International Women’s Day

Baroness Gale Excerpts

Thursday 1st March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gale]

My Lords—and my ladies—I bring greetings from Wales on this glorious St David’s Day. I believe that it is appropriate that today I speak about Welsh women, and I begin with one in particular—the Viscountess Rhondda of Llanwern and her links with your Lordships’ House. Viscountess Rhondda inherited her title in 1918 from her father, which was most unusual. At the time, women were not allowed to sit in the House of Lords. In 1920, two years after she inherited her title, she petitioned the Lords for the right to sit and vote. She based her claim on the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 and the committee found in her favour. However, the Lord Chancellor at the time, Lord Birkenhead, so strongly opposed the idea that he stacked the committee—he reformed it and put a lot more men on it—with like-minded Peers and reversed its decision.

Lady Rhondda had been an active suffragette and was a leading feminist in the inter-war years. She founded the feminist weekly magazine Time and Tide and helped to set up the Six Point Group, which was one of the first to campaign on women’s issues, including equal pay and equal opportunities—something on which many women are still campaigning today. Lady Rhondda was a courageous woman and she defied many social conventions and restrictions of the time. She became a prominent figure and role model in the advancement of women’s political and employment rights. She was a successful businesswoman with some 30 directorships. She was given a government post as director of the women’s department in the Ministry of National Service in 1917. She died in 1958 just three months after the Life Peerages Act 1958, which allowed women to sit in the House of Lords, but it was not until five years later, with the Peerage Act 1963, that women who inherited the title were finally admitted. I was very pleased that the Work of Arts Committee agreed to purchase a portrait of Viscountess Rhondda recently, and I am pleased that I played a small part in that. I feel that at long last she has taken her place in the House of Lords and her portrait hangs in the Peers and Guests Dining Room for everyone to see. I am sure that everyone who looks at that portrait will see what a strong woman she was.

How have the actions of Viscountess Rhondda helped other women? She showed that women can succeed in a man’s world. She was a great businesswoman, first working with her father and later, after his death, continuing to run the businesses she had inherited. She was the first woman president of the Institute of Directors in 1926 and, I believe even to this day, probably the only woman who has been appointed to that post. As a Welshwoman she showed the importance of campaigning for what one believed: do not give up at the first hurdle and carry on until you achieve your aims. I believe that she would be proud of the Welsh women of today and, of course, of the women Peers in your Lordships’ House. One only has to look at the Welsh Assembly to see how women are shaping the new Wales.

In the first Welsh Assembly elections in 1999, 40 per cent of the seats were held by women. By 2003 that had risen to 50 per cent. At that time it was the only directly elected institution in the world to have an equal balance of men and women. A report by Swansea and Warwick universities in 2009 argued that other legislatures should learn from the Welsh Assembly with its almost equal gender balance of Assembly Members and how that has transformed politics in Wales. They found that political debates were more consensual than adversarial, and as a result included on the agenda such “non-traditional” topics as domestic violence. Professor Nickie Charles from the University of Warwick's sociology department stated that the gender balance had had an effect on the style of interactions between politicians, both across parties and within them. She stated:

“The assembly is a new political institution associated with a consensual political style, an inclusive politics, and working arrangements which recognise the caring responsibilities of those working within it”.

This proves that a different culture and a different agenda can be followed where there is a fair balance between women and men.

Wales was the first country in the UK to have a children's commissioner; now all four countries have one. Wales was the first country in the world—it is believed—to have a commissioner for older people. Now there is one in Northern Ireland. Because there has always been a fair number of women in the Welsh Assembly, the profile of women politicians is higher in Wales than in any other part of the United Kingdom.

As I said, by 2003 there were 30 women and 30 men in the Welsh Assembly. Women still play a leading role. There are three women in a Cabinet of eight, and the Liberal Democrats have a woman leader. Women of Wales play a great role in the rest of the UK by showing how, if political parties have the will to select women for seats that they can win, political institutions will begin to look like the society they represent. I hope that the Minister will agree that the example of Wales shows that the election of a fair balance of women leads to a more tolerant and equal society.