MPs to hear that National Assembly is ahead in terms of gender balance

A special committee of MPs will hear evidence in the Senedd today (June 8) about how the National Assembly for Wales is blazing a trail on gender balance.

Assembly commissioner for Equal Opportunities, Lorraine Barrett, will tell the Speaker’s Conference of MPs that the National Assembly for Wales was the first ever legislative body in the world to have gender balance.

At one point in the second Assembly (2003-2007) there were actually more female than male Assembly Members.

A Speakers’ Conference is a special committee of MPs which is set up to look at a specific subject.

This particular conference was set up to look into the reasons why women, disabled people and people from ethnic minorities are under-represented in the House of Commons.

And this will be the first time a Speaker’s Conference has taken evidence at the National Assembly for Wales.

“We have a very good story to tell when it comes to gender balance,” said Lorraine Barrett AM.

“In the second term we achieved gender balance and although the 2007 election returned a higher number of male AMs, women still make up 47% of the Assembly’s membership.

“When you compare that to the House of Commons, we are out in front when it comes to gender balance.”

The commissioner will tell MPs that research has put this more equal representation down to factors such as:

• a new institution with more family friendly working practices

• and more women being promoted into positions of power i.e. more female cabinet ministers (4 out of 10 ministers are women and 2 out of 4 deputy ministers)

There will also be evidence about what the National Assembly is doing to encourage more participation from ethnic minorities.

For example, the Assembly has supported Operation Black Vote’s Shadowing Scheme, which allows members of Wales’ BME communities to shadow an AM for six months.

With the success of the scheme, there are now plans to roll it out to other under-represented groups including lesbian, gay and bisexual people, disabled people, young people, transgender people and women.