BBCのLearning Englishのサイトでtoken handful
以下のサイトの真ん中辺のパラグラフの部分にあるa token handfulの意味がよくわかりません。サイトは以下の通りです。
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2007/03/070328_turkey_women.shtml
Ideally the campaigners want positive discrimination to end that - the introduction of a legal quota for women MPs. But for this year's general election they're pressuring party leaders, all of them men, to change the way they draw up their party lists. Instead of putting a token handful of female candidates at the very bottom, campaigners want women in the top slots. They're hopeful that would ensure at least ten percent of MPs in the next parliament are women - not the full equality they're after but a start.
真ん中辺のa token handful of female candidates のtoken handfulを日本語にするとど表現したらいいでしょうか。
a token handful はBBCのサイトでは"here, a small number of people who are chosen in order to pretend that a problem is being dealt with"という説明になっていますが、よく意味がわかりません。また、ここではtokenは形容詞でつかわれているんでしょうか。
テキストが長くてすみませんが、よろしくお願いいたします。
