International Women’s Day

Baroness Ludford Excerpts

Friday 10th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Ludford (LD)]

My Lords, unlike the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin of Kennington, who has spoken in almost every International Women’s Day debate in this House, this is the first time that I have done so, and I have been in the House for 25 years. I was pleased to agree with what she said, except perhaps about getting more Conservatives into Parliament. I also warmly congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Lampard, on her maiden speech.

I have never particularly campaigned on the rights of women. I spent my political life campaigning on rights pertaining to all types of characteristics other than sex, but at nearly 72 I find that things are either not improving or going backwards. I became an adult in the late 1960s and 1970s, when things seemed inexorably to be getting better for women almost universally, even in countries such as Afghanistan and Iran. Such illusions have been shattered, however, showing the fragility of women’s rights. Of course things have improved greatly in this country and the rest of the developed world, although patchily, but we should all feel a sense of shame to read in the Ipsos study that almost 40% of Generation Z are fearful of speaking up for women’s rights for fear of reprisals.

Given that our theme today is education, our first thought must be the girls and young women in Afghanistan and Iran, refused education or, in Iran, mysteriously poisoned at school. Although that is acutely discouraging, there are bright notes elsewhere, such as in Africa, where the African Girls Can Code Initiative builds digital skills. I very much agree with the call by the noble Baroness, Lady Helic, for the Government to reconsider the cut to BBC Persian.

The first government international women and girls strategy is admirable but, as others have commented, the cuts to international aid bring into question the coherence of that strategy. In rights to sexual and reproductive health, including abortion, there was a huge step backwards in the United States last year as well as around the world. I imagine that US support for such rights through international aid are also at even greater risk now than they were when I was an MEP and the EU was taking up the slack to a considerable extent. Is the UK co-operating with partners, including Nordic countries and the EU, to fill the breach, whatever the US does? While those Nordic countries are top of the international gender quality rankings, the UK is only 33rd in the world in closing the gender gap in education and 44th for closing the gender gap in economic participation. These are sobering facts.

The Minister said that the Government want to support women into, or back into, the STEM workforce in particular. Generally, as we know, the Government lament the employment gap, but as others have said, the availability and affordability of childcare is crucial and we also know that many mothers are struggling. A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers said that women are being priced out of work and in inner London, where I live, a nursery place costs a mother 50% of her take-home pay. It is surely a no-brainer to try to solve that problem. There is also a particular gap between the end of maternity leave and the age of three, so the gender gap is actually widening in pay due to the financial penalty of motherhood. That is a disgrace.

Digital skills are key to employability and coping with modern life, including for older people and especially for women who have not acquired those skills in their lives. I was bereaved a few years ago but I was able to cope with the extraordinary amount of bureaucracy—the unnecessary burden of which is another story, one I mean to pursue with Ministers again—and with the online stuff. A lot of older widows, in particular, cannot because their husbands used to do all the bills and finances. I hope that the noble Baroness can tell us something about what the Government are doing to support digital skills for adults.

In fact, developments for girls and women at home are not so great overall. There seems to be a tsunami of misogyny, offline and online, which is partly what has prompted me to speak today. Some of that misogyny has been around for ever and is only now being uncovered, exposed to some extent and partially addressed, such as in the police. The comment from the former acting boss of the Metropolitan Police that many rape complaints stem from “regretful sex” is both astonishing and deeply depressing.

We need a cultural revolution in this country to change attitudes among men and boys, as well as among women and girls. You still find females being patronised and called stroppy, bossy or aggressive when males would be praised for their assertiveness, boldness and leadership skills. Many of us, however, have had huge and essential support from the men in our lives, as I did from my late father and my late husband. Confident men do not fear confident women.

I agree with what the noble Baroness, Lady Seccombe, said on biology. I believe that we need a change in the law. I support the petition organised by the organisation Sex Matters, which has been signed by 100,000 people and will therefore be debated in the other place, calling for reform of the Equality Act so that the protected characteristic of sex is clarified as meaning biological sex. It can apparently be done via the Gender Recognition Act, and it is not transphobic or bigoted to call for this legal clarification. Gender and sex have become conflated in popular parlance, probably because we were a bit coy about the term “sex”. The Gender Recognition Act uses gender and legal sex in the same section, but legally this has become very problematic, especially following a Scottish legal judgment which said that legal sex and biological sex are the same. This needs sorting out, and I hope the Minister can assure us that the Government are attentive to this issue.