Where the bloody hell are the females?
Male candidates dominate nominations for safe seats for the major parties in the House of Representatives – 84% of Coalition candidates and 67% of Labor candidates in safe seats are male.
- The Coalition has 34% female candidates but only 16% in safe seats (>6% margin)
- Overall Labor is closer to gender equity but has nominated only 35% females in safe seats
- Where there is heavy lifting to be done (in swing seats with <6% margin), both parties have nominated a higher proportion of females (Labor 58%, Coalition 49%)
A new website www.whothebloodyhellarethey.com has highlighted the shortcomings of both major parties in female representation at the upcoming federal election.
Looking at both upper and lower house candidates for all seats, the split of candidates running for the major parties is 60% male vs 40% female.
However, whilst Labor can have some claims to approaching equality with a 54% male / 46% female split, the coalition’s 66% male / 34% female ratio is more appropriate for the dark ages than a modern-day representative party.
More interestingly, when we examine gender breakdown across Safe (>6% margin), Swing (0-6% margin) and Unlikely (>6%) seats, we see that both parties heavily favour men in safe seats whilst leaving female candidates to do the heavy lifting in swing seats.
Average Tenure in Parliament
Unsurprisingly, this pattern of nominating almost exclusively men in safe seats results in male MPs having much longer tenure in parliament than women.
Looking at incumbent MPs returning to the House of Representatives, we see that coalition MPs have a median tenure of 9 years vs female MP who have a median tenure of 3 years. It’s a similar story for Labor with median male tenure at 12 years vs females at 6 years.
It’s unsurprising we have so few female leaders in our major parties when their tenure is so much lower.
