I have recently been working on a project where I broke down the gender of all candidates from the Coalition, Labor and the Greens. The Greens and the Coalition both finalised their list of candidates a few weeks ago, but it has been impossible to find a list of Labor candidates, and earlier in the week eight Labor candidates still had no profile, or even their name, on the ALP website.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Tuesday about the number of women standing for the three political forces who are standing statewide, using research I had done for the Women’s Electoral Lobby. At the time the ALP was eight candidates short of the full 93, and refused to provide a list to the journalist.
With nominations being posted gradually on the NSW Electoral Commission website, it has been possible to fill in the gaps and identify all 93 Labor candidates.
Overall, the ALP is running 66 men and 27 women, or 29%. The Coalition are running 73 men and 20 women, or 21.5%. The Greens are running 47 men and 46 women, or 49.5%. Interestingly, Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party list 85 candidates by name on their website. I couldn’t identify the gender of three of their candidates, but among the other 82, the party is running 54 men and 28 women, or 34.2%. This is more female candidates than either of the major parties.
Nominations close at midday today, followed by Legislative Assembly ballot draws at 2pm and the Legislative Council ballot draw at 3pm. Over this weekend I plan to make my final update to each seat profile, with the final list of candidates and a review of my political assessment that I made when I first wrote the guide.
I think for relevance, what sort of figures are we talking about when we talk about the total number of women involved in politics?
If the numbers are something like (for example) 30% overall, then the ALP and the CDP are running about on average, Coalition below average, and Greens above average.
I don’t think that gender is relevant, and pointing out differences is not constructive at all if the idea is moving towards equality.
There are currently 24 women and 69 men in the Legislative Assembly. There was 26 at the 2007 election but by-elections reduced numbers.
I mean involved at all. There is obviously a candidate pool for each electorate. It just seems as though there is just a numbers difference more than anything else.
Tim: Pretty sure that number is impossible to measure.
crazedmongoose: Party membership would seem to be a decent proxy.
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