Women: Rights

Baroness Hussein-Ece Excerpts

Tuesday 4th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

Thinking about this Question, it seemed to me that Emily Davison would not be totally satisfied by any means, but that she would be very pleased at certain things that have happened. That a female Member of the House of Lords is asking this Question to a female member of the ministerial team is a case in point. The fact that the noble Baroness and I have both been able to vote throughout our adult lives; the fact that both of us were admitted to degrees in our universities; the fact that both of us were able to secure PhDs and have careers are all tributes to Emily Davison and the suffragettes. However, I recognise that there is still much more that we need to do.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece]

My Lords, my noble friend will be aware that currently only 22% of MPs in the House of Commons are women. However, is she aware that only 35 women have ever held Cabinet positions in this country, and that since 1918 only 369 women have ever been elected as MPs? Finally, has the Minister noticed, as I have and as many noble Baronesses have mentioned privately to me, that of the 95 speakers who have put their name on the list to speak in the current debate on equal marriage, only 16 are women? What do these figures tell us about the current progress in the mother of all Parliaments?

[Baroness Northover]

I note what the noble Baroness says about the number of women MPs and Cabinet Ministers. It is also worth bearing in mind that until 1958 there were no women in this House of Parliament. There was universal suffrage in 1928, but that did not mean that there were women in both Houses of Parliament. She is right about those numbers, and most of them have come in recent times. The first thing is to make sure that we get women into Parliament. I pay tribute to the party opposite for the efforts it has made and to the parties on this side for moving ahead in this regard. This is extremely important, and by getting women in, we get them to all levels of government.