The Women’s Equality Party’s first Party Conference notes with dismay the continued under-representation of women in our Westminster legislature, with only 29.4% of MPs being female and the United Kingdom being ranked 48th in the world in terms of gender representation in national legislatures.
WE are disappointed that the current Westminster electoral system (First Past the Post) further perpetuates the inequality in the system, as do all majoritarian or plurality voting systems that exist in western democracies.
WE call on the government to fix this by:
1) launching a consultation as to the best electoral system for equality of representation in the House of Commons, looking at other democracies with over 40% female representation as the best examples; and
2) proposing a change of the electoral system to a more proportional system that uses multi-member constituencies (such as Party list PR or AMS).