At PoliMonitor, we thought International Women’s Day would be a good opportunity to have a quick look at the data on female MPs. Who are the most followed female MPs? How many followers do they have on average? How do these compare against the data on male MPs? Using Python, and our very own database of MPs, we rustled up a rough outline to such questions.
With around 31,723,583 combined followers between them, MPs have a huge audience. But how is this audience distributed?
It turns out that female MPs typically have slightly fewer followers on average than male MPs, with women averaging around 52,627 followers and men averaging around 55,809. But it should be noted females are still fighting for a voice in our political system with only 225 (≈34.6%) of MPs being female which compares to ≈50% of the UK population being female.
Also, it’s clear most followed MPs on Twitter appear to be those politicians with the most senior roles who are still mostly men, including the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, followed by former Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn and current Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer.
Top 3 male MPs by follower count:
- Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, 4019542
- Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn MP, 2456325
- Rt Hon Keir Starmer MP, 1195666
The most-followed female MP - former Prime Minister, Theresa May - with over a million followers still had fewer followers than the 3rd most followed male MP. She was followed up by Caroline Lucas MP and Shadow Minister Jess Phillips MP.
Top 3 female MPs by follower count:
- Rt Hon Theresa May MP, 1005879
- Caroline Lucas MP, 548453
- Jess Phillips MP, 514787
It appears that being a prolific Tweeter doesn’t guarantee a place in the most-followed lists either. Stella Creasy MP has the most Tweets by any female MP with 153,303 total Tweets, but is the 18th most followed female MP. The same goes for male MPs - with Angus Brendan MacNeil MP having posted 118,799 Tweets, but is still the 56th most-followed male MP.
While women continue to be underrepresented in Parliament and in the most senior leadership roles, female MPs continue to champion many causes and policies for their constituents, arguably more than their male counterparts. The average number of Tweets posted by female MPs is around 15,329.54, while their male counterparts have only posted roughly 12,374.31.
Nonetheless, this analysis suggests female MPs continue to have a lower share of voice in our politics than their male peers, not just in Parliament but online too.
Hopefully these numbers will look more positive when we rerun them next year, and this analysis contributes to the growing evidence that there is still more work to do to get women and girls involved and appreciated in our politics, and crucially stay in politics and be fairly represented.