In the run-up to the 2017 council elections next week (don’t forget to vote on Thursday), OnTheWight will be taking at look at some of statistics around the election.
Thanks to Cllr Geoff Lumley, a man who gets very excited about elections and statistics (not surprising given he studied at the London School of Economics), we start by looking at the number of women standing for election.
A welcome rise, but is it enough?
Concentrating simply on the Isle of Wight council elections (not town and parish), 2017 has seen a welcome rise in the number of women standing as candidates.
As you’ll see from the tables below (ordered alphabetically) the total number of female candidates has risen from 23% in 2013 to 30% in 2017. That’s an additional 16 women who have put themselves forward to represent a ward on the Isle of Wight at council level.
The party stats
The lowest proportionate percentage of women standing is for the Conservatives (15%), whilst Labour have the highest proportionate percentage (40%), as well as highest absolute number of women standing.
Labour are closely followed by LibDem (39%), Indies (38%) and then Greens (32%).
You can use the arrows on the tables to reorder the columns as you choose. To reset, just refresh the page.
2017: Women standing in the local election
| Candidates | Total current Cllrs | Women | % of Women |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cons | 40 | 14 | 6 | 15 |
| Indie | 24 | 11 | 9 | 38 |
| Labour | 30 | 1 | 12 | 40 |
| LibDem | 18 | 2 | 7 | 39 |
| UKIP | 10 | 1 | 3 | 30 |
| Blank | 9 | 6 | 2 | 22 |
| Green | 25 | 0 | 8 | 32 |
| Total | 156 | 35 | 47 | 30 |
2013: Women standing in the local election
| Candidates | Women | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cons | 40 | 8 | 20 |
| Indie | 29 | 7 | 24 |
| Green | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Labour | 19 | 8 | 42 |
| Lib Dem | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| UKIP | 29 | 6 | 21 |
| Blank | 7 | 2 | 29 |
| Total | 132 | 31 | 23 |
Details of all candidates can be found on Election2017.OnTheWight.com
A council of women?
Last year a group was set up on Facebook called ‘A Council of Women (Isle of Wight)’. The group was formed to encourage more women to take part in local government.
It now has almost 350 members (including some men) and the ‘discussions’ are certainly robust.
The aims of the Facebook group read:
A non party political campaign to get more women elected onto the Isle of Wight Council. Elections will be in 2017 in all 40 wards across the Island.
In 2013 only five women were elected – this is not representative of the mix of residents of the Island and we in this group want to do something about it!
Join to support getting other women elected – whether through campaigning, training, advising or even standing yourself. Welcome!
Head over to Facebook to find out more.
