Theme #1 for Feminist Fact Friday

It was hard to decide where to kick things off for Feminist Fact Friday. With so many spheres in which inequality reigns where to start?

The World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Gender Gap report is an excellent place to get a well-rounded view on global inequality. 149 nations are measured in four spheres: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; political empowerment.

The UK is currently #15 in the global index.

When looking at the report I scanned through a lot of the statistics, looking for things that stood out – both the good and the bad – and found this helpful diagram showing just how imbalanced we are in politics (though clearly ahead of many countries):

In fact, as the report states:

Political Empowerment is where the gender gap remains the widest: only 23% of the political gap—unchanged since last year—has been closed, and no country has yet fully closed political empowerment gaps. 

World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report 2018

So every nation around the world has work to do here. But it’s certainly a space in which the UK could make a huge difference. We’re currently #11 in the world for political empowerment, but with such poor numbers across the board there’s not much to be proud of there.

As always: why does this matter? Because representation ensures that every voice is heard and that government policies don’t leave anyone out. No matter how empathetic we are it can be hard to understand – or even find out about in the first place – the obstacles or opportunities that any group faces. Leaving 51% of the population out of politics is a surefire way to keeping inequality baked into the system.

So my first four Feminist Fact Fridays are going to be made up of politics-related information and hopefully some ways in which you can get more involved and make a difference.

February – POLITICS

Week 1 – Only 24% of the world’s parliamentarians are women.

Week 2 – Only 32% of MPs are women.

Week 3 – Only 4% of MPs are women of colour.

Week 4 – Black and Asian women MPs abused more online.