Fresh calls to "demystify" States for prospective candidates

Wednesday 07 April 2021

The States can increase diversity in the Assembly by better defining what the role of Deputy entails, encouraging more women to stand, and making more information available pre-election so that first-time candidates have a better understanding of the work that goes on behind closed doors.

That was one of the messages when volunteer group Women in Public Life delivered a presentation to the States' Assembly & Constitution Committee.

Women in Public Life Chair Shelaine Green highlighted that female candidates' success rates were generally similar to male candidates. However, only 25% of the 2020 election candidates were women, leading to just eight female deputies in the current States.

"What Guernsey is doing with the candidate pool is up to Guernsey – it is about getting more women into the candidate pool," she said.

"The problem is that there are not enough women to choose from in the first place."

Pictured: 90 men and 28 women stood in the 2020 island-wide election. 

Citing research undertaken in the United States, Ms Green told SACC members that while there are no legislative barriers to women standing, women are still more likely to hold traditional family roles, are less likely to be encouraged into political roles and have more of a tendency to underestimate their skills, not applying for jobs unless they meet all of the criteria. 

The absence of that criteria - or some kind of job spec for the States' Deputy position - complicates matters further.

Lack of understanding of what the job entails and what will be required can lead to first-time deputies being unprepared for all the unseen work carried out by States Deputies, such as committee and constituency work. 

This could be done by way of an online module, or by bringing the induction process for new Deputies forward to before the election so that prospective candidates can gain a better insight into the reality of life in the States. 

"That would make huge sense," said Ms Green. "We would be educating the electorate and by educating the electorate, some of them would become candidates."

Members and ambassadors from Women in Public Life - including Deputies Yvonne Burford, Tina Bury and Sasha Kazantseva-Miller - said that taking a proactive approach can help make representation in the States more reflective of the community. 

Some measures have already been taken in recent years to make the States more accessible. The introduction of proxy voting for new parents, a small, dedicated room for parents just outside the chamber, and the advance publication of States meeting dates are all small steps that Ms Green says have al made a positive difference.

With a positive, can-do mindset, she is confident that the new SACC Committee can "hit the ground running" now that its time is not completely wrapped up by organising 2020's ground-breaking island-wide election. 

"We need more diversity, because you get better results and better outcomes," said Ms Green. "Doing so will improve the overall quality of candidates as well."

Pictured: SACC President Deputy Carl Meerveld said that the volunteer group is "pushing against an open door" in its calls for more information to be publicly accessible for prospective election candidates. 

Ms Green's key points from the presentations have been summarised as: 

1. Deputy is just one of the roles in public office that Women in Public Life inspires and supports women to consider. Seeing more women stand for Jurat, the Douzaine and Guernsey’s many tribunals and commissions is just as important.

2. Although women are the most-under-represented group in Island politics, we are acutely conscious that we aren’t the only under-represented group, as evidenced by our International Women’s Day campaign to build links with women from the 70+ different nationalities living in Guernsey.

3. Since launching in January 2020, what’s been working for us is: telling women they are wanted; giving them accessible, timely and detailed information; and introducing them to people already doing the role.

4. The information we provide is of considerable interest to the public in general, not just women considering public office, as evidenced by the peak of 400 people a day using our Jurat Election Information Hub.

5. The key message from the election observers was that representation matters and it is a government responsibility. As Deputy Meerveld told BBC Radio Guernsey “You need that balance of skills, you need that balance of perspectives. Because any government needs to be representative of the community”.

6. Guernsey is supportive of women in leadership. Women have an equal chance of being elected and of leading States committees. But not enough women stand. In 2020, only 24% of the candidates who stood in the general election were women and 21% of the people who were elected were women. If more women had stood, more would likely have been elected.

7. Most people – men and women – don’t want to stand for the States. There are a myriad of reasons: “I’m too busy”; “I don’t have the patience”; “I’ll be criticised”; “The States doesn’t achieve anything” etc. But something stops women more.

8. The best “like for like” study of men and women’s attitudes towards political office that we have found is a US study of over 2000 lawyers, business leaders, educationalists and political activists. The research concluded that women with equal credentials to men were less likely to stand because of (a) traditional family roles (b) not be asked to run (c) underestimating their skills and overestimating the requirements of the role.

9. SACC is not in a position to influence traditional family roles, but it could help overcome (b) and (c) by telling women they are wanted, explaining the role of a States member and offering training to all.

10. In terms of telling women they are wanted, the States clearly has an excellent Comms Team who could devise and run a compelling campaign to encourage more women – and other under-represented groups – to stand.

11. In terms of training, we recommended that an information and training programme, available to everyone, begin as soon as possible rather than waiting until just before the election. It should make use of online modules to capitalise on the general public interest in public office (see point 4). It should be specific about the requirements of the role.

12. SACC has limited resources but could call on the IoD and Chamber of Commerce for support as businesses are well-versed in tackling boardroom diversity. The election observers also recommended that Guernsey create a permanent election resource, rather than starting from scratch with a completely new team at each election. This permanent election resource could assist with project managing communications and training.

13. SACC can also learn from Jersey. Their election is in mid-2022 and the States of Jersey Diversity Forum has just started running a marketing campaign to encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds to stand.