There's an interesting article in The Times today about David Cameron's lack of women in the Conservative Party. Three years ago, Cameron promised that he would "end the scandal of under-representation of
women in the party", and now, The Times point out that only 69 of the 331 prospective Tory parliamentary candidates are women.
Cameron's team has men in 11 of the 17 non-administrative jobs, and in January he "removed Caroline Spelman as party
chairman" and then chose not to increase the number of women in the Shadow Cabinet, and as The Times reports, he didn't promote ministers such as Maria Miller and Justine Greening and Maria as was expected.
But, thankfully, this isn't an issue of "positive discrimination" but rather "hiring people on merit instead of gender" as so many commenters on this post by Francis Elliot and Sam Coates have pointed out.
Cameron's people agree, saying that "many existing female MPs have underperformed and point out that
just 17 of the 125 female MPs in Parliament are Conservatives."
An unidentified "high-profile female parliamentary candidate" has said:
“The fact that there are
not more women in the inner circle inevitably affects policy. It’s deeply
worrying.”
But deeply worrying to who?
David Cameron doesn't exactly care. The commenters don't care. The Conservative Party doesn't exactly seem to care, either.
Is this just another case of "the women who want to be in the Conservative Party are"?
If more women wanted higher up positions with the Tories, they should simply work harder. They shouldn't continue to "underperform".
Richard M Hayes, the first commenter on the post, says that:
"Most things run by women are a disaster. Look at local councils, NHS
PCT's and the Labour party! Go for ability and sack those who are
incapable of performing."
So...we don't need more women in technology, we don't need more women in the Conservative Party, and therefore politics in general. Men are better at running kitchens, governments...
Let's all just give up. There's no point in trying. Men are just better. They're born that way.
Image via Davidosler.com