Gender and Social Justice in Wales

1

Setting the Scene: Devolution, Gender Politics and Social Justice

NICKIE CHARLES

In 1997 a Labour government was elected in the UK committed to constitutional reform which included the devolution of government to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was also committed to improving the political representation of women. In Wales an assembly was proposed with powers to develop and implement policy in a number of key areas including education and training, health, housing, social services and local government. The first elections to the National Assembly for Wales were held in 1999 and an unprecedented number of women representatives were returned constituting 40 per cent of AMs (Assembly members). In 2003 this proportion increased to 50 per cent which was hailed as a ‘world record’ for a legislative body (Watt, 2003). In this chapter we explore how it was that this gender balance was achieved in Wales, how the gender balance in the Assembly compares with the proportion of women representatives at other levels of government, and how it relates to the politics of the feminist movement and other gender-based organizations in Wales. We briefly describe the powers of the National Assembly and discuss how gender and social justice can be conceptualized, developing a theoretical framework for the more empirically focused chapters which follow.

Achieving a gender balance

There are four important elements to the achievement of gender balance in political representation in the National Assembly: the involvement of ‘strategic women’ in the devolution campaign; feminist organizing during the ‘Yes campaign’; the input of women’s organizations into the constitutional blueprint for the National Assembly; and the activities of women and feminists within the political parties. A comprehensive account of these different elements can be found in Chaney, Mackay and McAllister (2007). Here we draw on this account to show how it was that a gender balance in political representatives was achieved in the National Assembly and how a commitment to equality of opportunity was written into its constitution.

Strategic women and the devolution campaign

The Campaign for a Welsh Assembly was launched in 1987, eight years after the failed referendum in 1979, but it was not until the early 1990s that women began to mobilize within it to ensure that gender equality was taken seriously. Their lobbying bore fruit and, in 1994, when the Campaign for a Welsh Assembly became the Parliament for Wales Campaign, it produced a declaration which committed it to ensuring a gender balance in elected political representatives in any future legislative assembly and addressed the question of how this could be achieved. Feminists active within the campaign argued that parties should be legally required to select an equal number of women and men candidates. In the event this did not happen but the campaign explicitly recognized that devolution would provide a unique opportunity to improve the political representation of women within Wales (Chaney et al., 2007: 38).

Although the Welsh Labour Party, Plaid Cymru and the Parliament for Wales Campaign actively supported devolution, it was not until 1996, when the referendum was announced, that they began to work together in a campaigning organization called Yes for Wales. The 1997 general election and the victory of New Labour galvanized the campaign and, at the same time, women’s visibility within it was raised; it made a commitment to the principle of gender balance which was immediately visible in the gender composition of speakers on all public platforms. In 1997 ‘Women Say Yes’ was launched which ‘involved strategic women who were also leading members of the overall campaign, such as Val Feld’ (Chaney et al., 2007: 42). Many of the women involved were subsequently elected as AMs. Women Say Yes was able to raise ‘the profile of gender equality within the context of the overall Wales Says Yes devolution campaign’ (Chaney et al., 2007: 43) due to the ‘key role … played by strategic women’ (ibid.: 44). It also initiated a campaign to make sure that ‘equality [was] at the heart of the Assembly’s activities’ (National Library of Wales, 1997, cited in Chaney et al., 2007: 45, n. 23).

The debates about devolution, and pressure from organizations such as Cymdeithas yr Iaith, provided the opportunity to ensure that ‘traditional social justice concerns’ were linked with concerns about gender and other equalities (Chaney et al., 2007: 49). Because of the weakness of the women’s movement within Wales, however, it was ‘strategic women’ who were instrumental in ensuring that issues of gender parity in representation and gender equality were central to these debates. Such women were also instrumental in establishing the women’s organizations and networks which would later influence the devolution settlement. Thus, Val Feld, in her capacity as director of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) in Wales, was involved in the creation of Chwarae Teg, MEWN Cymru and, in 1997, the Wales Women’s National Coalition. Helen Mary Jones, in her capacity as a senior manager within the EOC Wales and a Plaid Cymru activist, was also involved in this ‘network building’. According to Chaney, Mackay and McAllister, this was significant because it meant ‘that there was an organized and credible women’s coalition in place in time to back the strategic women’s demands in the intensive period of institutional design in 1997–8’ (Chaney et al., 2007: 51). Thus, ‘Strategic women with women’s movement credentials, many with personal networks rooted in earlier phases of the women’s movement mobilization, adopted a mainly insider and elite strategy, but also worked to remobilize and re-energize the women’s sector’ (ibid.: 51–2). Strategic women, when working within state bureaucracies, either as political representatives or in other capacities, and attempting to pursue a feminist agenda, are often referred to as femocrats (see chapter 4).

Equal opportunities

These strategic women and women’s organizations were instrumental in ensuring that gender equality was enshrined in the legal framework of the National Assembly. Thus in June 1997, Ron Davies, the secretary of state for Wales, met representatives of what was then the Wales Women’s Coalition and the EOC Wales to discuss how equal opportunities would be made integral to all the activities of the devolved Assembly. He was presented with a draft equality clause that could be included in a future Government of Wales Bill (Chaney et al., 2007: 54). This was an idea that originated from within the Welsh Labour Party at their conference in 1996 and was enshrined in their policy document, Preparing for a New Wales (WLP, 1996). It eventually led to clause 120 of the Government of Wales Act 1998 which places an ‘absolute duty’ on the National Assembly to operate according to the ‘principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people’ (Government of Wales Act 1998, section 120).¹ The equality duty is unique within the UK in so far as it creates a legal requirement on government to promote equality of opportunity. And evidence suggests that its inclusion in the legislative framework of the National Assembly was due to feminist women organizing within and without political parties and, in particular, to the efforts of Val Feld (Chaney et al., 2007; Chaney and Fevre, 2002; Dobrowolsky, 2002). Feminist activists, equality campaigners and women’s organizations were also influential in deciding how the National Assembly should operate, through their involvement in the National Assembly Advisory Group. This group eventually recommended, among other things, family-friendly working hours, appropriate use of language, gender-neutral titles, a standing equal opportunities committee, which would be concerned with gender, race and disability, and working practices that would be different from those at Westminster (Chaney et al., 2007). The standing committee on equal opportunities was necessary in order to meet the requirements of the equality duty.

Political representation

Within the political parties women activists were also instrumental in ensuring that greater numbers of women were elected to the National Assembly than was the case for Westminster or local government. It was the Welsh Labour Party and Plaid Cymru which took specific measures to ensure a gender balance of political representatives rather than this requirement being written into the constitutional settlement as had been suggested. The Labour Party committed itself to a gender balance in the devolved legislature in the early 1990s; this led to the policy of twinning constituencies, a measure which was also adopted in Scotland, and meant that, for each pair of constituencies, a woman and man were selected as candidates. Plaid Cymru also introduced positive measures by putting women candidates at the top of the regional lists. It should be noted that a system of proportional representation was adopted for elections to the National Assembly. There are sixty AMs, forty of whom are elected on a first-past-the-post system in the UK parliamentary constituencies, while the other twenty are elected using regional lists from which four representatives are elected in the five European Parliament regions. Twinning was possible only for the first Assembly elections, although the UK Labour Party has now adopted a policy of all-women shortlists to be used (usually) where an incumbent steps down. Plaid Cymru, however, has recently abandoned the policy of putting women at the top of the regional lists although if a man heads the list a woman has to be in second place. For the first National Assembly elections these measures resulted in 40 per cent of AMs being women and, in 2003, this proportion increased to 50 per cent. The proportion of women AMs during the second Assembly rose to 52 per cent because of a byelection but, after the 2007 elections, went down to 46.7 per cent. Nevertheless, this marks the National Assembly as differently gendered from other levels of government in Wales and demonstrates a level of political representation which is much more representative of the gender balance of the population. In terms of inclusivity of other marginalized groups, however, it was not until the 2007 elections that a minority ethnic Plaid Cymru AM (male) was elected on the South Wales East regional list.

The distinctiveness of the gendering of the National Assembly is evident if we look at the gender composition of local government in Wales. After the 2004 local government elections, 21.8 per cent of councillors were women and three out of twenty-two council leaders were women. The proportion of councillors rose to 24.8 per cent following the 2008 elections but the number of women leaders went down to one. These averages hide considerable variation between local authorities; a few have a third or more women councillors (Vale of Glamorgan 38.3 per cent; Cardiff 36.0 per cent; Torfaen 34.1 per cent) while others have fewer than a tenth (Merthyr Tydfil 6.3 per cent; Ynys Môn 5.0 per cent). Indeed, the average percentage of women councillors across the twenty-two local authority areas is 23.7 per cent. Although this compares unfavourably with the gender balance that has been achieved by the National Assembly, it is slightly better than the UK Parliament, where the big breakthrough for women in the 1997 general election still meant that women MPs were only 18.2 per cent of the total. This rose to 19.8 per cent in the 2005 general election. Of the forty-one Welsh MPs, eight (19.5 per cent) are women; seven of these are Labour (three of whom were elected as a result of all-women shortlists in Bridgend, Llanelli and Swansea East), and one is a Liberal Democrat (Chaney et al., 2007: 71).

Bringing about change

It is clear from the discussion so far that a commitment to a gender balance in terms of political representatives in the National Assembly was an important part of the devolution campaign and that this commitment came about because of the activities of feminists and women activists within the campaign and within the political parties. Similarly, the equality duty owes its existence, inter alia, to the activism of women with a history of participation in the women’s movement. There was an assumption on the part of these women that a gender balance in political representation, or an improvement in women’s descriptive representation, would mean that women’s issues would be pursued within the National Assembly and that this would have an impact on policy development and implementation, thereby improving the lives of women in Wales (Chaney et al., 2007). Thus descriptive representation would be translated into substantive representation. There is considerable debate in the literature about how and whether this happens (see, for example, Mackay, 2004 and 2008; Phillips, 1998; Childs and Krook, 2006) and it is one of the questions addressed in the chapters that follow. Here we wish to reflect on the changes in the political and discursive opportunity structure that were brought about by the creation of the National Assembly and how this both led to a differently gendered political opportunity structure and facilitated the involvement of social movement organizations in the formal political process.

Political and discursive opportunity structures

In understanding how social movements, such as the women’s movement, influence policy development and implementation we need to take a step back and consider how they engage with political processes and, in particular, with different levels of the state. It is generally agreed that social movements bring about social change in two ways: through engaging with the state to bring about policy change and through creating new meanings and understandings of the world; that is, they operate at both a political and a cultural level (Roseneil, 1995; Eyerman and Jamison, 1991; Melucci, 1989). Their ability to bring about change, however, depends on the nature of the political and discursive opportunity structures with which they engage and within which they construct meanings and contest power (Ferree, 2003; Charles, 2004; Ball and Charles, 2006). The political opportunity structure is generally understood as being constituted by the state and other political institutions such as political parties; in other words, it is the political context within which social movements have to operate. This concept has been criticized for being over-structural and not taking sufficient account of the cultural dimensions of social movements and there have been several attempts to incorporate the cultural dimension of social movement activity into an understanding of how social movements bring about social change. Thus it has been argued that social movements change meanings, that is, they reframe and redefine issues so that they are understood differently. In turn, this may lead to a shift in dominant definitions and a cultural change which can ‘create a climate both inside and outside political institutions which is conducive to policy change’ (Ball and Charles, 2006: 174). An example of reframing is provided by the way in which second-wave feminism defined domestic violence in terms of male power over women rather than as a problem of individual male pathology or family-based violence (Charles, 2000).

The idea of framing has, however, also been criticized for failing to attend to issues of power and it has been argued that the concept of a discursive opportunity structure, which conceptualizes discourses and frames of meaning as being rooted in ‘key political institutions’, is needed to understand the struggle over meanings in which social movements and the state are engaged (Naples, 2002: 244; Ferree, 2003). Furthermore, the political opportunity structure is characterized by ‘systemic inequalities of gender, race, class, and sexuality’ (Whittier, 2002: 295) and dominant discourses reinforce existing power relations and social inequalities (Naples, 2002). Thus social movements, as well as being constrained by these structures of power and meaning, can and do challenge and transform or modify them. In the process, however, they may themselves be transformed, particularly if incorporation into political institutions involves a process of compromise and reframing of issues. Incorporation may also involve some feminist framings becoming dominant while others are marginalized (Ferree, 2003; Charles, 2004). Thus,

Feminist social movements, in developing discourses and meanings that have cultural resonance and are likely to be effective in influencing policy, may move away from a gendered discourse which places women at the centre to a non-gender-specific discourse that is compatible with liberal individualism and renders women – particularly working-class and ethnic minority women – invisible. (Charles, 2004: 301)

Examples of this can be seen in the way that feminist framings of childcare have shifted from one of women’s rights and gender difference to one which defines it in terms of children’s rights, equal opportunities and economic efficiency (Ball and Charles, 2006). This is explored in Wendy Ball’s chapter in this volume. Similarly, domestic violence had, since the 1970s, been defined as a housing issue and as relating to gendered power relations. Now, however, it is defined primarily as a criminal justice issue. This reframing has implications for the autonomous women’s movement. Thus, while domestic violence was defined as a housing issue, women’s refuge groups and Welsh Women’s Aid were ‘able to retain their autonomy’ and ‘operate as feminist, collective, non-hierarchical organizations’ (Charles, 2004: 302). Now, however, domestic abuse has been redefined as a criminal justice issue and, because of the way women’s refuge groups and Welsh Women’s Aid are funded, they have lost much of their autonomy and have, by and large, adopted a more hierarchical form of organization (Charles, 2000 and 2004; Ball and Charles, 2006). The way issues are framed, therefore, and the embedding of this framing in policy development, has implications both for the autonomy of feminist-based organizations and for the distribution of resources. These issues are explored in Nickie Charles and Stephanie Jones’s chapter in this volume.

A changed opportunity structure

If we now return to devolution and the involvement of the women’s movement and key feminist actors in the devolution process we can see that the election of New Labour in 1997 brought about a significant change in the political and discursive opportunity structure. Its policies had been influenced by feminists active within the party during its time out of office as had its attitude towards the political representation of women (Lovenduski, 1996; Perrigo, 1996). Similarly, feminist involvement in Plaid Cymru had shifted its policies in the direction of gender equality and a commitment to ensuring a gender balance in the National Assembly. The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives had not taken any significant measures to increase women’s representation. Outwith the political parties feminist activism and the influence of organizations committed to the equalities agenda had a major impact on the constitutional settlement and on the workings of the new political institution. The commitment to both devolution and a higher political representation of women on the part of New Labour, therefore, created an opportunity for feminist activists and women’s organizations to influence both the shape of the new institution and its gendering which, in turn, created a differently gendered political opportunity structure with which social movement and other civil society organizations could engage. This engagement is the subject of several of the chapters in this volume and its development during the first Assembly is explicitly addressed by Sandra Betts in chapter 3.

Alongside this the political rhetoric in Wales, particularly during the devolution campaign, emphasized inclusivity and the importance of redistributive social justice. Inclusivity had originally been advanced as a coded reference to proportional representation. However, it was broadened out to ‘signal a general concern with equality of opportunity and pluralism’ (Chaney et al., 2007: 57) and created a discursive opportunity structure which was favourable to demands for gender equality and a gender balance of political representatives. It is also associated with consensual politics, cross-party working and the inclusion of marginalized groups. The idea of inclusivity, meaning that ‘the Assembly would reach out to all sections of Welsh society, healing old rifts, and bringing disengaged and marginalized groups into the policy-making arena’, marked the devolution campaign. And the policy machinery with which to ensure that this happened was linked to the Assembly’s commitment to equality of opportunity which was enshrined as an ‘absolute duty’ in its constitution (Day, 2006: 647; Chaney and Fevre, 2002).

The involvement of strategic women in the devolution campaign and pressure for change within the major political parties in Wales, together with an engagement with the processes leading to a constitutional settlement and the creation of a new political institution, were critical in bringing about a differently gendered political and discursive opportunity structure in Wales. This was because the devolution project itself created a new political terrain within which women’s movement activists could engage and contribute to the creation of a political institution and culture which gave a high priority to gender equality both symbolically and in terms of political practice. The powers of the National Assembly are, however, limited and, as we shall see in the chapters that follow, this circumscribes its ability to transform ideals into reality (see particularly chapters 5 and 9).

The 1998 Government of Wales Act essentially transferred the executive functions of the secretary of state for Wales to an elected body. This meant that the National Assembly had very restricted powers compared to the power to enact new legislation that was given to the Scottish Parliament. Its powers were limited to the enactment of secondary legislation primarily in the areas of agriculture; culture; education and training; the environment; health; sport; economic development; local government and housing; social services; transport; and the Welsh language. These limited powers have been the cause of much dissatisfaction and, in 2006, a new Government of Wales Act substantially revised the devolution settlement and has the potential to give the National Assembly much more extensive powers. The 2006 Act, while not placing the National Assembly on the same level as the Scottish Parliament, nevertheless provides a mechanism to achieve the same type of constitution with primary law-making powers after a referendum. In the meantime, the Act creates an intermediate period during which some primary law-making powers in specified areas may be transferred to the National Assembly. This transfer of law-making powers will allow the National Assembly ‘to modify – i.e. amend, repeal or extend – the provisions of Acts of Parliament in their application to Wales, or to make new provision’ (Wales Office 2005, section 3.16). The mechanism put in place to establish the areas in which this legislative activity will be valid is a new type of ‘Orders in Council’, referred to as Legislative Competence Orders. Each Legislative Competence Order must be developed by the National Assembly and presented to Parliament for the approval of both Houses before the National Assembly can enact measures in the area that it covers: the efficacy of this mechanism has not yet been tested. In relation to issues of equality and social justice, however, the 2006 Government of Wales Act retains the ‘absolute duty’ and, as we shall see, social justice is claimed to be of central importance to the Welsh Assembly Government. Equal opportunities and social justice, therefore, continue to be both symbolically and institutionally integral to the workings of the National Assembly.

The National Assembly and social justice

According to a Welsh Assembly Government policy adviser, social justice is at the heart of policy development (Drakeford, 2007). Certainly in 2003, once the Labour Party had a won a majority in the Assembly, the first minister established the post of minister for social justice and regeneration and, prior to this, reclaimed for Welsh Labour the class-based politics that had marked the post-war Labour government and the consensus over the welfare state. He did this by the use of a brilliant trope, claiming that ‘clear red water’ separated Welsh Labour from its UK counterpart and that communities were the bedrock of creating a new, more inclusive society. Communities were ‘the raw material, the social heritage out of which Welsh devolution has been created – and in which we can now make our own social policy in Wales, for Wales based on a Welsh version of the so-called post-war consensus’ (Morgan, 2002, cited in Mooney and Williams, 2006: 616). Furthermore, achieving social justice was defined in terms of a politics of redistribution which would ameliorate inequalities based on class. The rhetoric was very much that of social democracy and the main inequalities to be tackled were structural. This reflected the political culture of Wales and its ‘genuinely long-term commitment to left of centre redistributive politics, stretching for more than 150 years, from 19th century Liberalism through 20th century Labourism and on to the present day’ (Drakeford, 2006: 172). The commitment to equality of opportunity is also reminiscent of the aspirations surrounding the establishment of the post-war welfare state and, particularly, the development of education policies during and after the Second World War (Addison, 1977; Fraser, 2002; Lowe, 1998). At that time equality of opportunity was seen in class terms. Since then, however, so-called new social movements have drawn attention to other bases of inequality, such as gender, and inequalities are now understood as plural and cross-cutting, they are not only inequalities of class but inequalities based on gender, sexuality, race, age, disability, religion and language (this is discussed in relation to sexuality by Parken and to language by Davies in this volume).

A commitment to equality is, therefore, central to Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) policy making. In a recent lecture, the then first minister argued that, ‘Inequality is the most insidious form of injustice because it prevents individuals from achieving their full potential’ (Morgan, 2006). And it has been suggested that equality of outcome is now driving WAG policy-making rather than the more usual equality of opportunity (Drakeford, 2007). Greater equality is regarded as a social good for various reasons.

More equal societies enjoy greater economic success … More equal societies enjoy better health … More equal societies enjoy lower levels of crime … and, even more importantly, are marked by lower levels of fear of crime. There is a sense of individual validation and social solidarity that greater equality brings. Moreover, the sum of freedom in a more equal society will always be greater than in unequal societies, where freedom is unfairly divided. (Drakeford, 2007: 176)

This commitment to tackling inequalities and the political rhetoric which accompanies it is distinctive to Wales. It is also reflected in, amongst other things, a commitment to universal rather than means-tested provision. Although social security is not devolved, which limits the ability of the Welsh Assembly Government to counter the targeting of benefits on ‘the poor’ or other social groups, the measures it has been able to introduce, such as free prescriptions, free swimming and free breakfasts in primary schools, have been available to all not just to ‘the poor’ (Drakeford, 2007). This has important social justice implications because, in contrast to benefits which are means tested, universally available benefits avoid stigmatizing those who receive them. The commitment to tackling inequalities is also reflected in the refusal to resort to private finance initiatives within the health service and to shape education policy in a way that avoids the creation of city academies (Drakeford, 2007; see chapter 7 in this volume for a discussion of gender inequalities and education since devolution). Furthermore, as we have already mentioned, there is a commitment to engaging civil society actors in the creation of policy; this means that participation is seen as central to policy development as well as to social justice: ‘If social justice is rooted in a commitment to the equal worth of every individual, then the need to draw on the talents of all our citizens applies as much to government itself as to any other aspect of life’ (Drakeford, 2007: 174). There is, therefore, a political commitment to social justice and to greater equality, which is evident in the discourses mobilized by political representatives and Welsh Assembly Government advisers, and there is a related set of institutional processes and procedures as well as policy initiatives. The political and discursive opportunity structure is one that is open to claims framed in terms of equality and/or social justice. It is not altogether clear, however, how these terms are defined and how they relate to each other. It is, therefore, important to consider the definitions of social justice and equality that underpin policy and practice, the links between them and the extent to which they are understood in terms of gender.

Theorizing social justice

There is considerable debate about the meaning of equality, how it relates to sameness and difference, how equality and social justice are linked and how ideas of social justice relate to a politics of both redistribution and/or recognition. Until the emergence of ‘new’ social movements in the 1960s and 1970s, social justice had been understood in terms of redistribution, usually a redistribution of income, wealth or, in