Cameron's failure to appoint women adds to a 'backwards step' for gender equality in EU

David Cameron has once again come under fire for his party’s seemingly unfavourable attitude to women.

The recent appointment of Lord Hill of Oareford to the post of European Union Commissioner has garnered criticism from several sources, including the South West MEP, Molly Scott Cato.

Indeed, a recent reshuffle, which was supposed to make the Tory cabinet more inclusive to women, had already come under criticism. Although the Prime Minister announced the appointment of more women to the cabinet, the move was criticised by some as a cynical ploy to boost the party’s statistics ahead of an election.

Mr Cameron’s reshuffle only appointed two women fully to cabinet, with eight more described as ‘attending cabinet’, a limited role. With 20 female Tory ministers before the reshuffle the shake up has resulted in a net increase of only two women to the cabinet.

Now the appointment of the apparently staunchly Eurosceptic Lord Hill to the EU Commissioner role, just weeks after denying he would take it, is raising further questions.

Furthermore, it has emerged that Baroness Stowell, who will replace Lord Hill as Tory Leader in the House of Lords, will not be given the full cabinet minister status of her predecessor. The result is that she will receive a salary of £79,000 compared to his £101,000, more than 20 percent less.

Molly Scott Cato, and other Green MEPs have expressed dismay at the lack of female candidates nominated by all the EU member states for commissioner posts in the next European Commission. She said:

“This is clearly unacceptable and incoming Commission president Juncker must send EU governments back to the drawing board. The European Parliament has said it will not accept a Commission with too few women candidates, yet based on the current list, we would have fewer women than in the outgoing European Commission1.

“It would be scandalous for the European Commission to take a backwards step on gender balance at its top level at a time when it is tasked with promoting equality across the EU.”

Dr Scott Cato points to her own group in the European Parliament, where 21 out of 50 elected members are women; where authority resides with a gender-balanced bureau and male and female co-chairs2. She draws a clear distinction between her own Party and Cameron’s Conservatives:

“The increase in the number of women in Cameron’s cabinet was long overdue, but with just ten months to go until the general election this is little more than window dressing.

“There is no shortage of excellent and highly-qualified women in the UK and EU member states which is made obvious by the large number of successful Green politicians. That’s why the Green Party of England and Wales has more women in senior positions than men and has only ever had women leaders.

“We do our politics differently, in a very open and democratic way which suits women who are often turned off by macho posturing. We are very happy for Cameron to take a leaf out of our book when it comes to addressing gender balance both at home and in appointments to Europe.”

It remains to be seen whether Cameron will react to the mounting criticism of his party’s treatment of women, but Lord Hill's appointment is unlikely to change. If the EU Member states' nominations for Commissioners go unchanged, as they may well do, then Molly Catos' fears of a 'backwards step' on gender equality in the EU may well be realised.
 
[1] A deadline of 31 July was set by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for EU governments to present their nominations. 24 member states have presented nominees so far but only Sweden and the Czech Republic have named female-only candidates, while Slovenia presented a list including two female candidates. Italy has presented a female candidate for the post of EU foreign policy high representative, who would also be a vice-president of the EU Commission if appointed. There are 9 female commissioners in the outgoing European Commission.

[2] The Greens in the European Parliament - members: http://www.greens-efa.eu/?id=34