Anneliese Dodds
Main Page: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)Department Debates - View all Anneliese Dodds's debates with the Cabinet Office
(2 years, 6 months ago)
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Anneliese Dodds (Oxford East) (Lab/Co-op)
Does the Minister agree that her Government have levelled women down, with women’s real wages now £226 less per year than when Labour left office?
Elizabeth Truss
I do not agree with that at all. We are entirely focused on tackling the causes of the gender pay gap by making it easier for people to afford childcare, normalising flexible working and helping women to get into the top jobs, particularly in areas such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics where they can earn more money.
Anneliese Dodds (Oxford East) (Lab/Co-op)
The Minister for Women and Equalities has just lauded her Government’s social mobility tsar. Does the Minister for Higher and Further Education agree with that tsar that
“physics isn’t something that girls tend to fancy…There’s a lot of hard maths in there”?
If not, will she condemn those remarks and others that put girls and women off careers in STEM because of, to use the words of the Minister for Women and Equalities, the
“soft bigotry of low expectations”?
Michelle Donelan
Conservative Members believe in free speech and the right to have a view, but of course we want all people to aspire to go into their chosen careers, including in STEM.