International Women’s Day and Protecting the Equality of Women in the UK and Internationally

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Thursday 17th March 2022 Grand Committee

[Lord Loomba (CB)]

My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this International Women’s Day debate, as I have done every year for the past decade, on the topic of women’s equality in this country and around the world. This is a critical time because the impact of inequality is always worse in times of conflict and hardship, so I will focus my remarks on the plight of women fleeing war in Ukraine.

We must pray for all those left behind in Ukraine to face the pitiless Russian forces. They include the old and infirm, who will not or cannot leave their homes, and the men and boys who are forbidden to leave with their families and left to fight the invader. But my concern today is with the Ukrainian mothers who have had to flee with their children, not knowing when or whether their families will be reunited. We know this category forms the majority of refugees from Ukraine, at this stage.

For now, and in many cases perhaps for ever, these are single-headed households. As such, they face a double whammy: the inequality of the refugee, navigating the many obstacles placed in their way as they seek refuge, as we have seen in recent weeks; and the inequality of the single mother who must not only be there for her children, but put food on the table, clothe them and ensure they can go to school and receive medical care. All this is while they deal with, and all too often hide, the trauma of their own experiences and their fears for the partners and parents they left behind.

It reminds us that ensuring the equality of women requires us all to take positive action. This is not a matter of ticking boxes or of theoretical rights. Equality requires us to take the trouble to see the reality of how others live, and respond with the humanity and generosity that we are so quick to claim but so slow to dispense. I will not dwell on the delays we have seen in living up to our promises of generosity, but instead focus on what we can and should do to help these mothers in their hour of need.

Last weekend, the Communities Secretary said we will put our arms around them and give them all the support they need. That is welcome. He also said that the first arrivals under the new scheme could be expected this weekend, so let us do all we can to ensure that the support available to these wretched people, and to the British families opening their homes to them, is fit for purpose. It is not just a matter of welcoming these single mothers as refugees. We can do better than that; we can see they are doubly disadvantaged and do something about it.

The Loomba Foundation, which I chair, is planning an association with Rotary International worldwide, and with it in the UK and Ireland, to raise funds in support of Ukrainian mothers fleeing with their dependent children. We will draw on the Loomba Foundation’s extensive experience of the plight of widows, including those widowed in conflict and natural disasters, who all too often face that same double whammy of a sudden change in their status with an increased responsibility for their dependents. The mothers and children fleeing Ukraine are in that situation and we know what it takes to, as the Communities Secretary put it, give them all the support they need.

My plea to the Government today is to do more than matchmaking and providing sums of money to host families and local authorities, essential as this is, but to make sure the dots are connected across national and local government to offer the tailored and joined-up support for these refugees: first, by identifying the likely needs from counselling and health to schooling and economic empowerment, and facilitating a multi-agency response; secondly, by reaching out to mothers arriving with their children and telling them about the special support that is available; and finally, by setting up a special helpline that they can contact for advice.

Women’s inequality has all too often been invisible and ignored, yet the irony is that it is women who are the first emergency service, the people we rely on to look after the children and to care for the elderly and vulnerable. Making women’s equality real means understanding and dealing with the barriers they face. That is an investment that always pays off.