Sexism within the Welsh Assembly from the Right needs to be tackled

Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour have worked hard to get closer to equal representation between genders, which at one point reached nearly 50/50 in the Welsh Assembly. It’s fair to say that since the creation of the National Assembly for Wales several women have gained high profile roles, notably Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood, former Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams and former Presiding Officer Dame Rosemary Butler.

However, the Conservatives are the only main party never to have had a female MP, despite gaining more seats at the 2015 General Election. In the 88 years since the Equal Franchise Act gave women the vote, every Conservative MP elected in Wales has been a man. As a proud Welsh woman that’s reason enough to be disgusted at the party in Wales.

Wales has a long way to go in understanding issues of gender equality and recent events have further proven this point. I came across the Facebook post of a former Welsh Conservative chairman and a candidate for an Assembly seat in the Gower, Lyndon Jones. The post showed a photograph of David Cameron in Port Talbot, flanked by a group of old white, middle aged Tory men, including the Welsh Secretary Alan Cairns, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives Andrew RT Davies, MP Byron Davies and Lyndon Jones himself – not a picture which reflects the diversity of Wales. I commented on this, asking about the policy of the Welsh Conservatives on gender equality and diversity – I am yet to receive an response.

We also heard the leader of the UKIP group, former Conservative Minister Neil Hamilton, refer to two senior female Welsh politicians as “political concubines” in the First Minister’s “harem” this week. The two women at the brunt of this insult were Leanne Wood and the Lib Dem Kirsty Williams after they both decided to back Carwyn Jones as First Minister of Wales.

There is no denying that we have seen a steady increase in the number of women being elected to top jobs such as party leaders and ministers. It is a source of personal pride that my Parliamentary referee, Cheryl Gillan, became the first woman to be appointed Secretary of State for Wales. However, in Welsh politics progress for women appears to be superficial in naturre and there are clearly deeper issues under the surface.

There is still a long way to go for women to be represented and taken seriously in Welsh political life. I hope that these comments made by male politicians do not deter women from going into Welsh politics.The slick and increasingly professionalised party machines need to make way for real people to come through the ranks rather than the dull stream of endless male career politicians harbouring distasteful views about women.Welsh politics has been dominated by men for too long. Everyone involved in discussing politics in Wales have a responsibility to stop engaging the untrue, dated and lazy stereotyping of strong, independent women – only then can we find a positive way forward.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Leighton Andrews, former Labour AM, had referred to Plaid Cymru AM Elin Jones during a debate in the Welsh Assembly as a 'cheap date'. In fact, Mr Andrews used the term jokingly in response to a male Plaid Cymru AM, Simon Thomas, to refer to all Plaid Cymru members in the context of the party's previous support for the Local Government (Wales) Bill. Plaid subsequently withdrew its support for the Public Health (Wales) Bill, citing the comment as disrespectful of its politicians. ​