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Reshuffle: 6 Ways Cameron's 'Rise Of The Women' Is A Damp Squib

6 Ways Cameron's 'Rise Of The Women' Is A Damp Squib
The Huffington Post UK
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David Cameron's reshuffle this week aimed to sort out the Tories' "women problem" once and for all, with the "pale, male and stale" ministers shown the door and rising female stars brought to the cabinet table.

Despite Nicky Morgan taking the education brief and Liz Truss becoming environment secretary, Cameron's cabinet still is only 23% female, having only five full cabinet members out of 22.

Given the fact that Britain's population is 52% female, groups like the pro-women Fawcett Society are still concerned, with head of policy and campaigns Daisy Sands saying: "With only 23% of full Cabinet members female the country is still being run overwhelmingly by men."

Here are six reasons why Cameron's "rise of the women" may not be as momentous as he'd like you to think.

6 Reasons Cameron's Reshuffle Rise Of The Women Is A Damp Squib
Cameron's cabinet only has as many women as in 2011(01 of06)
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Back in 2011, Cameron had five women as full cabinet members, so this increase isn't breaking any new ground. (credit:BBC)
The reshuffle only added two extra women...(02 of06)
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There were 20 female Tory ministers in government before the reshuffle, and now there are 22.
Cameron couldn't decide on his sixth female cabinet member(03 of06)
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Baroness Tina Stowell, the government's new leader in the House of Lords, was briefly a full-cabinet member before being listed as "attending cabinet", meaning that she would be paid £22,147 less than the man who did the job before her, Jonathan Hill. The Tories rushed to say they'd make up the difference from their own funds.
France and Germany's cabinets have more women(04 of06)
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The French government's cabinet, presided over by prime minister Manuel Valls, has eight women (47%) out of the seventeen members. Meanwhile, Angela Merkel's German government has 6 women out of the 16 members, at 37.5%.
It's not just our neighbours who're doing better(05 of06)
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Some developing countries have better proportions of women in their cabinets. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's 23-strong cabinet has seven women, at a level of 30%. Meanwhile the Rwandan cabinet has nine female members out of 24, equating to 37.5%.
And Cameron promised to pick many more women(06 of06)
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Before 2010, Cameron promised that at least a third of his government would be made of women, so he looks to have more to do as less than a quarter of his ministers are women.

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