Westminster is not working for women

The Lib Dem Lord Rennard saga reflects a serious problem in politics.

At a recent swanky dinner in Westminster, the chairman opened proceedings by welcoming the politicians and journalists present, along with their wives and friends.

It took a helpful heckler to point out that some had brought husbands.

It was sadly typical of the male-dominated atmosphere in Westminster, from the press gallery to the floor of the Chamber.

It’s a state of affairs shown up again last week as the Lib Dems got themselves in a terrible tizzy over the fate of Lord Rennard.

A year ago Rennard, a well-heeled and well placed fundraiser and election organiser for the party, was accused of sexually harassing a number of female party activists.

This sort of thing doesn’t happen to the Lib Dems, whose annual conference is awash with diversity workshops, brown rice and organic ale rather than cocktail-fuelled copulating.

Lord Rennard’s supporters and he has many in the House of Lords were dubbed “the Benny Hill faction” at one point, a particularly ill-chosen epithet given most Lib Dems would surely shun sexist ’70s comedy in favour of a high-brow American import like Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Lord Rennard has no enthusiasm for apologising he insists he’s done nothing wrong. Whatever the rights or wrongs, it’s no laughing matter for Nick Clegg or the women of Westminster. The scandal or saga, depending on who you believe, is a symptom of a wider Westminster disease.

Female researchers from all parties have a hit list of MPs to avoid being alone with. Some have career paths shut down because they daren’t go work for a notorious groper, for example.

Name one particular shadow cabinet minister to any Labour woman and the reaction will range from a raised eyebrow to a look of fear.

Another female Tory MP announced she was standing down last week after just one term confirming something there is not conducive to ambitious women. Derbyshire MP Jessica Lee became the fourth female 2010 Tory to jump ship.

And who can blame her for turning her back on the common room atmosphere in the Commons given the reaction to another of the 2010 intake who took to jumping of different kind.

Penny Mordaunt took to the high dive on amateurish ITV reality show Splash! last weekend, and there were plenty of winks and nudges at the diving belle’s expense once pictures of her in her swimsuit emerged.

Lee’s decision to pack in politics is a particular headache for David Cameron. He’s long been felt to have a “woman problem”, which has two elements to it.

He lacks enough women on his benches to fulfil his self-imposed quota of a third of ministers being female by 2015. If he’s to hit his target, expect to see Jeremy Hunt in a dress after the next reshuffle.

And he’s accused of a condescending attitude that is not conducive to attracting more women either as voters or candidates.

It all started when he ill-advisedly urged Angela Eagle to “calm down dear” during Prime Minister’s Questions. More evidence emerged last week when Cameron cracked a joke about shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves being boring.

Like the attack on Eagle it suffered from being not very funny and left many wondering why the PM always seems to mock the women on Labour’s front bench rather than the men. If, instead of patronising his female opponents, he targeted them with vitriol like he does Ed Balls that at least would be fair.

But it fell to another Old Etonian to perversely offer some hope things could be worse. Douglas Hurd, Cabinet minister under Britain’s only female PM back in the 1980s, warned that there is a “danger” in feminism and that attempts to get more women into parliament can be “ludicrous”.

He chose his words well but not his target. A parliament that does not properly represent half the population can only be described as ludicrous.