End to the old sexual contract is a social revolution

Published: 29 April, 2010

• THERE are three women out of the six candidates standing in Hampstead and Kilburn.
That’s great, and that’s as it should be.
But whoever wins will be gathering in a House of Commons with fewer women MPs than the retiring parliament.
We’ve got fewer women than Malawi, Cambodia, Bulgaria… and we are way behind the remarkable new political cultures of Rwanda and South Africa. They emerged from dire conflict with egalitarian constitutions.
One thing is certain about the outcome of this election: fewer than 20 per cent of our MPs in Westminster will be women.
That inequality is pervasive – Britain is one of the most unequal societies in the “developed” world. Without more women in power that won’t change. The pay gap between men and women is stubborn, stable and in the last two years it has actually grown. In the financial services sector – purportedly the leading edge of our economy – the pay gap is a scalding 45 per cent.
The time gap is equally stark between men and women, or rather men and mothers – it is when people have children that the time and pay gap between the genders grows and grows and grows. Men work “full time”, while women work full-time too, though they’re only paid half time.
The institutions have not responded to the great movement towards equality. The old sexual contract – based on a male breadwinner, who is a provider rather than a parent and a woman who sacrifices herself in virtual solitary confinement to the unpaid care of men and children – is over.
But it is only the Green Party that recognises the huge implications of this social revolution. Our policies recognise the need to redistribute of time, money, power, care and respect between the genders and the generations.
It isn’t just a single issue party, it recognises that equality – united with the economy and the environment – is the key to sustainability.
BEATRIX CAMPBELL
Green Party candidate
for Hampstead & Kilburn