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Worth noting is our own rather poor showing in elite politics in the US. Around 25% women in congress. And if you look at only Republicans it's under 9%. Yes

Worth noting is our own rather poor showing in elite politics in the US. Around 25% women in congress. And if you look at only Republicans it's under 9%. Yes, you read that correctly.

peteretep 6y ago
Something I’ve noticed about UK conservatism — and maybe it’s true for the US too — is that women and minorities are much better represented at the very top than at the MP/Congress level. The Tories have 25% female MPs, but are also responsible for both female PMs. Half of the Great Offices of State in the UK are currently occupied by minorities. And if you look at the historic willingness of the Tories to run ethnic and female candidates for very important roles, it’s considerably better than Labour: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Offices_of_State https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Offices_of_State I guess all I’m saying is that it’s worth factoring in proximity to power rather than just raw numbers
- pasabagi 6y ago
  There's a simple logic to this. The center is left of the conservatives, so a woman or minority candidate allows them to capture swing voters. Racists and sexists will probably vote for them anyway. It's why Angela Merkel is such an effective politician. She essentially monopolizes the right, while being able to take positions that the right wing hate (e.g. on the refugee crisis), knowing they won't stop voting for her.
  - peteretep 6y ago
    > so a woman or minority candidate allows them to capture swing voters I don't think this is true. Thatcher, May, Priti Patel, Palin, and Andrea Leadsom are all hard-right enough that I don't believe any of them are more appealing to people in the center than white, male moderates like Cameron.
- pydry 6y ago
  Running a minority candidate who shares your politics is a good way of deflecting (or even co-opting) a lot of 'woke' criticism. As true in Thatcher's day as it is with the supreme court today. I wonder if Biden isn't the same thing in reverse (an attempt to appeal to the curmudgeonly older white voters who are attracted to Trump with somebody who looks like them).
oh_sigh 6y ago
I don't think you should necessarily be depressed by this. The average age of a congressperson is ~60 years old. So the average congress person was born in 1960. Our current crop of congress people were raised in the 60s, by WWII veterans. Even if you think society underwent changes and is far more gender equitable now than it was in 1960, you wouldn't expect to see that start to take effect in top level leadership until much later. It's the same reason why you wouldn't expect to see a woman or a black person on the supreme court 15 years after women or blacks were allowed to become lawyers.

Worth noting is our own rather poor showing in elite politics in the US. Around 25% women in congress. And if you look at only Republicans it's under 9%. Yes, you read that correctly.

peteretep 6y ago

Something I’ve noticed about UK conservatism — and maybe it’s true for the US too — is that women and minorities are much better represented at the very top than at the MP/Congress level. The Tories have 25% female MPs, but are also responsible for both female PMs. Half of the Great Offices of State in the UK are currently occupied by minorities. And if you look at the historic willingness of the Tories to run ethnic and female candidates for very important roles, it’s considerably better than Labour: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Offices_of_State https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Offices_of_State I guess all I’m saying is that it’s worth factoring in proximity to power rather than just raw numbers

pasabagi 6y ago
There's a simple logic to this. The center is left of the conservatives, so a woman or minority candidate allows them to capture swing voters. Racists and sexists will probably vote for them anyway. It's why Angela Merkel is such an effective politician. She essentially monopolizes the right, while being able to take positions that the right wing hate (e.g. on the refugee crisis), knowing they won't stop voting for her.
- peteretep 6y ago
  > so a woman or minority candidate allows them to capture swing voters I don't think this is true. Thatcher, May, Priti Patel, Palin, and Andrea Leadsom are all hard-right enough that I don't believe any of them are more appealing to people in the center than white, male moderates like Cameron.
pydry 6y ago
Running a minority candidate who shares your politics is a good way of deflecting (or even co-opting) a lot of 'woke' criticism. As true in Thatcher's day as it is with the supreme court today. I wonder if Biden isn't the same thing in reverse (an attempt to appeal to the curmudgeonly older white voters who are attracted to Trump with somebody who looks like them).

oh_sigh 6y ago

I don't think you should necessarily be depressed by this. The average age of a congressperson is ~60 years old. So the average congress person was born in 1960. Our current crop of congress people were raised in the 60s, by WWII veterans. Even if you think society underwent changes and is far more gender equitable now than it was in 1960, you wouldn't expect to see that start to take effect in top level leadership until much later. It's the same reason why you wouldn't expect to see a woman or a black person on the supreme court 15 years after women or blacks were allowed to become lawyers.