Women in Society

Viscount Bridgeman Excerpts

Wednesday 21st July 2010 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Bridgeman]

My Lords, we have had six sensitive maiden speeches of remarkable quality, and we look forward with anticipation to that of the noble Baroness, Lady Smith. I am not quite sure what the collective for seven maiden speakers—unprecedented in this House—is, but I am sure that my noble friend Lord Black and my noble friend Lord Deben, who is not in his place, will forgive me if I suggest a collective of “merry maidens”.

However, it is the speech of my noble friend Lord Black of Brentwood of which I am privileged to speak in appreciation. My noble friend brings to this House a long experience of the media, and his intention to contribute to discussions on the future of the newspaper industry will be of great benefit to this House. I am sure that your Lordships will wish him to convey to his colleagues in the industry the message that in their coverage of their Lordships’ proceedings there is always room for improvement.

Noble Lords will recall with admiration—and, I think, gratitude—the work that he did with my noble friend Lord Wakeham on the Press Complaints Commission at a particularly sensitive time. With his interest in museums and music, he will indeed have much to contribute to the workings of this House, and to this we look forward with much anticipation. His speech today on the role of older women was delivered with a passion and commitment which was truly impressive, addressing as it did the core of this most important debate. We are very grateful.

I now wish to speak about a very different aspect of the role of women from that raised by my noble friend in this important debate—and we are all very grateful to my noble friend Lady Verma for her outstanding leadership in initiating it. I refer to the increasingly important role of African women in the life of Africa. Women form 70 per cent of the workforce in Africa as a whole. However, despite major initiatives by the United Nations and the major donor countries—and the United Kingdom can hold its head high, particularly with the recent commitment by the coalition Government to ring-fence funding for overseas development—together with high-powered conferences, little progress has, disappointingly, been made in advancing the rights and welfare of women in Africa. The curse of malnutrition, insufficient medical aid, particularly maternity care, and of course the universal curse of HIV/AIDS, together with the custom which stretches back centuries of requiring of women both hard labour and the procreation of large families, have all placed enormous obstacles in the path of the advancement of women. We were shocked by the story which the noble Baroness, Lady O’Loan, told us about the stoning of the Somali woman; it was particularly pertinent in the African context.

Among the majority of rural and low-income urban dwellers, women perform all domestic tasks, while for many farming and trade are also included. They are responsible for the care of children, the sick and the elderly in addition to performing essential social functions within the community. Their struggle for survival often results in environmental damage, a simple example being the collection of firewood, which contributes so much to soil erosion in many parts of Africa. In many cases, women are subject to abuse, such as female genital mutilation, and they are especially vulnerable to AIDS because of their lack of power over their sexuality and reproductive functions. As an illustration, about 50 per cent of women in Africa are married by the age of 18, and one in three women is in a polygamous marriage.

Although many countries have ratified UN agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, at the same time many countries have taken very few steps in translating this into better living and working conditions. The simple fact is that in many ways Africa’s development is substantially held back by excluding the perspectives, skills and dynamism of half the population. Examples of initiatives by African women that can be seen in many countries are women-only mutual aid societies, benevolent groups in churches, co-operatives and market women’s groups.

That leads me to the main point that I want to make. Several noble Lords in this debate have spoken about the importance of education, mainly in the United Kingdom context, but in Africa it is absolutely seminal. It is all too common to find that what limited educational facilities are available are still hampered by gender discrimination and unimaginative curricula that do not take into account that the majority of girls will not go beyond primary education, and they are not geared to helping girls to obtain basic life skills. Of course, there is always the temptation for parents to give priority to their sons’ education. The noble Lord, Lord Desai, who is not in his place, mentioned this in the slightly different context of India. Mothers have many complications with their daughters—adolescent pregnancy, early marriage and the burden on girls to shoulder household labour, and, sadly, in many cases their daughters are forced into prostitution for simple economic reasons. However, there are shining exceptions. In Lesotho, for example, largely due to out-migration by the men, females account for 75 per cent of students, even in higher education.

As was put so succinctly by CamFed, an America-based charity in Africa, when you educate a girl in Africa, everything changes. She will be three times less likely to get HIV/AIDS; she will earn 25 per cent more income; and she will have a smaller, healthier family. I am talking not about the giveaway of sacks of flour, which can be siphoned off along the supply chain, but about a tangible permanent investment which can go to the next generation. An educated mother with a small family is in a much better position to fulfil her ambitions for the advancement of her children. In the challenging and often depressing problem of population in Africa, education, as was so well articulated by that charity, leads to a win-win situation.