International Women’s Day

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Excerpts

Friday 10th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)]

My Lords, it is a tremendous honour to speak in this debate today, and I am most grateful to the Minister for the way she introduced it. I had the privilege of working with the late Lady Boothroyd on the memorial to the women of World War II on Whitehall, on which there are the coats and hats of the women whose names were not known, although they all served this country—many of them lost their lives. If they were still alive, they were deeply traumatised by what they saw and what happened, but they hung up their coats at the end of the war and just got on with things.

I am also grateful for the words about the noble Baroness, Lady Gale, who welcomed me and so many others into this House with enormous kindness and generosity of spirit, which was really overwhelming. We look forward to the speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Lampard.

I will talk about a woman who inspired enormous change in medicine: Cicely Saunders. She was born in Barnet in 1918, shy, intelligent, six feet tall and somewhat gawky, but she went to Oxford to study PPE. The war intervened and she became, among other things, a hospital almoner at St Thomas’ and a nurse. But she realised that, to change things really, she had to change the attitudes in medicine—so she studied medicine. It was a time when dying was seen as a failure and patients were ignored on wards if they were dying, because they had not responded to the amazing cure that some of these doctors purported to have tried on them. The wards were cold and heartless, and people walked past the end of the bed. She wanted to create a home-like environment to give hope and comfort to the dying, with the best medical care and symptom control.

In 1967, she managed to open St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham. At that time, only 11% of entrants to medical school were women. Now, of course, it is more than 50% in this country, but, in many parts of the world, almost no women are able to study medicine at all. The foundation behind what she did was that education and research must be behind everything we do, and that move for education and research was very important in changing the way that dying people are looked after, with tenacity, intellect and compassion. Her unwavering belief was in her phrase:

“You matter because you are you, and you matter to the last moment of your life.”


How we die in this country has in large part been revolutionised, as it has in many parts of the world—but, sadly, not everywhere yet. Her vision shaped the way things are, and that has moved on to the Cicely Saunders Institute, an international institute of education and research based in King’s College. I had the privilege of being involved in setting it up and in its international advisory group. Its input during Covid and its management of breathlessness won an award in the last year for the contribution it made.

Different hospices around the UK and the globe have opened, and that has been inspired, but I am afraid that, in other parts of the world, women have a really poor deal in the way they are treated. In war-torn areas, grandmothers are bringing up orphaned children who are dependent on them for some love and security. The future of peace around the world lies in these women’s hands.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, said, HIV and AIDS are a big problem, and women are disproportionately affected because of gender inequality, discrimination, violence and sexual exploitation and abuse. In sub-Saharan Africa, six out of seven new infections are in young women and girls, and they have limited access to education. Cervical cancer is also a major killer—yet, with the HPV vaccine, we could almost eradicate it, but it is not being rolled out as it should be.

If you ask girls in many parts of the world what they want to be, they will say they want to be doctors. They want to improve the lives of the people around them in their communities and populations, and they want to make the world we live in a better place for all. We have had another role model, Averil Mansfield, who was a professor of vascular surgery, recently featured on “Desert Island Discs” and produced a book about how she broke moulds in medicine.

I will move back to Cicely and what she did, because it is estimated that 75% of the world would benefit from palliative care. Some 77% of the consultant workforce in the UK are now women. We were inspired in Cardiff and set up a distance learning course, and people from that have changed the world: we have educated over 3,000 leaders around the world, in every continent apart from Antarctica. Liz Gwyther led developments in South Africa, and Mary Bunn worked in Sierra Leone with the Cardiff link on cancer and end-of-life care. Cynthia Goh, who sadly died, led Singapore and the whole of that region, highlighting the importance of morphine availability. I also note Sushma Bhatnagar in India, Yvonne Mak in Hong Kong, and Bee Wee, also initially from Hong Kong, who became the national clinical director here in England and was the first to get a distinction on our course. They all changed what has been done through education and research, and we need to support every woman everywhere to achieve her potential.