Houses of Parliament, London
Are female MPs set up to fail?
New research from the University of Exeter suggests that female MPs are more likely to be vying for difficult seats.
Previous research from the University has shown that female business leaders are more likely to be appointed to powerful leadership positions when an organisation is in crisis or high-risk circumstances.
Dr Michelle Ryan of the University of Exeter’s School of Psychology, who has published her research in a forthcoming issue of Psychology of Women Quarterly, proposes that this scenario of ‘the glass cliff’ extends to the political arena.
During the UK 2005 general election, the seats Conservative party female candidates were vying for were much less winnable than those that Conservative men were running in. As a result Conservative women performed much more poorly than their male counterparts. In contrast, for Labour party candidates there was no gender difference, reflecting the success of equal opportunity initiatives.
The reasons behind voter behaviour and business appointments are difficult to pinpoint and controversial. Ryan suggests that at the root of the issue is the perception that women are less suited to leadership positions than men, despite evidence that women are beginning to break through “the glass ceiling”.
In the EU women make up just over ten percent of the top executive positions in the top fifty publicly quoted companies, and in the US female leaders occupy less than sixteen percent of these positions in the Fortune 500. As women continue to be underrepresented in politics and business, this stereotype is often reinforced and self-perpetuating. Dr Ryan says, “Gender discrimination in politics can be subtle and difficult to identify. Women continue to be under-represented in political office and often face a more difficult political task than men.”
This study is published in the March 2010 issue of Psychology of Women Quarterly.
Date: 9 February 2010
