A demand for a fairer gender representation on the UK Brexit negotiation team is raising a storm and another thorn in Theresa May's already chaotic Tory leadership. As of 19th June 2017, when the first Brexit discussions took place, the UK Brexit core negotiation team comprised of 8 men and one woman with no person of colour for the two years designated for talks. The team composition is seen by many as a core team of negotiators under-representing the UK population of 65 million of which women form 51%. On the other hand its EU counterpart has a stronger and fairer representation of women in its Brexit negotiation team. The backlash on the UK Brexit team has been followed up by 56 female Labour MPS leading a written demand that the Prime Minister review the gender representation of the UK Brexit team.
For advocates and opponents of this demand, the question is whether this is political correctness gone mad or a genuine assertion that the state of play going forward must strongly drive gender balance in the UK?
Opposing views
Opponents to this demand of fairer representation see this as another political correctness campaign and are unimpressed. They perceive it as a vanity project and argue that any such determination of who qualifies to be on the Brexit team should be the best person for the job regardless of gender, race, colour or creed. Furthermore, they point out that Theresa May is a female leader and ultimately responsible for the Brexit negotiations. A nagging thought this argument generates is that it fails to recognise that the 'best person' for the job always seems to be drawn from a 'pool of men'. There appears to be no conscious effort to diversify the talent pool to include gender, race, creed or colour so that indeed the 'best person' is selected for the job. A single woman making the cut on the Brexit team is unsatisfactory.
Proponent Views
Advocates for the demand of fairer representation, on the other hand, see the UK Brexit team as another example of the UK failing to practise what it preaches. In the 19th July 2017 letter sent to Theresa May and executed by 56 female labour MPs, they write that 'Brexit negotiations will need women’s voices, on mainstream issues like the economy as well as on directly addressing, for example, how we maintain workplace rights – much of which are underpinned by EU legislation. A watering-down of workers’ rights would impact women the most, from maternity leave to discrimination in the workplace.' They present a sound basis for why gender imbalance on the Brexit team is unacceptable and rectifying this imbalance is critical to ensuring the protection of fundamental rights as well as securing the best position for the UK. A nagging thought this position generates is how gender balance can possibly be achieved on the Brexit team in a Tory government that lacks the requisite mandate to deliver on Brexit?
Cross Party Alliance
To achieve the demand to rectify the gender imbalance on the Brexit core team, Theresa May must take a cross party collaboration approach. The Conservatives do not have a mandate to deliver on Brexit and quite frankly can't do it on their own. If the Conservative party lacks strong female representatives on Brexit, they should draw on female talent from other parties such as the Labour party where female MPS like Harriet Harmann, Seema Malhotra, Yvette Cooper and Sarah Champion are leading the agenda for fairer representation on Brexit and are equally qualified to sit at the negotiation table.
Brexit is unchartered territory so no one person can claim to be an expert. Anyone on the Brexit team, including Brexit Secretary David Davis, is pretty much learning on the job. However key strengths can be drawn from the transferable skills and experience that the UK talent pool can produce but this is not currently represented in the Brexit negotiation team nor is it reflected by the actions of Theresa May.