British bill would make more women lawmakers

Associated Press

LONDON — Affirmative action is needed to raise the number of women in Parliament to an acceptable level, the government said Wednesday, introducing legislation that would allow the use of women-only candidate short-lists in elections.

"Relying on improvements to be made without direct intervention has been tried before and failed," local government secretary Stephen Byers told the House of Commons.

Just 118 of the 659 members of Parliament elected in June are women, two fewer than at the last election in 1997.

The 1997 result was a record, and included 101 female legislators for the ruling Labor Party, which used all-female lists to select candidates in some constituencies.

Labor was forced to drop the women-only lists after a legal challenge by male hopefuls. Byers said the new bill would prevent that from happening again. But he said the law would not force political parties to use women-only lists.

"With this bill, there will be the freedom within political parties to have a debate about the positive measures that should be taken," Byers said.

Theresa May, the Conservative Party’s local government spokeswoman, said her party would not oppose the bill.

"We support the aim and the principles that underlie this legislation — the aim to get more women into parliament and the principle that political parties should have the freedom to determine their own selection procedures."

But the Tories’ former home issues spokeswoman, Ann Widdecombe, said the bill constituted discrimination against men.

"We whine and whine and demand special treatment. If that isn’t an insult to women, I don’t know what is," Widdecombe said.

The government hopes the bill will become law by next year.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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