Cameron’s cabinet criticised over lack of women
May 12th, 2010 by Chloe.Setter
Prime Minister David Cameron has made Theresa May the minister for women and equality.
Mrs May, 53, has also been handed the role of home secretary, which will come as a blow to the controversial MP, Chris Grayling, who had held the portfolio in opposition. Grayling was fiercely criticised when he defended B&B owners’ rights to refuse gay people from staying at their accommodation.
As the new home secretary, Mrs May is one the second woman to take the position, following on from Jacqui Smith of the Labour Party.
Mrs May briefly held the role of shadow women’s minister when the Conservatives were in opposition.
However, she opposed Labour’s attempts to get more women into Parliament through the use of all-women shortlists and has claimed that her own achievements are the results of her own efforts, claiming her gender is irrelevant.
Despite an increase in female MPs in the recent election, Mrs May is so far the only woman to be given a position in Cameron’s coaltion cabinet. This compares to five when Tony Blair appointed his cabinet in 1997.
Mrs May and the new environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, are the only two women to hold senior positions in the cabinet. Cheryl Gillian will hold the position of Welsh secretary and Baroness Warsi is a minister without a portfolio.
Statistics from European countries show that the UK now has one of the worst records on the subject, with Spain scoring 53%, France and The Netherlands 33%, Italy 27% and Greece 26% - putting the UK’s dismal 20% to shame.
Ceri Goddard, chief executive of women’s group, the Fawcett Society, criticised the new set-up: “A 90% male cabinet is just not something that Fawcett and millions of other women will tolerate – it’s utterly unacceptable. The new coalition must right this wrong immediately.
“It’s as though feminism never happened,” she added. “It seems the default response of politics in political crisis is to revert to type – a men-only zone. This is not only bad for women, it’s bad for everyone as we all lose out and our democracy is just plain flawed without women’s vital contribution.”
As the minister for equality, there has been some anger at Mrs May’s appointment. Her record for voting for gay issues is low. According to Stonewall’s pre-election ‘How gay is your MP?’ campaign, she scored 14% on voting in favour of gay equality legislation compared to the former equality minister, Harriet Harman, who scored an impressive 100%.
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