Following MP Maria Miller’s resignation from the cabinet, David Cameron has got Nicky Morgan to take up the role of women’s minister. The Conversative MP for Loughborough, 31, is already causing a stir, though. And here’s why:
Her stance on abortion
She previously voted in favour of backbencher Nadine Dorries’ plans to reduce the legal abortion limit from 24 to 20 weeks. (Maria Miller also voted in favour of this)
Her stance on gay rights
She voted against gay marriage last year, saying that it jarred with her religious definition of marriage, ‘Marriage is between a man and a woman. I think that was one of the issues people, especially those who asked me to vote against, found hardest to accept and it also tied in with my own Christian faith, too.’ Though her appointment will appease older Tories who never wanted it to be passed, she can’t exactly be equalities minister…
The fact ‘equalities minister’ has now been tacked on to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
It seems like the coalition doesn’t really want 'equalities minister' to exist, as it has now been passed to Sajid Javid’s role. He’s the one who is taking over Maria’s role as the minister for DCMS. Though it’ll be interesting to see how he can implement better representation of non-white people in the media section of his remit – himself bringing the number of non-white cabinet members up to a whopping two – it does make you wonder if there should be a separate role for this, if not least to get some sort of proportional equality going on in the overwhelmingly white, male cabinet.
Louise Mensch is a fan
The Government’s website doesn’t know her job exists
See?
She’s another cabinet minister to be educated at Oxbridge
Taking the total up to 17. Out of 22.
Still, maybe there’s hope for her, and maybe she won't be that bad in her new roles – having worked in law and finance, she’s got a solid background to justify her new role as financial secretary to the treasury (Sajid Javid’s previous role).
And, while the unfortunate truth remains that there are more men called David in the cabinet than women, at this rate, we have to wave the saddest flag of joy that the women’s minister role even still exists. Even if the woman taking up that role has previously tried to impinge on women’s rights over their bodies. See the stats below to see how our Cabinet measures up next to those around the world, when it comes to gender equality.
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Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.