United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (known generally as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a European sovereign state and a member of the European Union. Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy now led by Queen Elizabeth II. As a Western parliamentary democracy, Great Britain saw its first and, as yet, only female prime minister come to power in 1979, with the election of Margaret Thatcher as leader of the Conservative Party.

As of 2010, the most recent census was taken in 2001, and the total UK population stood at just under 59 million. Boys outnumber girls, while women outnumber men. In 2008, the average total fertility rate stood at 1.96 children per woman, the highest since 1973. The [Page 1489]average age that a woman gives birth to her first child continues to rise, with women aged 30-34 having the highest fertility of any age group. In many ways, the lives of men and women in the UK have become more similar than during any other historical period.

Many women go to college or university, work, socialize with men, and play an active role in all areas of public life. While remaining relatively uncommon, more men also are taking on the role of stay-at-home childcare providers, as well as engaging in other domestic duties formerly ascribed to women. However, there remain notable differences between men and women, particularly after children are born, not the least of which includes labor market participation, childcare, wages, wealth, home ownership, health, and drinking habits.

Women in Government

Transcript

• Drunk, with little awareness of what’s happening around them – this is when it’s easy to make a bad decision. But according to a recently published study, women particularly are paying the price for getting drunk, then having unprotected sex. As a GP, Dr. Sarah Jarvis deals with girls who ask for emergency contraception, or even terminations, on an increasingly regular basis.
• In the last few years, I have seen a huge rise in the number of women coming in who have either had unprotected sex, or who have had sex for the first time – which is perhaps even sadder – because they were under the influence of alcohol, not while they were under the influence, and I think perhaps that’s the difference – so many of them regret it. They wouldn’t have done it if they hadn’t been drinking.
• The study by University College London found women who drank more than 14 units of alcohol a week were almost twice as likely to have taken the morning-after pill at least once in a year. They were also 1.4 times more likely to have had at least one abortion over the past 18 months, and the number of teenagers blaming alcohol for losing their virginity rose from 2.4% in the 1940s to 6.4% today.
• The problem now is that many girls feel getting the morning-after pill, or even a termination, can help erase any bad memories of a drink-fuelled evening. But that attitude has led to Britain becoming the abortion capital of Europe and girls are also forgetting that having unprotected sex also exposes them to sexually transmitted diseases.
• The study may have uncovered alarming statistics about young women, but it also found the rise in binge drinking wasn’t exclusive to teenagers.
• Young people aren’t irresponsible – actually, what we know is that young people are not doing anything different than many older people. They are learning from us, the adults around them, who also drink too much. Young people do want to get it right. They do want to use contraception.
• Drinking to excess has tripled in the last decade, and alongside it, casual unprotected sex is on the rise too. The worry for the future is that even greater numbers of teenage girls will be waking up with more than a hangover. Jane Dougall, Sky News.

The UK is a centrally governed unitary state consisting of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Some powers are devolved to the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government, and the Northern Ireland Assembly. There is no equivalent English body. The central government is located at Westminster in London, England. Devolution has had important positive consequences for female political representatives in the UK. The percentage of women representatives in these devolved bodies is generally higher than in the central government, where fewer than 20 percent of the members of Parliament are female. The introduction of political party short lists has increased the number of female representatives due in part to the introduction of new electoral systems incorporating proportional representation.

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