol 2050′ vision may be big on growth and jobs but without addressing the need for  flexibility of working arrangements and affordable, flexible childcare a large proportion of the population, the overwhelming majority of whom are women, will remain unable to fulfill their potential within the workplace and the economy.

We will be speaking to women and women’s groups over the next few weeks to gather thoughts on what women would want from a vision for Bristol – so we can model what we preach and not make assumptions.  But we do know from the  launch of Bristol Women’s Voice yesterday and the excellent post by Sian Norris for the Festival of Ideas that the issues that women are concerned about are:

• Health
• Jobs & skills
• Caring responsibilities
• Safety

Where are the women?

So, Bristol votes yes to a Mayor (which appears likely currently).  The people priming themselves currently to run are let loose from the starting gates and we begin to debate the serious issues that affect Bristol.  Except they won’t be people – they will be men.  Currently, the only names being talked about belong to men and while we won’t make any rash judgements about age, the majority of those are white men.  A commitment to inclusive and representative politics has to start with the election and without 50:50 representation in the field of candidates how can we possibly achieve this?

‘Counting Women In’ will this week be writing to the established political parties in Bristol to encourage them to think about 50:50 representation in both selection of Mayoral (should this come to pass) and Police & Crime Commissioner candidates………….

Otherwise we watch this space for women to come forward and ponder the many reasons why they may not be doing so?

Report back – ‘An Elected Mayor for Bristol?’, 14th March

This  ‘engagement event’ rapidly dropped the ‘?’, not helped by the apparent no-show of the No campaign and the predominantly already converted audience – made up of largely the business community and subscribers to the ‘Bristol 2050′ initiative of Business West.  Those in favour were well aided in this by Lord Adonis and Greg Clark MP.  Whilst comfortable talking about the economic benefits a potential Mayor may bring, these prestigious guests were seemingly flummoxed by questions on the impact of a Mayor on achieving gender equality with a question as to how we could ensure a diverse pool of mayoral candidates leaving them lost for words.

To help them out, they were given copies of a report from the Centre for Women and Democracy (www.cfwd.org.uk) demonstrating that nationally only 21% of potential mayoral candidates to date have been female (May 2011 mayoral elections). Both Adonis and Clark gave assurances that they would address the question of promoting a 50:50 (female:male) pool of potential candidates for those cities who vote in favour – we are watching this space.

A vision for political representation….

To start at the beginning we ought to share our thoughts on the nature of political representation as women and feminists and what our ultimate vision is, to underline why we think ‘Counting Women In’ is so important now for Bristol.  Wearstheshoes won’t be campaigning either for or against a Mayor for Bristol – and there is no choice on the election of a Police & Crime Commissioner for Avon & Somerset.  But it is important that we are able to highlight the issues that a hierarchical model of leadership and power invested in one individual brings.  Particularly when we exist in a society where the access to that power and representation remains so unequal.

It is less than a century since women in the UK were given any right to vote, or to stand for political office, to take up civil professions or to take up public office.  While the laws that prevented women from being visible and active in public life have been dismantled, the legacy of a bygone age still influences today’s models of “leadership”, policy-making and the setting of priority policy areas.  These hierarchical models are known to lead to poor performance when it comes to capturing or even recognising the knowledge and experience of people who are traditionally excluded from the corridors of power.  Our vision for a feminist politics is one that recognises women as over 50% of the population, that recognises the strengths and benefits of collaborative decision-making and that conceptualises leadership as power to enable rather than the exercise of power over others.

So, we’ll be coming back to this theme about candidates being able to demonstrate collaborative decision-making and enabling not exercising power no doubt as the campaigns commence….

Welcome – Bristol Counting Women In

Bristol Fawcett is launching a new campaign to ensure that the voices of Bristol women and girls, and the issues that are important to them, are heard in the current debate around a Mayor for Bristol and the election of a Police & Crime Commissioner for Avon & Somerset.  You can find out more about why we are doing this on our About page.

We will be posting soon on what we think of the debate so far, what we know and what we plan to do…….