International Women’s Day

Baroness Fall Excerpts

Friday 10th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Fall (Con)]

My Lords, I join others in welcoming my noble friend Lady Lampard to the House and congratulating her on an excellent speech.

Last time I spoke in this debate, I focused on the battle during my political lifetime to get more women into Parliament, to encourage them to stay, and to reach high office—a whole other story. I and so many of my colleagues sitting on these Benches have played their part in this endeavour.

Parliaments should resemble the countries they seek to govern, especially this one—the mother of all Parliaments—which sets an example for democracy and representation globally. We speak today of the education of women and girls, and what is more important than that they can aspire to leadership of their nations? We have had our successes and, for many on these Benches—I am looking at my noble friend Lady Jenkin—it was a long, hard-fought journey from the mere 13 female Conservative MPs against Blair’s 101 so-called “babes”. That was the wake-up call that we needed, which has moved representation in our party and on the other side. We should be proud of that progress, although we are still some way from parity.

We have had our failures too. The exodus of women MPs after the very difficult 2017-19 Parliament stands as an example. It meant we lost a generation of senior women who had so much more to give in public life. Now we hear of talented women being deselected by party officials; what does that say to the next generation of young women and girls who aspire to a political career? It stands as a stark reminder that our efforts must continue otherwise our victories quickly unravel.

We face new challenges too: social media for one, a near-constant source of pressure for many in our society but especially for women in public life, who face an almost constant barrage of abuse, unchecked day by day, often from anonymous sources with no accountability. I pay tribute to the women in the other House who, as elected politicians, take the brunt. In my view, the assumption in favour of anonymity gives disguise to trolls and bullies and encourages people to be the worst not the best of themselves. Tech giants posing as platforms claim no responsibility for their own content and have created a sort of social anarchy—hardly the environment to raise a nation of girls into confident women. Now that the Online Safety Bill has finally arrived in this House, I hope that we will all work together to begin the task of reining in some of those excesses.

Of course, abuse goes far beyond the virtual world and sometimes becomes threats to life, which have sadly become all too common in public life. No one should live in fear of doing their job, yet the terrible tragedy is that many do. I pay tribute again today to our much-respected late colleagues Jo Cox and David Amess.

Those in public life deserve respect, but that respect must also be earned. It starts here in Westminster by ensuring the highest standards of behaviour and integrity. Unless we reverse the downward spiral of distrust and disdain, our democracy will suffer, not least as fewer decent, talented people, including young women, will want to go into politics.

As we look further afield, it is not hard to be humbled by the sacrifice and extraordinary acts of bravery from women and girls from all over the world who are caught up in war and conflict, living under autocratic regimes and fighting for the everyday freedoms that we take for granted. Many pay a huge price.

Just over two years ago, we walked away from the people of Afghanistan and their families, who put their trust in us—a grave shame which lingers. Other noble Lords have mentioned this. Of the many people we have let down, the devastating impact on the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan under the Taliban weighs heavily. Every day since we have left, we have heard of threats to life and hardship, of girls unable to go to school and of young women not able to attend university.

We think of the girl who just this week Christina Lamb identified as her woman of the year, who stood outside the gates of Kabul University—guarded by the Taliban and now banned to women—holding a sign up on which was written one word, “iqra”, meaning “read”. She said:

“I wanted to show the power of a single Afghan girl.”


We felt her power, and the extraordinary power and bravery of those girls in neighbouring Iran who took to the streets in rage after the tragic murder of Mahsa Amini to protest against the severity of their regime. We stand by these girls and women on International Women’s Day.

Closer to home, however, we have war—a war characterised by its brutality and cruelty. Once again, we see violence against women weaponised in war—all the more depressing as there has been so much reason to hope that we had made progress thanks to the extraordinary work of a woman sitting just beneath me to my right, my noble friend Lady Helic. I want to speak today in support of her campaign to create a permanent, independent, international body to investigate and prosecute rape and sexual violence as war crimes.

I am sure I echo many in saying that I am proud of what we have done to help Ukraine with aid and weapons and by welcoming many Ukrainians into our homes, but we can also give them the greatest of gifts: we can educate their children. War and exile create lost generations, and I urge the Minister to ensure that all Ukrainian children here in our country are placed in schools while they remain in our care. It is my hope that, one day, the Ukrainian girls exiled in our country will return home having been nurtured and educated by us and will be the teachers, businesswomen, mothers and leaders of a free Ukraine.