International Women's Day

Baroness Gould of Potternewton Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Gould of Potternewton]

To call attention to the global and domestic challenges for women in the centenary year of International Women’s Day; and to move for papers.

[Baroness Gould of Potternewton]

My Lords, it gives me great pleasure once again to open the debate to commemorate International Women’s Day to look at the global and domestic challenges that women face in this centenary year. I thank all who are taking part. The number of speakers today shows that there is an understanding that these debates are about issues as they affect women and, as a consequence, society as a whole. I look forward, as I am sure we all do, to the six maiden speakers who will contribute to this debate. Over the next week, International Women’s Day will be celebrated by women around the world, portraying the stories of ordinary women struggling for equality, for their rights and for the ability to participate fully in society—politically, socially and economically. The day also gives us the opportunity to celebrate the advances made and to identify the achievements that still have to be made.

Empowering women and girls is the most effective way of enabling women to participate fully in society, and has been the motivation behind the many declarations made and conventions and conferences held, which have provided a series of mechanisms and instruments to promote and embed gender equality. In 1979, the adoption by the United Nations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women—CEDAW—committed all member states who signed up to it, including the UK, to end discrimination in all their actions and in their legal and benefit systems, and to ensure equality and equal opportunities between women and men. That should be the blueprint for all our actions.

The world conference of 1995 in Beijing, after much controversy and opposition, led to the important declaration that women’s rights are human rights. The aims of the millennium development goals are to reduce poverty, to promote gender equality, universal primary education and a reduction in maternal mortality in developing countries. However, at the current rate of progress, none of these will be achieved.

In spite of all the commitments made and conventions signed up to by the nations of the world, discrimination remains entrenched and pervasive. Too many women continue to be subject to violence, exploitation and intimidation, to be the innocent victims of war, to have no control over their own fertility and health and to have no income or assets. They continue to represent the majority of the world’s poor, earning just 10 per cent of the world’s income, even though they work two-thirds of the world's working hours.

In sub-Saharan Africa, women represent between 70 and 75 per cent of the agricultural workforce but own just 1 per cent of the land, and still too many Governments deny women the right even to own land. Poverty and the hidden costs of education deny many girls the possibility of going to school, creating a situation in which in Nigeria, for instance, 4 million girls have no access to primary education. Nor should we forget that globally nearly 20 per cent of women die from HIV/AIDS and nearly 15 per cent from poor maternal services, and large numbers of women do not have access to contraception. It is all too easy to put to the back of our minds that one woman dies every minute from complications resulting from pregnancy and childbirth, having been denied good or any maternity care: 350,000 deaths each year. Maternal health is a human right and no woman should die through neglect when giving birth.

DfID's new framework for improving reproductive, maternal and newborn health in the developing world is to be welcomed. We await the details and the level of expenditure so that these aspirations can be put into practice. All these deaths are preventable with the provision of good maternity services and the right for women to have control of their own fertility.

Human rights and equality are two sides of the same coin and should underpin all decisions and actions taken by Governments and public bodies, promoting the dignity and value of each individual and groups of people. However, too many Governments around the world condone or ignore the extent of women's poverty, the extent of violence against women, and the extent of the subjugation.

That is a very gloomy picture, but there is hope on the horizon. After nearly four years of negotiations, the UN member states voted unanimously last July to establish for the first time a mechanism for effectively monitoring all agencies and country programmes as they affect women and girls: UN Women. They will have the task of ensuring that Governments across the world's developed and developing nations meet their commitments to CEDAW, to delivering gender equality goals, and to all aspects of women’s rights.

More than two-thirds of activists working on women's projects across the world say that ending violence against women must be the top priority for the new agency, and that it must look to seeing a full implementation of Resolution 1325 and to reducing the number of women who are the victims of war; 75 per cent of rapists in the DRC are armed fighters. To succeed, however, this new agency needs the political and financial support of the international community. So far, that support is limited. UN Women is already suffering from a $300 million shortfall in funding. We have to make sure that this is not yet another example of a commitment that is forgotten before the ink on the paper is dry.

The previous UK Government played a big part in establishing the new agency. I fully accept that this Government are committed to its future, which leads me to ask whether the UK is a leading donor and, if so, can the Minister indicate the level of funding that we are contributing? A key aspect of the agency’s work will be to encourage countries to develop strategies to increase the number of women involved in public and political life. Political decision-making remains largely the territory of men. It is one of the most striking examples of inequality between men and women, with just 19 per cent of the world’s parliamentary seats being held by women. Women’s engagement in pubic decision-making at local, national and international levels is a matter of democratic justice and a means of ensuring better government accountability to women and more focus on issues of concern to women. If we accept that that is so, it is certainly not acceptable that the UK is ranked 52 in the international league tables on women's access to political power, with a meagre 22 per cent women's representation.

Lack of women's representation and participation has been attributed to several factors and constraints. Some of the constraints include political structures that inhibit women's participation and some that relate to family and other responsibilities. To understand the reasons fully we have to be prepared to look at the traditional arrangements of political parties and government structures and, if necessary, remove obstacles to women's participation. We have to think beyond mere numbers and be much more forceful in demonstrating the impact of women's contribution. I still find too many people asking why we should be concerned and why there should be more women in decision-making and leadership positions. However, for women to be able to influence decisions that affect their lives and those of their families, they have to be directly involved. I say with the greatest respect to our male politicians that I doubt whether we would have seen the great advances that have been made in the strategies tackling violence against women if pressure had not been exerted by female politicians.

Just as the time was ripe for a review of women on boards, perhaps the time is right for a detailed analysis of why women are in such a minority across the whole field of decision-making, focusing particularly on women's place in the political arena. Gender equality is a crucial component of social progress and economic growth. Nevertheless, women in the UK continue to be disadvantaged across a range of economic activity. They experience a full-time pay gap of 15.5 per cent, 64 per cent of low-paid workers are women and women's average personal pensions are only 62 per cent of the average for men. What is disturbing is that there seems to be little prospect of improvement—rather, the opposite.

As a result of the deficit reduction measures, women face a triple jeopardy—cuts in jobs, cuts in services and benefits, and filling the gaps where services will no longer reach. Women are without doubt the biggest casualties of the cuts. Women's jobs will be more heavily hit, with 300,000 jobs likely to go in the public sector and 50,000 jobs in the NHS, the majority of which will be women’s jobs. We are already seeing big cuts in the support paid to mothers—including cuts in childcare, with the expected closure of 250 Sure Start centres, which will affect 60,000 families; and cuts in social care services for children, the disabled and the elderly. These all make it harder for women to combine work and family life. At a time when they are most needed, many support services such as refuges, domestic violence projects and women-only organisations are at risk of closure or have already had to close down because of decisions that are being taken that appear to misinterpret statutory equality duties. These services are vital to help women flee violence and rebuild their lives.

The determination of women’s economic independence has always been an important criterion in establishing women's equality. That will be seriously undermined by the cuts in tax credits, child benefit, housing benefit, the restriction of the Sure Start maternity grant to the first child only and the proposed introduction of a universal benefit to be paid to the main earner, who in the majority of cases will almost certainly be the man in the household. It is more than 30 years since women successfully campaigned for the concept of moving benefits from the wallet to the purse, with child benefit replacing the then family allowance, for the first time giving money to a mother in her own right. I would hate to see that principle disappear, and I hope that consideration can be given to how we can make sure that that does not happen.

We have to have a vision of a society in which women and men enjoy equality at work, at home and in public. We need a vision of a society in which gender equality is based on the belief that a just and democratic society results from men and women having the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all areas of life. In spite of the advancements that still have to be made, over the past century the world has for many women has been transformed, and gains are continuing to be made. That reminded me of a quote from a great male champion of women’s empowerment, Nelson Mandela, who said:

“When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat”.

We all have a responsibility to make sure that the water continues to boil.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Gould of Potternewton]

My Lords, I reiterate the Minister’s last point. It is one of the most enjoyable debates that we have annually. I seriously thank everyone who has participated. It has been so stimulating, knowledgeable and absolutely inspiring. I, too, offer my congratulations to the six maiden speakers. Their speeches were varied and powerful, and we certainly look forward to hearing some more. I also congratulate the Minister who so competently tackled her daunting task. It gets more and more difficult as each year passes and the number of subjects discussed widens.

The range of knowledge in this Chamber is phenomenal, whether it is about women seafarers—that was a new debate that we had not had before but I should be interested in having more discussions—business, boards, politics or sport. It is fascinating how many women are football supporters, including myself. Perhaps we should start to compete with the men who somehow think that it is their subject. We heard about trafficking, violence against women, poverty, education and the vagaries of our political predecessors and women campaigners. We commemorated some remarkable women and organisations. Many speeches highlighted the position of women and girls, disabled women and women journalists in the developing world and the issues of rape in conflict and conflict resolution. I could go on as I am sure that I have missed out an awful lot of subjects.

I always hope that after these debates those who have not been in the Chamber will read the report of them. It is valuable for them and for all of us to follow through the points raised today. There is no question that we are united across the Chamber to further and better the rights of women. How we do it may vary but the aim of us all is there. It only remains for me to beg leave to withdraw the Motion.

Motion withdrawn.