Why has a woman never led the Labour Party?

Yes, Griselda, I too thought Margaret Beckett looked highly competent. Also (different country!) always impressed by Condoleezza Rice.

It's irrelevant if the leader is male or female, black or white- it's the competence that counts, don't want to be propelling females (or minorities) into jobs just BECAUSE we want to look as if we're being inclusive. I would HATE to be fast tracked into a career for which others better qualified purely based on my gender! But if the best candidate's female, sure she should get it.

Labour women were strong women , not now if they want to get into the shadow cabinet. The party has gone back decades . How many women in the shadow cabinet can be considered strong women ? How many on the back benches can be considered strong women ?

I always thought Margaret Beckett would have made a good prime minister.

Jeremy Corbyn looks a different man these days, well cut suits, good shoes, and a very neat beard and haircut.

Not that being taken to one side and instructed about dress, speech etc matters if it leads to a better look as PM, after all, they are on the world stage.
What matters is being chosen in the first place, and it’s high time that Labour and the Lib Dems had a female Leader.

There is a bit of a difference between smartening someone up a bit and teaching someone to speak differently, bleach their hair and dress as instructed.
Labour women are strong women maybe they won't be groomed!

Theresa May is a strong woman? Anything I might write next will be deleted by admins so I shall just express astonishment.

Yes, thanks trisher have read a lot of books on politicians over the years, in fact nearly all are groomed ( although unpleasant word now) to step up to be the next PM in waiting.
The fact is, that Labour have never had a woman get anywhere close to being PM, which does beg the question as to why .....which is the exact question you posed in the OP.
With plenty of able women MP’s who have been Ministers there certainly should have been one by now.

Day6 and lemon do you really not know about how Thatcher was groomed and revamped before she even stood as leader?- all under the direction of the men who recognised it might be good to have a woman as a figurehead. Of course she did run out of control eventually but then they got rid of her. As for TM she promised the 1922 committee that she would implement Brexit and "Abracadabra" one Andrea Leadsom disappeared.
Just checked on the Shadow Cabinet meetings 18 women and 17 men are entitled to attend. So there are many women there, we can only hope that one of them will eventually decide to take the that huge step and stand.

Just another patronising post from a male aimed at me Iam, ?

Sarah Brown got flack for introducing her husband at a party conference , they work as a team ,how dare she .

Oh dear, support for Jennie Formby of UNITE from a union bloke. Let’s forget Ann Black was pushed out to make way for McClusky’s choice , can’t get away from unions can we.

Reminds me, anyone listen to ‘Great Lives’ Radio 4? Few weeks ago it covered a woman who led a strike in the eighties and was attacked by their ow union. Must look up her name

Oh Grandad - you do keep patronising us old wimin don't you. Classic really.

If we had an edit button I'd have added to that - It's interesting that wives of Labour leaders who've kept quiet are seen as "good wives" whereas women like Cherie Booth are seen as gobby and 'wearing the trousers'. Yvette Cooper was much maligned during that leadership election process for being married to Ed Balls (Blairite of this parish)

The party is run by Jennie Formby as General secretary and she is a "women" just in case those who have held fifty year membership of the Labour party and others had not caught up with that fact.

I suppose DA would claim to be a feminist. She may be. She isn't competent in her role is she. She does the LP no favours as she bumbles through various interviews. I don't understand why she doesn't recognise that and step down as shadow Home Secretary. I don't understand why JC doesn't sit down and talk things through with her and suggest she look after her health and allow someone else to take the role. Yvette Cooper would be good but I may not be willing to serve as a cabinet minister. Pity she didn't win the leadership election when she stood.

I think so Iam, there is Abbott and Thornberry and some women who have only been MP’s since 2015, they toe the line , no Claire Short or Mo are they.

The party is now run by Lansman and McClusky . The women who have been praised on this thread were feminists not militants. Abbott a feminist ?

Is the party more male dominated than ever Anniebach. I hadn't considered that because of women like Angela Raynor but, JC and JMcD have always reminded me of the men involved in left groups I took part in during the 70's and 80's. There was a casual sense of male entitlement which led to many of us women setting up separate groups. I expect JC and JMcD's attitudes have been influenced by those women's groups.
It's a great pity that so many good Labour women remain on the back benches whilst DA remains in the shadow cabinet.

If time difference between Jennie Lee and Yvette Cooper .

The Labour Party thrived in workmans clubs and women were not allowed in these sacred buildings. 2018 and the big unions are still controlled by men, I think it sad that we have had women astronauts yet told women are in 2018 finding a position of power in unions. You are not making five Maw.

I have a photograph of the first Blair government , two women! Then came all women short lists.

Cherie Blair was hated by many in the party , she was seen as pushy, gobby, she was her husbands equal not ‘the little woman’.

The party now is more male dominated then ever, and there are no strong women in the cabinet, they are on the back benches, we have Abbott and Thornberry who are like parrots. I certainly have no hope for a strong woman becoming leader now,

I do wonder whether the TUC was (note the tense) indeed misogynistic. As trisher says, women of the calibre of Barbara Castle, Mo Mowlam, .Hattiet Harman, Bessie Braddock, Jennie Lee, Edith Summerskill, Shirley Williams, Margaret Becket, Betty Boothroyd, Gwyneth Dunwoody, Ann Clwd, Estelle Morris, Margaret Hodge, Yvette Cooper, Stella Creasy et al spring readily to mind. Many made their mark, even made it into the Cabinet but no further. It can’t be they didn’t want to. The power of the TUC certainly used to be considerable so I am putting two and two together and possibly making five.

Oh dear Day6 you really cannot see past your own prejudices can you?

So is it perhaps that Labour women are much more outspoken, do not always toe the party line, and will not be puppets?

And Conservative women will?

Like them or not, Margaret Thatcher was a strong woman, and Theresa May is. They did not become leaders of their party because they were easily swayed and manipulated by men.

What you are saying, in effect is, that Labour men do not like strong women.

Misogyny as well as Marxism?

all party leaders are somewhat puppets.

I think women in Labour are expected to meet a higher standard of ally/feminist/selfless socialist/non existant imaginary person-ness, than women in other parties or men in labour are held accountable to.

You really would think that out of the main parties labour would have had a female leader so you have to ask why not? Several other valid reasons put forward as well as mine which incidentally I don't think was a strange comment.

The two Conservative leaders are hardly puppets, I mean, really! Margaret Thatcher?
Yes, I think it must be sexism at work within the LP, there have been many capable women ( still are) but they won’t be chosen now, when it seems that women are having a harder time within the LP than ever before.From their own side.

Never hear from Caroline Flint now , so many good women MP’s with experience are wasted on the back benches

Sorry didn’t answer the question. Don’t know the answer ?