International Women’s Day

Baroness Bousted Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bousted (Lab) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, I commend the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, on her sombre testimony of the tragic roll-call of women murdered by men. It makes me realise, yet again, that we should never forget that misogyny is an evil force with—far too often—lethal consequences for women and, as she has reminded us, children. I thank her for her testimony.

I feel greatly honoured to be in this House making my maiden speech—and on the subject of women. I was born in Bolton, the seventh of eight children in a large and loving Catholic family. My father was the headmaster of the local Catholic primary school and he had a saying: “You won’t inherit money, but you will get a good education, which will give you the means to make your way in the world”. All his eight children made their way in the world. My mother, as well as looking after her eight children, was a teacher, so perhaps it is no surprise that I became a teacher and that my professional life for the past 40 years—over 40 years now—has been in education as a teacher, an academic and, for the last 20 years, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, and the joint general secretary, with Kevin Courtney, of the National Education Union.

Unions fight for rights and dignity in the workplace, and I pay tribute to the doorkeepers and all the staff who work so diligently to support the smooth running of this place. I have a terrible sense of direction and I am finding that this House is rather a rabbit warren, but all my requests for guidance and direction have been met with nothing other than courtesy and kindness. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady, and the noble Lord, Lord Knight, my supporters in my introduction to this House, and the Leader of the House and the Whips, who have been so helpful in making us new Peers feel a little less strange and a little more competent—only a little more—day by day.

When I was 23, I read a book by Eva Figes with the title Patriarchal Attitudes. It changed my life. From that time on, I was determined to be self-reliant, to speak what I believed and thought, and to walk more confidently in the world. I stopped saying, “I’m not a feminist, but”, and started saying, “As a feminist”. That is a profound change.

There has been some implied—and some more than implied—criticism of teachers today. It is a bit too easy to criticise teachers, who work more unpaid overtime than any other profession to care for their pupils and educate them. As a teacher, I worked to inculcate in my pupils a profound sense that the sexes are equal and that no one, and in particular no girl, should have her potential constrained through attitudes, beliefs and actions designed to humiliate them.

I feel that the progress we made in the 1980s has been reversed. Perhaps we thought we had won the battle for equality. We were sadly mistaken. In 2017, the National Education Union published a report with UK Feminista, entitled “It’s Just Everywhere”. It detailed the sexist attitudes and behaviours endured by girls in school. It found that sexual harassment, sexist language and gender stereotyping are commonplace in school settings, but teachers reported feeling unsupported and ill equipped to respond. Over a third of female students reported that they had experienced some form of sexual harassment, and almost a quarter had been subject to unwanted physical touching of a sexual nature.

I believe that the sexual harassment endured by girls translates too often into subject choices at GCSE and A-level, which can have a negative effect on their future careers and earning potential. We should note that the take-up of subjects that are portals to high-wage careers in IT and science remains too deeply divided on gender lines. In 2022 only 21.4% of computer science GCSEs and 14.7% of computer science A-levels were taken by girls, a number that has halved since 2015.

In 2024 a report by King’s College, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and titled The Future of Computing Education, found that girls are more likely than boys to say they do not enjoy computer science GCSE because it does not align with their career plans, or it seems more difficult than other subjects. The report calls for the reform of GCSE provision for computing to create a qualification that covers a wider range of topics, appealing to a more diverse student population and the needs of society.

This Government will shortly be announcing the results of their curriculum review, led by Professor Becky Francis. I hope that this review will consider the current gender imbalances in computing and other science subjects that are so heavily male dominated.

I will finish with a cautionary tale. In 2016 I spoke out about the sexist school bullying that prevents girls participating fully in the classroom. The Department for Education, on hearing of my concerns, issued a tweet. I will read it now:

“Story from @ATLUnion with no evidence is why sexism still exists. We should be celebrating the achievements and talents of women and girls”.


I and many others found the implication in this tweet, that speaking out about the sexist harassment endured by girls perpetuates the problem, to be utterly bizarre.

Of course we should celebrate the achievements of women and girls, but I am clear that we must also examine the barriers faced by girls—including the prevalence of sexist bullying in the classroom—to their participation in the full range of the curriculum. Like all young people, girls deserve the right to make choices about the subjects they study based on their talents and abilities, whatever these may be and wherever these may take them in their future lives.

I will continue to further the equality of women and girls in education and in the workplace during my time in this House. The struggle for equality is not over: we are just on the nursery slopes, and we must take up the cudgels and continue the fight.