Supporting women to stand for States row erupts again

The row, echoing a similar spat after the 2016 election, stemmed from a comment made in a States question by Guernsey Party member John Dyke to States’ Assembly and Constitution Committee president Carl Meerveld.

Deputy Dyke asked if the deputy would agree that States money should not be used to favour one group over another in the run-up to an election, and he referred to ‘a certain amount of uproar’ after the 2016 election at States funding being used to favour women’s groups over male candidates.

‘Would Deputy Meerveld accept that that should not happen?’ he asked.

Deputy Meerveld said that while this was one side of the argument, the other stated that if there was something disadvantaging a group should the States as an organisation possibly commit resources to attract these candidates to ensure proper representation of all segments of society.

‘Making a blanket statement that no resources should be committed would be wrong but also then trying to do it without overly emphasising or supporting groups... is the balance that has to be struck.’

This led to Tina Bury to suggest on Twitter that Deputy Dyke ‘disagrees with the experts at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association that it’s government’s responsibility to support and encourage under-represented groups to stand for election’.

A post subsequently appeared on The Guernsey Party’s website to clarify that Deputy Dyke had not suggested that women should not be encouraged to stand: ‘It is the manner in which it should be encouraged he was questioning,’ it said. ‘Surely the first question to ask is whether women are disadvantaged in our local election?’

It went on to suggest that perhaps the third sector could provide support rather than using public money.

After a link to the article appeared on Twitter, several people got involved in the discussion, including some past and present politicians.

‘Delightful,’ tweeted former deputy Sarah Hansmann Rouxel, and commented on the image of a jug of fuchsias in the party’s tweet: ‘Now I see where the Guernsey Party got their copy from: women just don’t like the deputy job and gravitate naturally towards ... flower arranging.’

‘Indeed, fuchsias for the ladies? Delicate things you know,’ wrote Edward Gregson.

A user calling themselves Boudlo Forge said that data suggested organisations performed better when they were more proportionately representative of the population: ‘If this were a company the question would then be: “Should we expend resources on finding more diverse candidates to fill these roles?” Which if we’re following the data, to maximise our performance, the answer would ... be “Yes”.’

Deputy Bury told the Guernsey Press that in her election campaign she had said that she believed diversity in government was vital to ensure all members of the community were represented. ‘I’m pleased that this important subject has been highlighted and is being discussed,’ she said.

‘The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s report on our recent election endorses my viewpoint and highlights that, in particular, female participation in elections is an area that Guernsey needs to improve and, pertinently, states that this is government’s responsibility; so action will inevitably involve the use of government resources.

‘For me, this is not just about gender, nor about favouring or advantaging any one group, it’s about government recognising that greater diversity leads to better decision-making and that representation matters.’