©
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005
Taken from the news section in
www.onestopenglish.com
Women MPs bullied and abused in
Commons
Jackie Ashley
The British Parliament has two chambers, the
House of Lords and the House of Commons.
There are 659 members of parliament (MPs)
in the House of Commons. Most of them are
men but the number of women MPs is
increasing all the time.
Professor Joni Lovenduski of Birkbeck
College, London, and Margaret Moran MP
recently published a report called
Whose
Secretary Are You, Minister?.
The report
shows that many male MPs have very old-
fashioned opinions about women. The authors
of the report spoke to 83 women MPs. Many
of them said that their male colleagues often
made sexist remarks and even made gestures
when women MPs were speaking in the
House of Commons,
When Gillian Shephard arrived in the House
of Commons as a new Tory (Conservative)
MP in 1987 she was confused when a male
Conservative MP called her Betty. “He also
called other women MPs Betty,” said Mrs
Shephard. "When I said, 'Look, you know my
name isn't Betty', he said, 'Ah, but you're all
the same, so I call you all Betty because it's
easier'." Another woman MP, Barbara Follett,
says: "I remember some Conservatives saying
sexist things and making gestures every time
a Labour woman got up to speak."
After Tony Blair’s election win in 1997, 120
new female MPs arrived in the House of
Commons, but many of them still had
problems. One new MP, Yvette Cooper, says
that House of Commons officials did not
believe she was an MP. They thought she was
a secretary or a researcher. Jackie Ballard, a
Liberal Democrat who left parliament at the
last election, remembers a well-known Tory
MP who always made sexist remarks, "maybe
about someone's legs or something like that".
The same MP once said, when he was drunk
in the House of Commons, that he would like
to "make love to" a nearby woman MP.
Some male MPs think that women should
concentrate on "women's issues", such as
health and education. Many women MPs were
astonished by the negative reactions of their
male colleagues, especially when women
MPs got a more senior position. It seems that
some male MPs and officials did not want to
accept the new Labour women MPs, many of
them in their 30s and 40s. Some did not
believe that such young women could be
members of parliament.
Many female MPs say the situation is better
now because of the new "family friendly"
working hours. But it isn't perfect yet. Sarah
Teather, the new Liberal Democrat MP, says:
"A lot of people say it's similar to an old boys'
club. I think it feels rather more like a teenage
public school* - you know, a public school
full of teenage boys."
Women MPs are really angry that they often
do not get any recognition for their successes.
They say that they have brought a new
feminised agenda to British politics, in
