Sam: Hello. This is 6 Minute English,
I'm Sam.
Georgina: And I'm Georgina.
Sam: How do you do feel
about politics, Georgina?
Georgina: Well, there's a lot around
at the moment!
Sam: Yes, indeed!
Georgina: One thing I would like
to see in politics, particularly
British politics, is more women
in parliament. About 34% of our MPs are
women, which is the highest it's
ever been, but it's still not close to 50%.
Sam: In order to be elected though,
you first have to 'stand', don't you?
Georgina: Yes, we use the verb
stand when you are a candidate
someone can vote for.
Sam: Women in politics is our topic today.
Before we get into it,
today's question. Which country
has the highest percentage of women
in its parliament? Is it:
A: Rwanda, B: Sweden or C: New Zealand?
What do you think, Georgina?
Georgina: I'm not sure. I know
New Zealand was one of the first
countries to allow women to vote and
they currently have a female
prime minister - but I think it's
actually an African
country. So I'm going to say Rwanda.
Sam: OK. We'll see if you're correct
at the end of the programme.
There are a number of projects in the UK
at the moment trying to get more women
interested in standing for
parliament. One of these is the campaign
'sign-up-to-stand' from an organisation
called 50:50 Parliament.
Lucrece Grehoua is someone
who has taken up that challenge and
is hoping to stand in upcoming
elections. She was a guest on
the BBC Radio programme Woman's
Hour. She wasn't always
interested in politics, though.
How does she describe it?
Lucrece Grehoua: I didn't really see myself
in the Houses of Parliament.
When we see it
on TV it looks extremely boring, politics
looks boring, especially
as a young person and so
when I saw that 50:50 Parliament
were including women and
including young women,
including a diverse range
of young women, I thought
'wow, this is really for me and it
can be for me'. So I decided
to #signuptostand. Ever since I've just
been excited at the prospect
of me standing for parliament.
Sam: So what was her original feeling
about politics?
Georgina: Boring! She thought it was
boring, particularly as a young person.
In fact she couldn't see herself
as a politician. She couldn't imagine
herself doing it.
Sam: She says that she is now excited
at the prospect of standing.
What does she mean by that?
Georgina: The 'prospect of' something
is the possibility of something.
So before, she thought it was boring,
now she's excited at the possibility that
she could be a member of parliament.
Sam: So, what was it that made
her change her mind and think
that politics wasn't so
boring after all?
Here's Lucrece Grehoua again.
Lucrece Grehoua: I think everybody
has a politician within them because
we all get anger about something
but unfortunately when we see it, it's all
jargon, it's not very... words that we can
understand. Even just as a working class
person who hasn't, you know,
been to a private school
and who's come from
a disadvantaged background and so
I realised politics is for absolutely
everybody, it's just the way that you speak
about it has to be tailored to everyone.
Sam: One of the things she didn't like
about politics was the jargon.
Georgina: Well, no one likes jargon,
do they? 'Jargon' is the very specific
language and vocabulary
relating to a particular profession.
Inside the profession people know
what it means,
but from outside it can seem very
complicated and confusing.
Sam: Lucrece said she came from
a disadvantaged background.
This means that when she was growing
up her family didn't have very much
money and that made life
and study very difficult.
Georgina: But even though, or maybe
because, she came from
a disadvantaged background she
has become interested in politics
and thinks that it can be
something for everyone, but
rather than use jargon you have to tailor
the way you speak for everyone. To 'tailor'
something is to make it fit - in
the same way that a tailor
makes clothes fit, you can
tailor your language to make it easy
for everyone to understand.
And one way to do that is to
cut out the jargon!
Sam: That's just about all we have time
for today. But before we review
the vocabulary,
it's time to get the answer to today's
quiz question. Which country
has the highest percentage
of women in its parliament? Is it:
A: Rwanda, B: Sweden or
C: New Zealand - Georgina,
what did you say?
Georgina: I made an educated
guess of Rwanda.
Sam: An educated guess and
a correct guess. Well done.
And well done to everyone else
who got that right too! According to
2019 figures, Rwanda's parliament
has over 60%
women MPs. Go Rwanda!
OK, let's remind ourselves
of today's vocabulary.
Georgina: Of course. To 'stand' is
the verb we use when someone is a
candidate in an election
- when someone stands for election
you can vote for them.
Sam: If you can see yourself as
something, it means that you
can imagine yourself doing
that thing.
Georgina: The prospect of something,
is the possibility of something,
so for example,
the prospect of becoming an MP is
something that excites Lucrece.
Sam: Something that we all hate,
except when we use it ourselves,
is jargon. Words and
language that are very specific to a
particular job and which are
difficult for people outside
that profession to understand.
Georgina: People who grow up without
enough money and without
access to education
can be said to come from
a disadvantaged background.
Sam: And finally, to tailor something is
to change it to make it suitable
for a particular purpose.
Georgina: So for example, if you want
to make politics accessible for
more people, you have
to tailor your language and
cut out the jargon.
Sam: Indeed! Well, it's time for us
to go now, but do join us again soon.
Bye for now.
Georgina: Bye!