Female representation in parliament andthe Conservative Party and how they engage with women’s issues.Through a recent gendered analysis of the Conservative Party, it has come to fruition that women are still being underrepresented in politics and women’s issues are not being heard. Such research has demonstrated that this may be due to the selection process being biased and political office remaining a masculine field. Women are still representing ‘fewer than one in five MP’s in the UK’ (Russell et al, 2000 :17) and make up just 21.8% of the world’s parliamentarians (Forke & Rickne, 2016). The female absence from politics has suggested that society might be getting its leaders from an excessively narrow area of human talent and that female preferences are underrepresented in political judgments’ (Murray, 2014). Due to this lack of female representation, a number issues such as childcare, women’s pensions and care of the elderly are not being properly addressed. At present, there is a distinct limit inthe amount of of research conducted into gender in the conservative party andthe House of Commons but a fair portion of the preexisting literaturesurrounding it all points to gendered inequalities based on old forms of gendernorms in parliament. In the following research report I will explain whyfemales are so under represented in parliament and the gender inequality thatcomes with it as well as explaining what effects the male built establishmentin the party has on governmental policies such as childcare. MethodologyThis analysis uses secondary data that hasbeen collected from the UK data service. The data was originally used by PaulWebb and Sarah Childs (See Webb & Childs, 2009) for ‘an extensive genderedanalysis of the contemporary UK Conservative Party’ (Webb & Childs, 2009).The data was collected over the duration of three years in order to assess howfar the Conservative Party was assimilating women and their concerns and ifwomen’s issues were being taken seriously (Webb & Childs, 2009). The fulldataset consists of 27 face –to- face semi-structured interviews withConservative Peers and 19 Conservative MP’s. Focus groups were also conductedwith 7 groups of floating and unbiased individuals and then six groups of partymembers. Through the analysis of secondary data Iwill be assessing the accounts given by several members and nonmembers of theparliamentary group through the dissection of qualitative interviews of twomale and female Conservative peers and two male and female Conservative MP’s. Qualitativeinterviews are particularly useful as a form of research because they ‘access individual’sattitudes and values- things that cannot necessarily be observed in a formalquestionnaire’ (Silverman, 2004, 182). In using 4 female and 4 male interviewtranscripts I was able to access the difference of opinion of why they believefemales are being under represented in the Conservative party and the House ofCommons and how they think women’s issues could be better dealt with.I also analysed four focus groups, two ofwhich are Conservative Party sympathisers and two of which are groups of partymembers. Focus groups are particularly useful as a form of secondary researchbecause ‘in focus groups participants are able to bring to the fore issues inrelation to a topic that they deem to be important and significant […] becausethe moderator has to relinquish a certain amount of control to theparticipants, the issues that concern them can surface’ (Bryman, 2012, 338). Ihave used focus group data because the data that occurs from the participantsinteracting with one another can be useful in determining the specific issuesrelated to the topic in question (Bryman, 2012). However, there are certain limitations tothis type of research, focus groups produce an extensive amount of data, whichcan sometimes be difficult to analyse on top of being excessively timeconsuming. Therefore, developing a strategy to analyse the data whichincorporated both what people say and their pattern of interaction can prove tobe quite problematic (Bryman, 2012).  Another limitation of focus groups is thatsometimes the poor quality of recordings causes them to become inaudible, whichaffects the transcription and therefore subsequently the data produced,rendering it unreliable (Bryman, 2012). There are also certain limitations toqualitative interviews as interviews do not tell us ‘directly about peoplesexperiences’ and ‘few researchers believe that in the course of the interview,you are able to get into someone’s head’ (Silverman, 2015, 83).The following report uses thematic analysisfrom the study of qualitative interviews and focus groups and explores theunder representation of women in the Conservative Party and political office,with reference to gender equality in the conservative party and also seeks toexplain why women’s exclusion from politics may be due to particular women’sissues such as childcare and care of the elderly which has not been properlyaddressed by the government.FindingsUnderrepresentation of women in the Conservative PartyThrough my analysis of the research data,it came to attention that it has generally been thought that women are severelyunderrepresented in parliament and in the Conservative party (Russel et al,2000). Many of the interviewee’s agreed upon the fact that the selectionprocess is still deemed ‘prejudiced and sexist’ and is still run by middle-aged men which makes it harder for females to maneuver. (Russell et al, 2000).For example, women now only represent 9% of the parliamentary party and out of48 candidates that applied to the Conservative Party, it was found that onlyseven women out of those candidates were interviewed by the selection panel.This is due, as one male Conservative MP claimed, to the selection panelshaving certain bigoted views towards females:“The selection panels are based of white older men who consist of pig headed old guys who turn up wearing Second World War underpants with the attitude that goes with it’. (Male Conservative MP) This can be backed up by Theresa May, afemale member of the Conservative party, who in a party conference said ‘lookingat its elected representatives you will see a predominantly white male party.Given that we now see an ethnically diverse society, where women play a majorrole, the conservative party doesn’t look like the people its claiming torepresent’. (Theresa May, Party Conference, 2002). This can be further shownwhen the male MP expressed his amazement at the lack of females in parliamentand claimed that even in countries like Rwanda and Pakistan, which arenotoriously patriarchal societies, they have more women representatives intheir government than Britain does.It has been accepted that in order to getmore votes, the Conservative Party needs to obtain more women into the partyand therefore makes the selection process more accessible. However, one femaleconservative peer claims:“It’s still harder for women to get selected even inspite of the party saying ‘we’d like a woman’”.  (Female Conservative Peer) Females were often subjected to criticismfor their personal lives, if they were example said to be divorced. One femaleMP claimed that women therefore had to ‘cuddle up’ to the selection committee; “Whose instinct is to prefer a pinstripe identikitcandidate with who they wish to spend Friday evenings” (Female Conservative MP)In other literature, it has been suggestedthat some women have been made to feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in the Houseof Commons due to the masculine feel of it (Russel et al, 2000). This isfurther shown in the data studied as a male Conservative MP talks about theaggressive nature of politics and women who feel uncomfortable in the House ofCommons are so because women are generally less confrontational than men. TheHouse of Commons is thus seen as less feminized and an unattractive place forwomen to work in. One Male MP even admitted to the party being unable to changeitself and if women weren’t happy with the way things were, then they wouldhave to adapt and change themselves in order to fit in.Gender Equality in the Conservative Party and House of CommonsThrough the analysis of the focus groups,the theme of equality was an issue that was raised often. Interestingly, boththe men and the females agreed upon the fact that:“I think for any women wanting to get aheadon her own abilities she’s got to be probably twice as qualified as a lot ofmen” (Focus Group, Male Conservative Member)The participants generally felt that inorder for a woman to get ahead they would have to be very self- assured andconfident if they wanted to ascertain positions they wanted. In most of thefemale focus groups it was widely discussed that women were bullied in theHouse of Commons and that they had to put up with a lot of ‘sexist rubbish’,claiming that the men were always likely to back each other up, but constantlylooking for a way to put down the women.The theme of equality is an issue that hasbeen raised in previous literature, as Dillard (2005) claimed that ‘womenexperience some disadvantage based on their sex or gender roles’ (page number)and Krook & Childs (2010) also claimed that due to inequality, women therefore‘rarely assume leadership roles and now make up a minority of all top partyofficials’ (Krook & Childs, 2010, 6). It was also discussed on one floatingvoter focus group how politicians are out of touch with things like genderequality with one male in the group claiming that he is disappointed by theprogress that women have made in terms of equality, and said:“Politicians often point to a rare example oftwo successful female politicians to prove that its possible, but in reality itisn’t as easy as that” (Male, Floating Voter Focus Group). When asked what the Conservative Party andthe house of Commons should do to get more support of female voters and getmore women into parliament, one woman from the floating voter focus groupclaimed that even if the party did attempt to appeal more to women, it wouldn’tmatter because the female voters would know that it was insincere;Interviewer : “ Do you think theres anything theconservative party should be doing to appeal more to women?”Female Respondent: “If they do we know it’s a lipservice. That’s the problem. They think its like we need to speak to women todo whatever it takes, but they shouldn’t even be asking this it should beinnate” (Female, Floating Voter Focus Group).Many of the females from the focus groupsseemed to think that the ‘glass ceiling’ effect was still in play, with onewoman from the floating voter focus group claiming;“People are saying theres no more sexism butif you actually examine the percentage of people in the highly paid, powerfuljobs, the glass ceiling is there and in fact its getting worse”( Female, FloatingVoter Focus Group). This is further shown in the literature, inthe written report by Webb and Childs after they concluded their researchanalysis where they found that while ‘42% of women strongly agree thatgovernment should make sure that women have an equal chance to succeed, onlu25% of men do” (Webb & Childs, 2011, 17). Showing that gender inequality isstill prevalent in some political parties. How the Conservative Party and the Houseof Commons engages with womens issues of childcare and the care of the elderly.Through analysing the data, an importanttheme present was how the Conservative Party engages with women’s issues suchas childcare. It was widely discussed how politics is an inhospitableenvironment for woman who have children and other responsibilities.“The way politics works often puts off quite a lot ofwomen. Its not very friendly to somebody who has obligations to the family” (MaleConservative MP). This can be seen in reports from otherliterature of meetings taking place in the House of Commons until very late atnight, subsequently making it difficult for women to be there due to familycommitments (Russel et al, 2000). Some of the female interviewees all claimedthat the unwelcoming environment made it difficult for younger women to getinto politics because they are heavily burdened with the responsibility of afull on job and looking after their children. It was discussed how woman are finding itincreasingly difficult to juggle both their careers and their personal life,with some interviewees suggesting that the reason why female candidates weren’tselected into the party was due to women being perceived as unable to fullycommit to their careers like their male counterparts, one female peer claimed;“thereason why you end up with middle class white males is because they havepreviously run a business but women have to think about children” (Female Conservative Peer). This is recognized in other literature asHymowitz (2005) argues that there has been the general perception that if awoman has a child then she cant be devoted to her job as she could be. Brysonand Heppell (2010) claim that the party has been previously criticized forassuming that women can continue with their roles at home and at work which hasput them under huge strain and they have been unable to perform to the best oftheir ability. They further claim that ‘instead of having it all as liberalfeminism seemed to promise, women are instead doing it all” (Bryson &Heppell, 2010, 46).Some female interviewees also complained ofbeing asked how they could cope in the party if they were to have children.Through gender norms it has been believed that the care of the child is up tothe mother, but many of the female interviewees expressed their outrage at thispolicy as one member of the Conservative Party member focus group said:“women should be able to have the choice togo out to work or staying and rearing children”FemaleConservative Party Member, Focus Group. In terms of how the government is concernedwith the issue of childcare, many of the female interviewees claimed that thestate isn’t putting enough funding into childcare so woman are unable to juggleboth their careers and their personal life. One female of the floating voterfocus group claimed;“The child care facilities in London areshocking, they are far too expensive and you need to earn 30,000 to breakevenwith childcare”. (Female,Floating Voter Focus Group.)This has meant that many single mothershave had to go onto benefits, because even if they were to secure employment,they still wouldn’t be able to support themselves because of the expensive rateof childcare facilities. There was a strong agreement that childcare shouldn’tbe down to the responsibility of the woman, with one woman from the floatingvoter focus group claiming:“it shouldn’t be seen as solely the womansresponsibility because two people have a child so its both their responsibilityand that’s when the whole equality thing sort of breaks down and womens issuebecome an issue”. (Female,Floating Voter Focus Group.) One floating voter focus group intervieweeclaimed that womens pensions have subsequently been affected by childcare whichis an area that the government has not paid much attention to, claiming that:“Women are digging in and out of employment in a waymuch more often than men because your busy with family responsibilities” (Female, Floating Voter Focus Group)As well as the responsibility of thechildren being put onto women, it is also believed that the care of the elderlyis invariably part of their domain too. One female MP claimed that; “Anawful lot of women are tearing their hair out and trying to balance everything,doing two jobs, looking after their children, their home, their elderlyrelatives. If all those women were actually working to the full extent of theircapabilities then the boost to the economy would be significant, statisticallysignificant” (Female Conservative MP). Thus meaning that due to women being underrepresented in government, there are few voices out there to help put forwardthe issues that women are facing, such as balancing their careers with theirresponsibility to their children and other family relatives. Although it was agreed upon that therewould be many benefits of having more females in parliament and in theConservative party as one male MP claimed that woman would have a betterunderstanding of child care policies which could be put in place. The actionhas not been put in place which leaves women in a very vulnerable position,especially as there is not enough women to defend them on these grounds.ConclusionOverall this research report hasdemonstrated clearly that both female representation within the ConservativeParty and the party’s lack of progressive engagement with women’s issues areclear demonstrations of how unrepresentative British government’s make-up andenforcement currently is. The thematic analysis of Webb and Childs data hasallowed an exploration into key political issues that have arguably not beengiven due academic and political research. It has been shown to be apparentthat members of both genders within the Conservative Party acknowledge theinherent unrepresentative nature of the party and that there is little morethan plain acceptance of the cultural norms in place to main its patriarchiccontour. Given women have often come to feeluncomfortable within the Conservative party, this has transcended into femalepolitical participation generally and leaves many holding little desire toengage with politics due to the scarce attention and impact devoted to women’sissues. The above in combination leaves the Conservative party to continue to beperceived as archaic in its views and this in turn prevents women from seeingpositive political change or even seeking to lead such change themselves.  BibliographyTranscripts used:M2 Conservative PeerM7 Conservative PeerM8 Conservative MPM9 Conservative MPW5 Conservative PeerW6 Conservative PeerW8 Conservative MPW9 Conservative MPFocus Group 1. Conservative MembersFocus Group 2 Conservative MembersFloating Voter Focus Group 1Floating Voter Focus Group 2Bryman, A. (2012) Social researchmethods. 4th edn. New York: Oxford University PressBryson V & Heppell  T. (2010) ‘Conservatism and Feminism; The Caseof the British Conservative Party’. Journal of Political Ideologies. Campbell, S, Childs S & Lovenduski J.(2006)  ‘Womens Equality Guarantees andthe Conservative Party’. The Political Quarterly.Childs S, Krook M. (2010).‘Women, Gender and Politics. A reader’ Oxford University Press.Childs S, Webb P. 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