Men are emotionally retarded

Natalie Bennett muses on Comment is Free (The personal is political) about women political bloggers (my gossips tell me she was in Militant, but that may be totally untrue, and her biog only mentions that she is now in the Green Party).

The real question is, of course, about women's political involvement in general, not just whether they have a blog or not (no matter how good it is). It's certainly true that a large proportion of political organisations don't have anything like 50/50 male to female activists although different areas and branches will, no doubt, have their own shape, and obviously women have always played significant roles in political organisations.

Certainly in Cambridge many of the leading political activists are women. The University and Town Palestine solidarity groups are both run by very formidable women. The Green Party is blessed with leading member Margaret Wright. Greenpeace is organised by a young and energetic female student, Campeace and the old Socialist Alliance branch have/had leading women organisers, the list goes on.

I don't think any of these groups are organised in a particularly 'female' way, and all these activists seem to share exactly the same problems and gifts as their male counterparts.

When I've discussed the problem of under-representation with women activists before they often come up with the very things that annoy me about politics. Sectarianism, people who love the sound of their own voice, jargon, cliques, underhandedness, dishonesty, machismo. It does seem pretty rare that (progressive) groups are actually described as down the line sexist (although Gemma from Ipswich told me her anarchist branch was sexist, and for all I know it is) even when everyone recognises there is a problem.

There are particular issues that may hinder women becoming involved more than men, childcare for instance, but when this was brought up in one local group a female activist was 'rather irritated' by the suggestion as it made the assumption that childcare was solely a woman's responsibility. Fair point, although I still think we should be sensitive to needs like this and ensure no one is denied access to political involvement because of this kind of issue.

My personal theory, which no doubt has many holes, is that men are just more likely to be emotionally retarded than women and politics (and blogging, cough) are ideal ways to get social interaction without wandering into territory where you have be emotionally open.

You can be 'in charge' even if no one likes you, you get to have a whole room full of people sit in silence politely listening to your contributions no matter how dull you are, you may even get to win arguments without actually having to persuade anyone of your point of view. The internet is likewise an arena where you can have friends that you've never had to meet and you get to debate people even if you're utterly obnoxious - and no one gets beaten up (unfortunately).

So when it comes to political blogging you've got double bubble when it comes to women's involvement - but the problem with my theory is I'm not sure it gets us very far.