When it comes to women in politics, numbers matter – but policies matter even more

Almost inevitably, conversations about women and politics usually come down to the number of women in government and cabinet, as if all female voters judge parties on is the sex of their candidates

Get ready for headlines about Boris Johnson having a woman problem.

Predicting reshuffles is a mug’s game, but few at Westminster will be surprised if next month’s shake-up of ministerial jobs sees several women leave the cabinet. Justly or otherwise – and such things are rarely fair – the current chatter among MPs puts the black spot firmly on Theresa Villiers and Andrea Leadsom, and puts question marks over Therese Coffey and Liz Truss.

If so, expect to hear talk about the number of women in cabinet: has it risen or fallen? Is the talent pool of female Tories too small? Eighty-seven of 365 Conservative MPs are women and even if that group contains some of the party’s brightest talents, some senior Tories admit it’s still an awkwardly small share of the party in parliament.

Labour did rather better at the last election: 104 of its 202 MPs are female. But the opposition should be careful of criticising the Tories when Labour itself is odds-on to elect another man as leader; in the last week I’ve heard both diehard Blairites and full-blooded Corbynites say Keir Starmer’s chances of getting the top job are being boosted by left-wing misogyny that penalises his female rivals.

More importantly, the Conservatives beat Labour among female voters in December, but less convincingly than with men: 46 per cent of male voters backed the Tories, and 44 per cent of women. Among people aged 25 to 40, the gender gap was 3 points. Among 18 to 24s, the gap widens to 13 points: young women really weren’t impressed by “Get Brexit Done” and a Tory campaign fronted almost exclusively by middle-aged men in suits. Evidently, that wasn’t enough to prevent the party winning power, but nor should it be ignored, since it could just be part of a trend. Until 2017, the Tories did better among women than men at every postwar general election. The possibility of a shift towards the Tories as a male party should bother anyone who wants to govern under a one nation banner.

Almost inevitably, conversations about women and politics usually come down to numbers: how to get more women into parliament and into government jobs – as if all female voters judge parties on is the sex of their candidates. Of course, as a man who runs a think tank, I would say this, but I’d argue that a couple of other points should be taken into account here. First, the policies politicians enact matter at least as much as the sex of those politicians. Second, and more important: men can – and should – do more to develop and enact policies that matter to women.

Indeed, one of the prevailing flaws of our politics, one found on all sides, is that there are still things that are tacitly considered “women’s issues”, things that matter to women and not men, and which are therefore discussed largely or exclusively by women. That can leave important issues neglected, or even ignored. Childcare is an outstanding example. Policies that do more to help parents, female and male, combine work and family responsibilities should be far higher up the agenda for all parties.

Social care is another. Women are more likely than men to receive care, to work in the care sector and to provide unpaid care to relatives. Would the care system have remained broken for so long if that was not the case?

Economic policies should take more account of women too: they don’t just earn less, they start fewer businesses, own fewer assets and are building up smaller pensions, a ticking timebomb of deferred inequality that will be detonated by rising lifespans.

Away from conventional areas of policy which Whitehall departments are built to manage, there is a suite of issues that affect women more than men but which male politicians need to talk about more, or just talk about at all. Why has it been left to a few female politicians to address the disturbing implications of a culture where porn is near-ubiquitous? Where are the men worrying about the normalisation of choking during sex and the number of women killed by men who then claim it was a “sex game gone wrong”?

The reshuffle and the Labour leadership contest will naturally focus attention on questions of personnel: how many women are there in top jobs, and how can that number be increased?

The Downing Street media plan for the shuffle will put the emphasis on the rising female stars being promoted, and a cabinet return for Penny Mordaunt, surprisingly sacked last year, would make sense. Likewise you can bet that a victorious Starmer would trumpet the number of women he put in senior shadow cabinet posts; the party may also get a female deputy leader in Angela Rayner.

This stuff matters. We need far more women in politics; no modern democracy should still be dominated by blokes in suits. But some things matter even more, and getting men in politics to realise that there is no such thing as “women’s issues” is one of them.

James Kirkup is director of the Social Market Foundation