International Women’s Day

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger Excerpts

Friday 8th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for introducing this important debate so ably. Like others, I welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, and look forward to her maiden speech, but I begin by paying tribute to Theresa May, who today has announced that she is stepping down from the Commons. She was our second woman Prime Minister and had a terrible time in office, for various reasons that we are all familiar with, but she carried on valiantly. She has always been a great supporter of women and did a lot on domestic abuse, trafficking and all sorts of issues. I salute the contribution she has made to our political world.

The theme of this International Women’s Day debate, the economic inclusion of women, recognises the pivotal role women play in shaping our economies and societies. Across the globe, women contribute significantly to their economies—from entrepreneurship to labour force participation, from innovation to leadership. Yet, despite these invaluable contributions, women continue to face barriers that hinder their full participation in the economy. Economic inclusion is not just a matter of fairness; it is an imperative for sustainable development and prosperity. When women are economically empowered, they invest in their families, communities and future generations. They help their countries move forward or, as Christine Lagarde once said,

“when women do better economies do better”.

However, in some countries achieving economic inclusion for women requires an enormous cultural shift in attitudes, norms and perceptions. We must challenge those stereotypes, break down gender roles, and create environments where women are valued and respected as equals.

It is hard to take your place in today’s society without education. We know that investing in girls’ education transforms communities and countries. Here in the UK, girls outperform boys from primary school to university. However, as we have already heard, women are too often held back in the workplace once they have had a child, as childcare in the UK is exorbitantly expensive, being twice the average for the OECD. As we have also heard, usually the childcare duties fall to the women.

It is terrible that there is a country in the world today—the noble Baroness, Lady Goudie, has already alluded to this—Afghanistan, where girls are not allowed to go to secondary school. I am sure that the Minister will not be surprised if I ask: what is the Government’s current assessment of the situation in that country?

In many developing countries girls struggle to get an education, with 129 million girls out of school worldwide and only 49% of countries having achieved gender parity in primary education. I am proud of our Government; through the international women and girls strategy, the UK has supported 19.8 million children, including over 10 million girls, to gain a decent education since 2015.

I have recently returned from a trip with the APPG on Population, Development and Reproductive Health to Tanzania to look at UK-supported sexual health and reproductive rights—SHRR—activities. We saw for ourselves the importance of women gaining access to contraception, especially in a country where the population is spiralling out of control. If women cannot have control over their fertility, it is very hard for them to achieve anything economically. It is estimated that every $1 spent on contraception would save $3 in the cost of maternal, newborn and abortion care, because of reduction of unintended pregnancies. I hope that the UK Government will continue to support Tanzania and, in particular, the UNFPA supplies in this regard.

As we have also already heard, it is hard to have economic development, let alone inclusion, if you do not have peace. As noble Lords will know, you cannot achieve sustainable peace agreements in conflict areas unless you include women in those discussions. Often they are excluded from the peace table.

I know that time is short, but I would like to raise one more issue: water. For more than 70% of households without a water supply, it is the women and the girls aged 15 or older who are responsible for water collection. Water collection is exhausting apart from anything else, with heavy buckets of water. Investing in water, sanitation and hygiene is critical to reducing women’s unpaid care work, and it can unlock employment and income. It can also help to improve girls’ access to primary and secondary education and improve women’s health.

We are having this debate at a time when, sadly, women’s rights are falling back across the world. There are so many things we need to get right to enable women’s economic inclusion: peace, education, access to contraception, access to water and sanitation, financial inclusion and literacy. However, I would like to illuminate a ray of hope. I recently attended a conference in Tunisia of women entrepreneurs and was impressed to meet women from many countries who had started their own businesses. As we reflect on the progress we have made and the work that still lies ahead, let us recommit ourselves to the cause of economic inclusion for women. As Michelle Obama once said,

“no country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens”.