Women make up less than 40 per cent of election candidates in Peterborough

Just over a third of the candidates running in this year’s local elections in Peterborough are female.

While falling short of 50:50 gender parity, the figure (38%) is still closer to that metric than the gender balance among Peterborough City Council’s (PCC) sitting councillors.

Currently, just one in four elected councillors are women (25%), while men make up four of the council’s five party leaders and all of its decision-making cabinet.

The Green Party is led by a woman, Cllr Nicola Day (Greens, Orton Waterville), while the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Peterborough First each have both a male leader and male deputy leader.

Peterborough First is fielding the highest proportion of male election candidates this year, but it’s also fielding significantly fewer candidates than the other major parties overall.

Of the eight it’s standing, moreover, four are current, male, councillors, while one of its four new councillors is female.

Lib Dems closest to gender parity of larger parties

Meanwhile, 35 per cent of the Conservative Party’s slate of election candidates are female (8/23), while 41 per cent of both Labour and the Greens’ slates are female (9/22 in both cases).

The Liberal Democrats are the closest to 50:50 gender parity, with women making up 44 per cent of their candidates (8/18).

Meanwhile, the ratios for the smaller parties are, male:female, 3:0 for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, 0:1 for Reform UK and 1:0 for the Workers Party, while there are four female independent candidates and two male.

Conservatives: 'Always done better at opportunities for all'

Asked about gender parity among election candidates, leader of the council’s largest party – Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) – said that, “from our point of view, we’ve always done better than others in terms of encouraging opportunities for all”.

“I actively encourage participation and membership from all quarters of the city,” he said. “We’re colourblind in the Conservatives and have all ages too.”

“To me, it doesn’t matter if you’re a woman or a man or whatever you want to identify as; what colour you are; what religion you are, if you believe in the same principles as the party, we encourage them.”

But he added that there “isn’t a queue of people lining up to take public office, given the grief you get for it”, which can have an impact on diversity in politics.

Labour: 'Irrespective of colour and creed'

Group leader Cllr Dennis Jones (Labour, Dogsthorpe) highlighted other barriers for women in politics, including the time commitment needed and possible child care restraints.

“We do all we can to get people from the LGBTQ community, we reach out into the BAME community,” he said. “We want females; single parents. Most of the advertising we do is to be as inclusive as we can.”

But, like Cllr Fitzgerald, he added that the party wants the best candidates “irrespective of colour and creed”.

“We do an awful lot of work behind the scenes to be inclusive,” he said. “All I would like is that we have the best candidate in the best place and if that’s a female then, absolutely, we’re trying to be as inclusive as we can.”

Lib Dems: 'Toxicity can put women off'

Cllr Christian Hogg (Liberal Democrats, Fletton and Stanground) said, like others, that it’s difficult to attract candidates across the spectrum but that his group is “always looking out for female candidates”.

“We need to have diversity across the spectrum and represent our residents,” he said.

“But the toxicity of politics can sometimes put women off and, rightly or wrongly, men seem to have more time available than women do.”

Greens: 'Flying the flag for women on the council'

Cllr Day, the council’s only female group leader, said that her party has flown the flag in that “all the Greens that have been elected to date have been female”.

“The Greens have a ‘get her elected’ initiative; we apply for funding to get women elected,” she said.

“We want to have a gender balance and we have a new diversity and inclusion officer, Sam Creedon-Gray, who’s also one of our candidates.”

When previously asked about Peterborough First’s gender balance, council leader Cllr Mohammed Farooq (Peterborough First, Hargate and Hempsted) said that it formed “quite late in the day”, with attracting election candidates a “secondary factor” to running the council.

Peterborough First took over the council from the Conservatives in November last year.