Yahoo – AFP, Ouerdya Ait Abdelmalek, July 9, 2016
 |
| Conservative Party members will choose between Andrea Leadsom (L) and Theresa May (R) as Britain's next prime minister after they were selected as the top two candidates in a poll of Tory MPs (AFP Photo/Chris J Ratcliffe) |
London
(AFP) - A wave of women are taking power in Britain: the country will soon have
a female prime minister following the Brexit vote while Scotland and Northern
Ireland already have women leaders.
"Is
this all a happy coincidence? Has the glass ceiling finally been smashed?"
the Guardian newspaper asked this week.
In the race
to succeed David Cameron, who resigned as premier after last month's vote to
leave the EU, one thing has been certain since Thursday -- the next leader will
be a woman for the first time since Margaret Thatcher resigned in 1990.
Conservative
party members must now choose between interior minister Theresa May and energy
minister Andrea Leadsom.
In
Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon is first minister and leader of the pro-independence
Scottish National Party since 2014, while Ruth Davidson leads the Conservatives
and Kezia Dugdale heads up Labour.
In Northern
Ireland, the first minister is Arlene Foster of the Democratic Unionists while
one of Wales' main parties, Plaid Cymru, is also led by a woman, Leanne Wood.
"That
suggests that what might have been barriers to high office have completely
evaporated," Professor Iain Begg of the London School of Economics told
AFP.
 |
Left to
right, Scottish Green leader Patrick Harvie, Scottish Conservative leader
Ruth
Davidson, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and SNP leader and First
Minister Nicola Sturgeon join Vote Remain MSPs during a pro-European Union
rally at Holyrood in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 16, 2016. (Andrew
Milligan/PA via AP)
|
Breaking
the mould
Thatcher,
who became Conservative leader in 1975 and prime minister in 1979, who opened
the door for the current generation.
Her rise to
power came nearly 60 years after the first woman took her seat in the House of
Commons -- Conservative Nancy Astor in 1919.
"She
(Thatcher) was the one who broke the mould and made it possible in future for
other women to become leaders," Begg added.
The
Conservatives have been slower than the main opposition Labour to recruit large
numbers of women MPs, though.
In 1997,
they only had 13, including May. By 2005, the figure stood at 17 and today the
figure is 68 out of 330.
Cameron has
pushed for more women MPs while groups such as Women2Win, founded by May and
Anne Jenkin, a Conservative member of the House of Lords, has helped the push,
supporting figures like Leadsom.
"We're
getting there. We are still miles behind Labour (who have 99 female MPs out of
230), even though we will have produced two female prime ministers before
they've had one woman as permanent leader," Jenkin said.
The battle
between May and Leadsom turned personal this weekend after the energy minister
appeared to suggest that May is less well placed to become leader because she
is not a mother.
Leadsom
said she was "disgusted" after her comments in an interview were
published on the front page of The Times newspaper, claiming she was
misrepresented, though she did not question the accuracy of the quotes.
 |
Britain's
Home Secretary Theresa May launches her leadership bid for Britain's
ruling Conservative Party in London, Thursday, June 30, 2016. The battle to
succeed Prime Minister David Cameron as Conservative Party leader has drawn
strong
contenders with the winner set to become prime minister and play a vital
role
in shaping Britain's relationship with the European Union after last week's
Brexit vote. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
|
'Boys
messing about'
Labour
could soon get its first permanent female leader too.
Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn is facing a huge rebellion by his MPs and the leading contender
to replace him if he falls is Angela Eagle, an MP since 1992 -- who finally
announced Saturday that she will stand in a leadership battle with Corbyn.
"In
parallel we've got that societal evolution which says that being gay, being a
woman is no longer an obstacle," added Begg. Eagle, Davidson and Dugdale
all have female partners.
Evening
Standard journalist Rosamund Urwin drew a parallel with the current situation
in Britain and the success of Hillary Clinton in the US and Angela Merkel in
Germany.
"Merkel,
May, Clinton and Eagle seem to come from a similar mould. They're
authoritative, tough, have far more impressive CVs than their rivals... the
kind of person you want at the tiller of the boat during a perfect storm,"
she wrote.
Facing the
political turmoil that followed the Brexit vote, Jenkin suggested that
"there is a feeling of 'Yes, Nanny, please come and tell us what to
do.'"
"I
think they feel that at a time of turmoil that a woman will be more practical
and a bit less testosterone (driven) in their approach," she added.
Business
minister Anna Soubry told BBC radio: "Perhaps we've had enough of these
boys messing about".
Ireland and Germany call on new UK PM to quickly define EU relationship
"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now)
“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”
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Ireland and Germany call on new UK PM to quickly define EU relationship
"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now)
“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”
“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”
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