By Jessica Hayden
The cabinet reshuffle promised to be a great day for women in politics. Women were promoted, such as now Minister of State for Employment, Esther McVey. Campaigns such as 50/50 parliament - which seek for a more equal male/female number of MPs - rejoiced at the news that the future may hold a cabinet that isn’t exclusively male and “fat, balding Tory, Home Counties, upper-middle class twits ” as Bridget Jones so wonderfully puts it.
However the media’s response to what was supposed to be a triumph for women was disgustingly sexist, to say the very least. The words “child care” and “school run” were used too often when talking about how on earth the women could possibly handle being politicians and also juggle their “mothering responsibilities”. Of course no reference was made to David Cameron’s ability to juggle being a father of three and being Prime Minister, despite him forgetting how many children he has and leaving one in a pub toilet back in 2012. The idea that a woman should focus only on their children and not have a career belittles women and encourages the belief that women should only ever be stay-at-home mums, which is dangerously old-fashioned in a “modern” society.
The Daily Mail, as always, did their absolute best to patronize and insult women, calling the reshuffle a “catwalk”, describing Esther McVey as “The Queen of the Downing Street Catwalk” and a “thigh flashing vision”. Once again, The Daily Mail cared more about what women look like than what talents they may have. The Mail went as far to say “She needs to tone it down a little for attending Cabinet meetings.” As her “bust-emphasising” dress was just too much for the paper, which homes the infamous “side-bar of shame” which tells women they are too fat, too thin, show too much skin but not nearly enough skin, all at the same time. Women are never going to be respected in The Mail, but this article still infuriated me, feminists all around… and Nick Clegg, apparently.
Clegg responded to The Daily Mail article, saying he thinks “it’s demeaning, old-fashioned and most people would just think it’s completely out-of-step with modern Britain.” It’s brilliant that a recognised man in politics has noticed the blatant sexism of the media. However some of his comments, such as it being “out-of-step with modern Britain” were ambitious.
Unfortunately, this attitude to women in politics IS modern Britain and more needs to be done to establish women in politics and present them in a fairer way, like discussing their jobs, rather than their skirt-length.
