“There will be a green wave at the next general election,” declared Hannah Spencer, the first ever Green Party MP. elected Last week in the north of England. She and a growing group of women are reaching their peak.
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Mr Spencer is not the typical face of Green politics. A plumber who left school at 16 and was still training as a plasterer during the campaign, she represents the kind of voters the Green Party, centered on the middle class in southern England, has long struggled to attract.
In his speech, he said, “I want to make the lives of people like us better, living expensesintroducing rent controls and clearing the streets of trash and flies,” she is now trying to represent them.
Such efforts have personal costs. Even before Ms Spencer took the seat, her professional and working-class credentials were being questioned, and false rumors were circulating that her husband was a millionaire.
“The right doesn’t like the idea of young working-class women getting involved in politics,” she told the New Statesman during the election campaign. “They want to keep Westminster for a small club of classy boys who all went to the same school or studied at Oxbridge.”
2019 analysis It has been found that only 7 per cent of UK MPs are from a ‘working class’ background.
Are sexism and climate change backlash interconnected?
Spencer is not alone in facing such backlash.
“Sexist abuse, personal attacks and loss of privacy are unfortunately part of reality,” he says. Lena Schillinga 25-year-old who gave up on life. friday for the future Climate activist who plans to become Austria’s Green Member of Parliament in 2024.
What may be unique is that the intersection of gender and climate intensifies attacks.
US research published in magazine climate change found a consistent correlation between sexism, climate change denial, and opposition to climate policy. The authors argue that this boils down to a “justification of the system” in which individuals fight to protect the existing socio-economic order.
Much of this harassment takes place online, where keyboard warriors can hide behind anonymity and algorithms promote divisive content.
A survey of politically active people in Germany found that women were targeted more frequently and sexually, with around two-thirds experiencing sexist or misogynistic attacks, according to a report. study By HateAid and the Technical University of Munich.
And it’s not always easy to shake it off. 22 percent of women affected by digital violence say they have considered leaving the violence at some point. politics absolutely.
“The hostility that young women face online continues to deter many from speaking out or entering politics in the first place,” Schilling said. “That’s something we have to change.”
“Parity is in our green DNA.”
For the European Greens, this starts from within. of european green party The European Union is one of only two European political parties to formally introduce gender quotas, dismissed by some as positive discrimination, but a 2024 King’s College London study found that quotas remain the only reliably effective way to ensure women’s representation in party leadership.
“Parity is in our green DNA,” Terry Reinke, co-chair of the Green Party/EFA Group and a member of the German parliament since 2014, told Euronews Green.
The Green Party/EFA is the only group in the European Parliament with full membership. gender equalityAdditionally, KCL research shows that 68 percent of European Green Party leadership roles are held by women, the highest of any Euro party.
grow up in Ruhr area – Germany’s former industrial heartland – Reinke has spent his career arguing that green politics and social justice are inseparable.
“Prioritizing inclusion, social justice, and long-term thinking naturally opens the door to more diverse leadership,” she says. “And that makes a big difference, not just in who sits at the table, but in how decisions are made and whose voices are heard.”
In Germany, greens Collaborative leadership – one man, one woman – is a founding principle. Eleven EU member states currently have legally binding gender quotas in elections. But progress has been uneven, and the gap between political will and global reality remains wide.
in COP30 climate summit According to the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), last year only 40% of national delegations were women, an increase of just 9 percentage points in 17 years, and less than a third of delegations were led by women.
Women are disproportionately affected by climate change
The stakes are not abstract. Researchers have consistently found that climate change fall the hardest To those who are least able to avoid it. Women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men in extreme weather events, and it is estimated that four out of five people displaced by climate change are women and girls.
But when women are empowered, outcomes improve for everyone. A study of 91 countries found that women’s representation in parliaments was correlated with stricter policies. climate policy And your carbon footprint will also be reduced.
Schilling has seen this firsthand. “The moment that shaped my motivation was when Leonore Gewessler, Austria’s green environment minister, fought to save the planet. natural regeneration method“It showed very clearly that one woman in the right place can make a decision that changes the future for all of us,” she says.
Female politicians can “change the future”
Spencer’s ambitions extend beyond his seat. “I’m not here to be a career politician,” she said at her first press conference after the results. “I came here to keep the door open for people who are doing what I do,” the 34-year-old said.
It’s a sentiment Schilling recognizes. “Politics doesn’t just happen in Congress,” she says. “It’s on the streets, in civil society organizations, in local communities and movement.
“If you care about the world around you, you’re already a part of politics. And with more women in leadership, we’re not just changing politics, we’re changing the future.”
