FOCUS: THE TORIES IN TURMOIL - Women are the secret weapon for recovery

W

illiam Hague could rise above his current difficulties by turning his weaknesses into strengths. One of the Conservative Party's weaknesses is its outdated treatment of women. By making the party the natural political home of women, he could revitalise its image and culture.

The Conservative Party has, in the past, appealed to women very effectively. It was the Conservative Party that granted full universal suffrage, elected the first woman leader of a major British political party and achieved the economic liberalisation of the 1980s. But the culture and public face of the modern party has become almost exclusively male. A Centre for Policy Studies pamphlet, Conservative omen, published on Friday, shows that only 8 per cent of Conservative MPs are women; only 21 per cent of candidates selected for the next general election are women; only 21 per cent of senior staff at Conservative Central Office are women.

The party's views are outdated; too many in the party hanker for the days of the subservient family woman. And it has forgotten how to speak about the issues that concern women. The party's key policy document, The Common Sense Revolution, has only one policy specifically for women: a new fund to pay for training for mothers returning to employment. The report on the Listening to Britain exercise did not mention women at all. In contrast, New Labour presented a entire manifesto for women.

Attempts to include women would show that the party was becoming more open and representative. Hague's personal commitment is not in doubt. The question he must answer is how to overcome the resistance within the party to his ambitions. As a start, 30 per cent of candidates in the next general election should be women, and 40 per cent of candidates in all elections thereafter.

The party must also develop new policy themes that appeal to a generation of women who, for the first time, have real choice over their lives. Policy must also help women to manage their employment. Childcare, which the Conservatives have not addressed since their days in government, needs new thinking, and greater flexibility for women workers is needed.

omen have social as well as economic interests. The fear of crime, which affects women particularly strongly, needs to be considered carefully by the Home Affairs team under Ann iddecombe. The Conservatives can win the support of women by speaking on the issues that are of greatest importance to them.

Tessa Keswick is the director of the Centre for Policy Studies.