Election quick hit: check up on candidates in your constituency with Fawcett

FAWCET~1.jpgThe Fawcett Society asked prospective parliamentary candidates from up and down the country these three questions. Would they:

1. Support local and national action to tackle the gender pay gap? (yes/no)

2. Increase support services for women victims of rape as well as address the low level of rapes that end in a conviction? (yes/no)

3. Work with Fawcett and others to ensure that both local and national deficit cutting proposals are assessed in terms of how they would impact on

women – both regarding access to public services and women’s income’s? (yes/no)

You can download a PDF of the responses received from Fawcett’s website. (In the consistency where I live the Labour and Green candidates said yes to all three questions, but frustratingly the Lib Dem incumbent Simon Hughes and Tory candidate didn’t respond, for example). There is a short list of candidates that replied no to all three questions,

Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg answered yes to all three questions, but Fawcett says the Conservatives’ Cameron “responded with the Tories policy position in the relevant areas” (I did email them asking what his answers were but didn’t get a response from them.)

A breakdown of the results does not give a good showing to the Tories:

  • 2.6% of Conservative Party PPC’s contacted answered ‘yes’ to all 3 questions
  • 23.9% of Labour Party PPC’s contacted answered ‘yes’ to all 3 questions
  • 25.7% of Liberal Democrat PPC’s contacted answered ‘yes’ to all 3 questions
  • 59.5% of Green Party PPC’s contacted answered ‘yes’ to all 3 questions

Fawcett also offers an interesting breakdown of the percentage of women that replied, relative to the overall percentage of women PPC’s standing for election for each party:

  • 46% of responses from Conservative Party PPC’s were from women, compared with 24% standing overall
  • 38% of responses from Labour Party PPC’s were from women, compared with 30% standing overall
  • 31% of responses from Liberal Democrat PPC’s were from women, compared with 21% standing overall
  • 33% of responses from Green Party PPC’s were from women, compared with 33% standing overall