“Women are silenced before they even speak.”
And, of course, women are still a shockingly small minority in Parliament. There are just 225 female MPs. This equates to under 35% of the total; way off the 50% it should be, but somehow still the highest the figure has ever been.
It's not just women MPs who are subjected to abuse. Women journalists, parliamentary staff and others working in the Westminster village have all reported sexist harassment – and worse. Some are made more vulnerable by the unique workings of the place. MPs’ staff – those who work as policy aides, press spokespeople or administrators – have even less access to recourse, because they are often directly employed by the person abusing them.
The treatment of women in Westminster is a crisis hiding in plain sight. The treatment of Angela Rayner this weekend reminded us all to look, rather than turn away. But the terrible things women experience both on and away from the famous green Commons benches will not stop just because politicians rush to condemn them. That is not enough.
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