By IRNA,
London : Ethnic minority women are grossly under- represented in British politics by some 600 per cent, according to a new report by Simon Woolley, head of Operation Black Vote Black campaign group.
Black, Asian and minority ethnic women account for less than one percent of England’s 20,000 local councilors, numbering only 168, when some 1,000 would be more representative, the report found.
The situation is even more disproportionate in the British parliament, with women making only 19.5 percent of the 646 members of the House of Commons and only two with an ethnic minority background and none that are Asian.
Responding to the findings, Minister for Women and Equalities Harriet Harman announced that the government was setting up a task force chaired by Baroness Uddin to make ethnic minority communities more represented.
“The task force will identify and take practical action to increase awareness and build confidence and skills,” Harman said in a parliamentary statement published Tuesday.
She said it will ‘reach out into communities to encourage women to step forward to become local councilors; identify and tackle barriers within political parties; and reduce disadvantage and stereotyping from within and outside the communities’.
The issue will also be discussed at a Speaker’s conference proposed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown against the the backdrop of a decline in turnout at UK elections.
The under-representation persists despite previous pledges made by the government, but Harman said that ministers still do not consider that the time is right to take legislative measures to permit all- ethnic minority election shortlists.