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P.C. WATCH

What Happened to 'Blair's Babes'?

Tony Blair brought "babes" to his last election--the 101 women M.P.s elected to Parliament in Labour's landslide victory. But this year they just haven't been as prominent. "Whatever happened to the women in this campaign?" wrote one columnist last week, echoing a national question.

Has the Labour Party let its women down in 2001? Sheer numbers would suggest so. It has fielded fewer women--149, compared with 158 in 1997. And because not as many are fighting for winnable seats, fewer are likely to be elected this time around.

But the future of parliamentary equality is not as bleak as those stats might suggest. Labour's recent constitutional reforms have given birth to the Welsh Assembly, 40 percent women, and the Scottish Parliament, 38 percent women. Only one in eight M.P.s in Westminster is a woman, but this is because British antidiscrimination laws bar the party from stacking its lists of parliamentary candidates in women's favor. Fair or not, Labour seeks to change that law after the election--earning kudos galore from women's groups. Such affirmative action is important, says Mary-Ann Stephenson, director of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality. "Left to their own devices, parties don't select enough women." After next week's election, Stephenson and others will be watching--in case Labour reneges on that promise.

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