Harriet Harman is under fire over Labour’s use of a pink bus to encourage women to vote. It is not the first time politicians have been accused of sexism.
Tory MP Caroline Dineage said choosing a pink-coloured bus “to try and attract the female vote is as patronising as it gets”.
But Labour’s deputy leader, a feminist campaigner who has never been accused of sexism before, defended the decision, saying her party had wanted the bus to “look conspicuous and therefore a white van was not going to do the job”. From white van man to pink van woman, but at least, in Ms Harman’s words ” it doesn’t have big eyelashes on the front”.
Critics used Twitter to vent their spleen, with reminders of the Better Together video – and its star, #PatronisingBTLady – from the Scottish independence referendum. The video, aimed at undecided women voters, was deemed sexist and patronising by some people.
These were the words used about David Cameron when he told Labour’s Angela Eagle to “calm down, dear” during prime minister’s questons (PMQs).
It was supposed to be a joke, taken from the Michael Winner insurance advert, but it backfired, with suggestions that Mr Cameron was showing his true “sexist” self.
PMQs was also the setting for his use of the word “frustrated” while responding to a question from Tory MP Nadine Dorries.
Ms Dorries had told him it was time to tell Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg “who is the boss”, and to laughter in the chamber, the prime minister said: “I know that the honourable lady is extremely frustrated about the… perhaps I should start all over again… I am going to give up on this one”.
I remember some Conservatives, whenever a Labour woman got up to speak they would take their breasts – imaginary breasts – in their hands and wiggle them and say ‘melons’ as we spoke. Barbara Follett
Mr Cameron apologised to Ms Dorries, with No. 10 later explaining that no innuendo had been intended.
Compared with former Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom, the prime minister is a model new man. Mr Bloom once joked that Ukip-supporting women who did not clean behind the fridge were “sluts”.
His kitchen theme was also to the fore when he said that “most women can find the mustard in the pantry quicker than a man and most men can reverse a car better than a woman”.
Shut up Menschkin.A good wife doesn’t disagree with her master in public and a good little girl doesn’t lie about why she quit politics
— Austin Mitchell (@AVMitchell2010) October 29, 2012
Another attempt at humour backfired when Labour MP Austin Mitchell tweeted about former Tory MP Louise Mensch and her husband: “Shut up Menschkin. A good wife doesn’t disagree with her master in public and a good little girl doesn’t lie about why she quit politics.”
The word “master” was also used by Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser after hearing that the wife of former Liberal leader Lord Steel was in favour of Scottish independence.
“Why is Lady Steel (apparently) pro-independence?” he asked. “Is he not master in his own house?”
Women MPs are in a minority in the Commons – and are sometimes made painfully aware of the fact.
That was the case when Tory Andrew Robathan asked Labour’s Stella Creasy why she was using a lift that was only meant for MPs. He apologised to her, saying he had made a mistake.
This explanation could not be used by male MPs using obscene gestures in the Commons chamber to unsettle women members.
Labour MP Sarah Champion complained recently that some Conservatives used their hands to imitate breasts. She was not the first woman MP to raise this issue. In 2004, a Birkbeck study found “shocking” levels of sexual abuse.
Barbara Follett, a Labour MP until the last election, said: “I remember some Conservatives, whenever a Labour woman got up to speak they would take their breasts – imaginary breasts – in their hands and wiggle them and say ‘melons’ as we spoke.”
According to Tory Amber Rudd, it is not just women MPs who have to put up with this sort of treatment. She told Stylist she had seen Maria Eagle – Angela Eagle’s twin – wiggling her little finger at David Cameron as if to imitate a “little willy”.
Harriet Harman told the Birkbeck researchers she had been told that she had only made it to the cabinet “because you’re a woman”. While another unnamed woman member of the cabinet said a male MP had once remarked: “Oh, you’ve had a very fast rise, who have you been sleeping with?”
But at least things have improved since Winston Churchill’s day. Responding to a jibe from Britain’s first female MP Nancy Astor, he once said: “I may be drunk, miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”