Global Gender Equality

Baroness Gale Excerpts

Monday 17th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gale (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for bringing this debate before us. I also thank all noble Baronesses who have spoken and my noble friend Lord McConnell; I am grateful to him as the only male who spoke today, since this is not just a women’s issue. It was good that we heard at least one male voice speak today.

The organisation Women Deliver describes itself as a leading global advocate for the health, rights and well-being of girls and women. It brings together diverse voices and interests to drive progress towards gender equality, with a focus on maternal, sexual and reproductive health and rights. It builds capacity, shares solutions and forges partnerships, together creating coalitions, communication and action that spark political commitment and investment in girls and women. These are great aims and aspirations, so it is really good that the UK was represented at the conference earlier this month and that the Minister was in attendance. But we know there is still much work to do to ensure that women and girls achieve equality.

On health matters globally, it is a sad fact that between 47,000 and 70,000 women die each year owing to complications from unsafe abortions, while more than 14 million teenage girls give birth every year, mainly because of rape and unwanted pregnancy. According to the UN’s figures, unsafe abortions cause the deaths of some 47,000 women each year and a further 5 million suffer some form of disability, some permanent. The noble Baronesses, Lady Hodgson and Lady Finlay, mentioned this. However, the World Health Organization says that unsafe abortions cause a significant proportion of maternal deaths and that nearly 70,000 women die each year owing to the complications of unsafe abortion. Its report said:

“The use of modern contraception has reduced the need for induced abortion, yet young women, especially when they are unmarried, often face difficulty in obtaining contraception and may resort to unsafe abortion. Globally, women of all ages seek abortions but in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest burden of ill-health and death from unsafe abortion, one in four unsafe abortions is among adolescents aged 15-19 years”.


In total, 99% of maternal deaths occur in the developing world, mainly in Africa and south Asia. I think we would all agree that that is an awful figure.

Meanwhile in sexual health, HIV remains the number one killer of women of reproductive age, while the rate of infection remains stubbornly high and has not declined among adults since 2010. In addition to HIV, TB can have severe consequences for women, especially during their reproductive years and pregnancies. In 2017, an estimated 3.2 million women fell ill with, and almost half a million died from, the disease. There must be a global effort to tackle this issue. The World Health Organization has previously called for greater TB data collection, disaggregated by sex and age. What steps are being taken to invest in new public health-driven research and development to find effective and affordable treatments for diseases in the developing world? Can the Minister say how the UK can contribute to this?

Violence against women globally is rife: 1 in 3 women worldwide will experience violence in their lifetime, usually due to someone they know. It is well known that violence against women and girls increases during all emergencies, including conflict, where rape and sexual violence can become a weapon of war. An analysis by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project found a global spike in incidents of violence against women politicians. We are all aware that this has become a really big problem. What steps are the Government taking to encourage the safety of women campaigners, activists and politicians, in the UK and globally?

Five years on from the Government’s high-profile Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, women’s rights campaigners claim that we are no closer to ending the use of rape as a weapon of war. With the Government planning another international meeting on this topic this year, can the Minister say what will be done to ensure that, this time, promises turn into action? Does she agree that this issue must be a top priority for the Government, and that the only way to reduce these figures substantially is to work alongside women in their own communities who are tackling the root causes and structures of gender inequality? In a future Labour Government, the Department for International Development would work with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to review and develop strategies to protect civilians in conflict, including expanding cross-departmental capacity to respond rapidly to sexual and gender-based violence in emergencies.

As part of the UN’s sustainable development goals, the UK and the wider world committed to women’s equality and empowerment. However, a 2018 Brookings Institution assessing the progress of the SDGs found that,

“measures of gender equality are nowhere near on track for full success by 2030”.

My noble friend Lady Warwick mentioned that just 0.1% of the total aid from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is committed to women’s organisations, and 0.02% only to women’s organisations based in developing countries. Given the vital role of women’s groups in tackling gender inequality, what steps is the Minister’s department taking to increase the funding for these organisations? With the Government’s review of progress towards the sustainable development goals, can the Minister confirm whether the UK is on track to meet the women’s equality and empowerment targets?

In the next Labour Government, the Department for International Development will implement the UK’s first explicitly feminist international development policy, based on the principles of gender justice, rights, intersectionality and solidarity. Beyond simply measuring and addressing income inequality, Labour will work towards measuring and addressing inequalities and the exercise of rights to ensure that women and marginalised groups are not left behind.

Looking at the economic position of women globally, the World Economic Forum says that, at the current rate of progress, it will take an estimated 202 years before women and men participate equally and are paid the same, and gender equality in the economy is achieved. That is an awfully long time to wait for equality in this field. In the UK, women continue to face routine discrimination in pay, with almost eight out of 10 British companies paying men more than women.

Under the Conservative Government, progress in the UK has been rolled back for women, with cuts to public services and social security hitting them disproportionately. A Labour Government will gender audit all policy and legislation for its impact on women before implementation. We have announced that, in addition to reporting their gender pay gap figures, companies will be required to demonstrate how they plan to close their gender pay gaps by producing action plans. That is something I have asked for before, so I hope the Minister will give a positive reply to it today.

I welcome the Government’s domestic abuse Bill, especially its commitment to ratify the Istanbul convention, which the noble Baroness, Lady Helic, mentioned in her speech. The Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill published its first report on Friday 14 June, and said that, to ratify it, the UK Government must follow its measures in all the territories of the UK. Only 11 states are yet to ratify the Istanbul convention and the UK is one of them. I hope that the domestic abuse Bill will comply with the convention. However, the Joint Committee scrutinising the Bill has said:

“The absence of legislation relating to Northern Ireland for some key aspects of the Bill has therefore become a significant issue in discussion of the extent to which measures in this Bill alone would make the UK compliant with the Convention … We consider it unacceptable that the people of Northern Ireland are denied the same level of protection in relation to domestic abuse as those elsewhere in the United Kingdom because of the lack of a Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly … but in the absence of an executive we recommend that the provisions of the draft Bill be extended to Northern Ireland unless and until Northern Ireland enacts its own legislation in this area”.


When the Government respond to the report, I hope that they will acknowledge that they must act, otherwise the UK may not be able to ratify the convention. The Minister might be aware that there are other aspects of the Bill that outside organisations are not 100% happy with in terms of allowing us to implement the Istanbul convention.

We have had a very good debate. I wish that I had been at the Women Deliver conference, because it sounded so good. I have been to other international conferences. In March, I went with the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson, to a great CEDAW conference in New York. It is good that we have such international conferences, which allow many people from all over the world to get together.

What I am really interested in is the follow-up from these conferences, including the Women Deliver conference. The aims are good, but can the Minister say what difference this will make to the way in which the UK works in the national and international field? What plans and progress are being made to improve the lives of women and girls globally? We have had a great debate. I look forward to her reply.