Women in politics: changing culture is more than a numbers game

Equality, interpreted just as equal numbers, has often been oversold as a panacea for many of the ills of society. The claims for better representation for groups such as women were based in their early stages on the assumption that our additional numbers would change the ways in which organisations worked.

As a long-term participant in promoting the extra numbers approach, I have observed the presence of extra women does not necessarily contribute to either cultural or structural changes. So I have increasingly become more interested in how one can reframe arguments about equal opportunity in terms of creating more competent, resilient and ethical organisations.

Take, for example, the recurring failure of the NSW branch of the ALP, over eight years, to redress gender imbalances in its parliamentary ranks, which was raised at last weekend's ALP women's conference.

While remedies such as women's-only seats and increasing the loading for female candidates have been suggested, the problem raises much broader and more serious questions about the general capacities of the organisation.

If competency in preselection practices is a key indicator of the general levels of operations of the branch, this is a worry. The task set the ALP at the 1994 national conference, for the representation of women in Parliament to be 35 per cent by 2002, was just an improvement in numbers. There was no real pressure to look at the types of cultural change the review processes, hopefully, are tackling. Yet NSW, of all branches, singularly failed to deliver.

So now they are proposing the worst type of remedy. By forcing the issues in preselection in NSW, maybe by offering all-women preselections, they are acknowledging their inability to use their own system to create fairness at the basic numbers level.

If they cannot attract or select enough women to meet the modest demand of about a third in winnable seats, what does this say about its operations and the competence of other office holders and incumbents? Maybe this is a result of the calcification of the factional system, tied to particular sets of political cultures, so the party becomes unattractive to many good political women (and men).

The failure of NSW Labor to make its structures work in ways that would encourage good female candidates suggests serious problems of a long-term and intransigent nature. The problem for the electors of NSW is whether the present process is offering them the best candidates.

To suggest the present method of rank-and-file preselection be bypassed or manipulated to ensure five extra women win seats in the next state election is no real solution to the structural issues. It would boost the numbers of women but I question whether this is really a plus. It may increase the influence of women in the NSW party, but most women selected will be chosen on the basis that they are no threat to the status quo.

The most probable explanation of the lack of women in Labor's parliamentary ranks is that those in charge prefer to select women who will not try to change the system.

I am ambivalent about supporting such special measures because they will allow the party to continue to ignore its cultural and structural problems. They would be seen as ad hoc and unfair and suggest an organisational culture which is possibly unethical and generally resistant to change. I also suspect the anger of the displaced men in factional queues will resonate for years and be aimed at women who want change, and therefore militate against the needed changes in party culture. So, on balance, the special measures are probably not a good idea.

This is the centenary of women's right to stand for Federal Parliament. The history of women in NSW Labor is not great. It took a long time before a woman was elected to the House of Representatives - Jeanette McHugh in 1983 - and our one female ALP senator, Sue West, has held her seat since the '80s, with a three-year break.

Senate preselection is the best indicator of party cultures as Senate seats are decided by factions and the lack of women in their lists illustrates the wider problems. I left the ALP in the late '80s because I gave up on the possibilities of change from within, and am not convinced anything much has changed since, despite some increase in the number of women.

Eva Cox teaches social inquiry at the University of Technology, Sydney.