International Women’s Day: Progress on Global Gender Equality

Baroness Hussein-Ece Excerpts

Thursday 8th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing this debate in such an important year—the 100th anniversary of women gaining the vote. As we have heard, we have a proud record in this country of promoting women’s rights globally.

Today, I want to focus on the progress of women in the UK. As we promote women’s rights globally, we need to do more to get our own house in order. On International Women’s Day, it is welcome that women from minority backgrounds are becoming more visible. As the only woman of Turkish Cypriot heritage in this House, I would like to see more women from black and minority-ethnic backgrounds represented in public life and in all walks of life.

When I was elected in the early 1990s in Hackney, London, I was the first woman from my background to be elected as a councillor and it caused quite a stir. Only a few women councillors had similar experience to mine. I met with some opposition, mainly from the men from my community when I was out canvassing. They asked me who was going to look after my children and cook my husband’s dinner.

That quickly changed as more women from my community and heritage started to become involved in public life. I am pleased to say that women from Turkish Kurdish, Turkish Cypriot and other communities are much better represented in public life today. It is perfectly normal now. I was used to being the “only” or the “first” and I gradually found that very annoying, but I am pleased that that has changed.

My mother came to the UK with very little education. She went to school until the age of only about 12—the first girl in the family to do so. She was unable to speak, read or write English. She struggled when she came here and married very young. But she was a very smart woman, mainly self-taught as many early immigrant women were, and she went on to run a successful small business. I am proud that I come from a line of strong women who are self-starters and who, like many women here as well, just get on with it.

There are more than 2 million black and minority- ethnic women in this country. They are not properly reflected, sadly, in public life across the country, and certainly not in Parliament or local councils. But today when I look around Parliament, I am heartened to see that there have been great improvements. Many will speak from their own life experiences and on behalf of minorities who may otherwise feel silenced. This is why we need greater plurality in public life.

Despite this progress, our work has only just begun. The life chances of black and minority-ethnic groups, especially women of Muslim heritage, still lag far behind the life chances of the rest of the population. Black and minority-ethnic groups tend to have poorer health and shorter life expectancy and face discrimination at work and in their day-to-day lives.

The most recent review by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, about 18 months ago, found that black people in Britain are more than twice as likely to be murdered as white people and three times as likely to be prosecuted and sentenced, and that the life chances of young ethnic-minority people in the UK have collapsed in the last five years and are at their worst level for generations. The review examined education, employment, housing, pay, health and criminal justice and found what it described as an “alarming picture” of rampant race-based inequality entrenched within Britain. Its depressing conclusion was that these figures underline,

“just how entrenched and far-reaching race inequality remains”.

The commission’s chairman concluded:

“We must redouble our efforts to tackle race inequality urgently or risk the divisions in our society growing and racial tensions increasing. If you are black or an ethnic minority in modern Britain, it can often still feel like you’re living in a different world, never mind being part of a one nation society”.


I will just share a few more statistics that need to be highlighted. In work, women from a Pakistani background see the biggest gender pay gap, earning 26% less than their colleagues. A black and minority-ethnic person with a degree is twice as likely to be unemployed. Around 40% of ethnic minorities live in low-income households—twice the rate of the white population. We know, as has been highlighted many times, that race hate crimes against Muslim women have, sadly, increased significantly post the EU referendum. All in all, if you are born into a non-white home in 21st-century Britain, you can expect to earn less, face discrimination and die earlier.

Of course, by way of balance, there are growing exceptions and there have been improvements, but it is not moving or changing fast enough. The time for talking is over and the situation has to be tackled. I do not want to wait another 30 years—although I am sure I will not be here in 30 years’ time—for the balance to be redressed. I call on the House and the Government to make International Women’s Day the day we start to do something about inequalities for women from a BME background.

On Tuesday, I attended an event organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, which, in a celebration of International Women’s Day, brought together a growing number of leading Muslim women, among them MPs, lawyers, journalists, professionals and even the winner of “Masterchef” 2017—Saliha Ahmed, a wonderful woman—to showcase how things are slowly changing. Women from less privileged backgrounds are now pushing or kicking open doors that remained firmly shut unless you came from the right background or had the necessary networks. The key message was for young women to ask and to not be afraid to find out how to get involved in public life or the profession they would like to join. They should not be pushed back or be afraid.

This is why role models really matter. Representation is the key to changing this situation. Ethnic minorities make up 12% of the workforce, yet just 6% are in senior positions. We are faced with what I call a concrete ceiling. Ethnic-minority women, who already have to break the glass ceiling, have to go one step further to break the other ceiling as well if they want to get the job they deserve. In a way, we are talking about a double whammy, because women from ethnic- minority backgrounds are more likely to be from a working-class background.

Many of us welcomed the words of the Prime Minister, who raised the issue of the poor life chances of black people in Britain on the steps of 10 Downing Street when she became Prime Minister. The Government, led by the Prime Minister, must urgently raise expectations. This is an issue for schools and colleges as well, which need to raise the expectations of girls, particularly those from poorer and ethnic- minority backgrounds. We know that really matters: role models, expectations and mentoring really make a difference. We must redouble efforts to build a fair society. A fairer and more equal society is a happier society.

Globally, women are speaking out and pushing for their rights. Today I call on the Government and all like-minded women in public life to take action and work with civil society to create a more level playing field for all women here in the UK, no matter what their ethnicity. Let us press for progress.