Clearing the fog

I went to Llandrindod today with two union colleagues to talk to their Women's AGM about women in public life, a topic I feel very passionately about.

Harriet Harman caused a lot of controversy but I believe she was absolutely right when she said that the Cabinet should never again be run by only men. Women are hugely under represented across so many areas of life, from local to national politics, at high levels and on boards of organisations, and on various other committees.

Women tend to have different life experiences to men simply because our society is still strongly driven by constructed gender roles, women still bear the bulk of caring responsibilities, there is still gender segregation in the labour market, glass ceilings in careers, and unequal pay. The causes of this are so deeply entrenched and unless women reach a critical mass in terms of the numbers who hold positions of power and influence and can change public policy, and change the strategic priorities that drive organisations then we are never going to see gender equality.

We need more women in public life, we need more role models who support other women to follow behind them, to create change for a fairer and more equal society. But we can't just go looking around pointing at other women to do this, we have a responsibility to step up and lead and take the responsibility on ourselves too.

This isn't a fight of women vs men, it is a fight of all of us vs the dominant, small minded, bigoted alpha men that hold all the power and influence and won't let anyone else get through who is not like them. We need more diversity, people with wider life experiences who understand the lives and issues facing other people in our communities. How else can we represent people and find solutions to the issues affecting our society if we have no insight into people's real lives?