International Women’s Day

Baroness Fall Excerpts

Tuesday 10th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Fall (Con)]

My Lords, I want to take noble Lords back to 3 May 1997. For better or worse, I, like most of us in this Chamber, woke to the advent of the Blair dawn—with a soundtrack of Oasis. I was in my 20s and had been working as the desk officer for Europe at Conservative Central Office—a straightforward job, as noble Lords can imagine. This was my first general election and my first taste of political defeat, but certainly not my last. The memory of that election night haunted me, with its images of well-known politicians such as Michael Portillo losing their seats, but another image made a great impression just a few days later: a picture of Prime Minister Blair surrounded by a group of 101 women, all of them Labour MPs, who quickly became known as the Blair babes.

Whatever we think of that label—and we probably do not think much of it—the impact of that image was huge. Here was change personified in those women. On our side, we had just 13 female Tory MPs. I am not lambasting my own party. We boast not just the first but the second female Prime Minister of this great country; that is a straightforward 100% success rate. This is no fluke. It shows the deeply ingrained respect and admiration for women in public life in our party and their treatment as equals.

It is also true, however, that all our pride in our premiers cannot make up for the lack of stronger representation on our Benches. We had a battle to change things in our party. Slowly, we began to make progress. A lot of things are responsible for this: the leadership of Prime Minister David Cameron; the determination of two Jenkins, Anne and Bernard—especially Anne, my noble friend Lady Jenkin, with her pioneering and painstaking work at Women2Win; the determination of many women who bravely toured the country trying and trying again to get selected, which some did; and the countless others who helped them. By 2015, we had 68 women MPs, around 20% of the party, and we are now on 24%. When I see many talented women on those green Benches—many of them new to Parliament—I feel a huge sense of pride, but we should be honest: we still have a very long way to go. Getting women into Parliament is only the tip of the iceberg. Keeping them here, and making sure that their voices are heard and carry equal weight, is also important.

My son goes to an all-boys’ school. There is a debate there at the moment about whether they should take girls. At a recent gathering of parents, the head responded to one mum, saying, “I’m not so concerned about whether your son can talk to girls, Mrs So-and-so; I’m concerned about whether he is listening to them.” That sums up the situation nicely.

Politics is still, by and large, a male-dominated world. It is not alone in being like this—other professions tend in this direction—but it matters all the more because the centre of power should represent the people it governs. We need to hear a diversity of views and different perspectives from those ultimately responsible for the laws of our land. There is still a latent feeling that a man’s opinion can be worth more. This is about not just MPs being heard in the Chamber but voices being heard in meetings where important decisions are made. One of those meetings is called Cabinet. We still need to push back against the outmoded sense that some topics are for women and others for men. Men make fiscal policy while women do “women’s issues”. This has changed over my political lifetime but I wonder, as did the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, when we will see a women Chancellor.

While full of good intent, this debate in honour of International Women’s Day, which I support fully, begs the question: is there an International Men’s Day or is that every day? How often have I heard the narrative, “It should be quality, not quantity”, referring to the advancement of women in Parliament or within government? This always makes me wince. When did we hear this about the many men promoted? Of course, everyone should be promoted on talent, but talent in politics comes in lots of different guises. Would you make a good Minister? Do you listen? Do you, like my noble friend Lady Newlove, stand up for people who do not have a voice? We should not seek just to get the women who are the most like the men into politics.

I am not alone in being disappointed to see so many decent and brave women MPs stand down at the last election. We should ask ourselves what drove that decision. There was the obvious stress of a divisive time and a highly pressurised Parliament, but there is more. The sacrifices of a political life are still real. Parliament still works late at night, creating conflict with family life. The culture of Parliament can still be part club and part bear pit, which seems to suit men more than women. The truth is that women in public life often face more abuse. We need to think about these challenges and try to mitigate them.

When I sat in the Bishop’s Bar having a cup of tea with my noble friend Lady Bertin and baby Edward during a three-line Whip a few weeks ago, I felt pride in being two mums in the mother of all Parliaments. It has already come a long way in welcoming women but has a lot further to go. The truth is that we need to work hard to support women in public life, from creating confident girls to headhunting women into Parliament and supporting them the whole way through their careers. We cannot lecture the world on respecting equality if our own House is not in order. I can think of no better group of people than those sitting with me today in this Chamber to work together to make this happen.