After winning its first MEP in the European Parliament elections in May, the Swedish political party Feminist Initiative also significantly increased its share of the vote in the country’s general election on 14 September. Claire McGing compares the development of Feminist Initiative with the experiences of women’s political parties in other parts of the world. She writes that while the influence of women’s parties has generally been transitory, they have often had a ‘contagion’ effect by encouraging mainstream parties to ‘feminise’ their organisations.
Despite endorsements from Pharrell Williams and Abba’s Benny Anderson, and optimistic opinion and exit poll results, the Feminist Initiative (FI) failed to garner the 4 per cent support it needed to win representation in the Swedish Parliament on 14 September. Still, the FI shouldn’t be too disappointed with its 2.5 per cent showing – its vote has almost quadrupled since the 2006 general elections (from just under 0.7 per cent) and the party now qualifies for tax-funded financing.
The FI also holds 27 seats in Swedish municipalities and, in May, saw one of their members, Soraya Post, elected to the European Parliament after winning 5.3 per cent of the national vote. This made her the first ever ‘feminist party’ MEP, as well as the first Romani woman in Swedish history to be selected as a political party candidate. She wasn’t the only feminist seeking a seat in Europe – in France, a number of specifically feminist candidates ran on the Féministes pour une Europe Solidaire list (‘Feminists for a United Europe’).
Feminist Initiative and the growth of women’s parties across the world
Co-founded as a pressure group in 2005 by former Swedish Left Party leader, Gudran Schyman, the FI quickly gained a strong membership base, particularly among young women, and decided to organise as a political party in 2006. The party’s slogan for the 2014 general election – ‘Out with the racists: in with the feminists!’ – sought to widen their appeal, linking patriarchy to all fields of society. The FI policy platform is therefore broad and deals with issues as diverse as the economy, welfare and climate change.
The FI’s growth has led to conversations in the UK and elsewhere about the need for women in other countries to establish feminist parties to work towards a ‘critical mass’ of females in parliament, to bring gender issues to the forefront of public policy, and to tackle the underlying male culture of institutionalised politics.
Global research to date on women’s parties is scant but a surprising number have emerged over the past century. This includes numerous states in post-communist Europe, Argentina, Greece, Spain, Iceland, Northern Ireland, the Philippines, Cambodia, the United States, Uruguay, South Africa, Hungary, Japan, India and Israel, among others. Over 50 countries have had a women’s party to various degrees of success and some, such as Ukraine and South Africa, have had numerous. Given its abysmal record on women’s representation it is surprising that none were ever set up in the Republic of Ireland, though second wave feminists in the 1970s did, apparently, discuss the possibility.
It is important to note that not all women’s parties are ideologically feminist – the Hellenic Women’s Political Party of Greece and the All Ukrainian Party of Women’s Initiatives, for example, both emphasised traditional gender roles and argued that women brought different perspectives to parliament as mothers and home-makers. Many also allow male members to join.
How and why do women’s parties emerge, and what influence have they had on politics?
There are a number of key points to consider here. First, like other small parties, proportional representation and the presence of a multi-party system are more advantageous than plurality rules (though Women of Russia did win two seats in single-member constituencies in the 1993 Russian general election). Second, women’s parties often emerge during definitive – or even crisis – points in a state’s history. Women in many of the new democracies of post-communist Europe formed coalitions to ensure their voices would be heard in an era without strong social guarantees.
Women’s parties have been particularly common in sectarian conflict areas, including Northern Ireland and Israel. In a male-dominated society like Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition (NIWC) formed in 1995 to give women a voice in the peace talks that would lead to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (GFA) and to the establishment of the devolved Legislative Assembly. Focusing on human rights and inclusivity, the NIWC did not seek to argue for a particular ethnic community and, to this end, ran women candidates from all backgrounds.
The NIWC representatives were often dismissed and subject to sexism during deliberations, particularly from the mostly-male Unionist side (one even ‘mooed’ at them), but their significant contribution to the peace process is clear. They continuously advocated for victims’ rights, and got a formal commitment to women’s political equality inserted into the GFA. And, while their argument for a mixed-member voting system was unsuccessful, the NIWC managed to ensure that the new STV constituencies would each elect six Assembly representatives. This reduced the threshold required for representation, advantaging smaller parties like themselves.
Finally, even when they do experience electoral success, history suggests that women’s parties rarely last into the long-term. Once mainstream parties see them as a threat, they respond by making changes to their personnel and policy platform. In political science this is called the ‘contagion effect’, and many green parties have had a similar experience. The former Icelandic Women’s List (‘Kvenna Listin’), for instance, lost their raison d’être once the largest parties began to include more women candidates on their lists. Today, 39.7 per cent of Iceland’s parliament is female, placing it joint-11th in the world with Spain.
Similarly, after the NIWC won two Assembly seats in the 1998 election, the nationalist parties (SDLP and Sinn Féin) feared the loss of votes and transfers in key constituencies and attempted to ‘feminise’ their organisations. The hardening of nationalist voting on either side (the women had registered as ‘others’ in the Assembly, as opposed to ‘unionist’ or ‘nationalist’) further pushed the NIWC out of the electoral landscape and they lost both of their seats in 2003. The party disbanded in 2006 but, like many women’s parties in history, their role in encouraging other parties (even if modestly) to give more consideration to women voters and their women members is noteworthy. How will Swedish parties respond to the FI? Watch this space.
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Note: This article is provided by our sister site, Democratic Audit, and gives the views of the author, and not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics.
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Claire McGing – Maynooth University
Claire McGing is a political geographer based in the Department of Geography at Maynooth University, Ireland. Her research on gender and electoral politics has been published in journals such as Political Geography and the Journal of Women, Politics and Polity. She can be contacted at claire.mcging@nuim.ie
