International Women’s Day and Protecting the Equality of Women in the UK and Internationally

Baroness Northover Excerpts

Thursday 17th March 2022 Grand Committee

[Baroness Northover (LD)]

My Lords, I am also grateful that I am still alive. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, for introducing this very wide-ranging debate so comprehensively. I am very glad that we have had a debate for International Women’s Day, though I echo the complaints voiced by my noble friend Lord Purvis of Tweed, the noble Baronesses, Lady Gale and Lady Bennett, and others that it did not take place close to the day itself or in the Chamber. I pay tribute to the Conservative Peers who successfully put pressure on their leadership, who had no plans to schedule this. The wonderful noble Baroness, Lady Gale, played a key part years ago in making sure that we would hold this debate.

I hope noble Lords have forgiven my absence while I went to contribute on the Statement on the release of the Iranian detainees. It is hugely welcome that Nazanin and Anoosheh are now back home. Of course, as the noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, noted, in the context of this debate, it is wonderful to welcome Nazanin back, caught up as she was—and as so many women are—by events beyond her control.

I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Purvis, not only for his outstanding speech but for taking a full note of the speeches that I missed. Of course, had we been in the Chamber I would not have had this conflict.

We know that there is no country in the world, yet, where there is gender equality. We know that the Scandinavian countries lead in this regard, and that the least developed countries see the greatest gap between the genders. That is where it is most stark.

As I listened to the noble Baroness, Lady Gale, I had a sense of déjà vu—no doubt the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, will as well. The same questions remain unanswered since those first debates in your Lordships’ House and the wonderful team that I see arrayed behind the Minister should be well prepared. They and their forebears will have been passing the same notes to the Minister, year in and year out. Why, for example, have we not ratified the Istanbul convention, as raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Gale? Why does GEO move from department to department, inadequately supported? When will our Parliaments reach gender parity? Why are we not centrally addressing the position of women in the UK, let alone overseas? They are all so familiar.

So what has happened since we last debated the position of women in the United Kingdom and the wider world? In the UK, as worldwide, the pandemic has hit women harder than men, even though the disease itself may not discriminate. The noble Baroness, Lady Armstrong, picked up the point about how it has hit women harder. Why is that so in the United Kingdom? The same reasons apply elsewhere: women are more likely to have been working in sectors that were disrupted, to have to care for children and to home-school them, and to have responsibility for elderly relatives. All this means the pandemic has hit them harder. We know too, as noble Lords have mentioned, that domestic violence rose and that fewer resources were available to assist women in that circumstance. Women’s Aid has noted that around two-thirds of women seeking access to mental health services, which themselves are scarce, have suffered domestic abuse. As it points out, gender inequality is both a cause and consequence of violence against women and girls—the sharpest end of women’s disadvantage in this country and worldwide.

My noble friend Lord Clement-Jones highlighted the appalling situation we are now in on holding people to account over violence against women and girls. A number of other noble Lords mentioned this. It is appalling to see the awful trolling of women online which my noble friend mentioned. So many women MPs receive death threats; how could we encourage our daughters to come into politics today? The noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, has urged that we move forward urgently in this area. She has a remarkable record on this and pointed to the proposed misogyny criminal justice Act for Scotland. We have been debating having that for England and it has been pushed back. The noble Baroness, Lady Bryan, pointed to the lack of progress in Scotland.

Now, as we come out of the pandemic, theoretically, we face the economic consequences. As the noble Lords, Lord Sikka and Lord Desai, and others indicated, unless you have economic equality you will have no other form of equality. The Government warn of constrained budgets, despite hugely rising fuel costs and inflation hitting the price of food and clothes. Again, this hits the poorest the hardest, as we have heard, and women are on average poorer than men. The noble Lord, Lord Sikka, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham pointed to the way in which women are terribly disadvantaged economically, including through the extraordinary restrictions on universal credit for families beyond two children.

As the noble Lord, Lord Sandhurst, rightly noted in his fascinating speech, women still carry the greater burden of caring. As we look internationally, we know that the situation can be dire for many women and girls around the world. As we know, in theory, almost as many girls are now in school as boys, which is welcome. However, in reality, the level and quality of schooling differs. The boys are in the better schools and are in school for longer; this brings enhanced life chances. How, therefore, will the Government deliver the global education commitments made in 2021? We have already heard about the 58% gap in economic participation and opportunity, and the gigantic gap in political empowerment.

What did we do in the middle of a worldwide pandemic? We cut aid. Here I must endorse my noble friend Lord Purvis of Tweed’s speech and his castigation of the Government over their cut in aid. It is all very well saying the same things we hear year in and year out: “We support women and girls internationally, we are supporting education” and so on. No country has gender equality, and it is worst in the poorest countries. That is where our aid is supposed to be going. So, if we cut aid, of necessity we damage the position of women and girl. It is no wonder that the FCDO did not want to publish its impact assessment. The conclusion could not be otherwise: the cuts would hurt women.

No amount of “we can’t afford this” can possibly excuse such an action from one of the richest countries on the planet. The first thing to do is to restore the level of aid. If the Minister cannot do that then no amount of notes from the officials behind will answer that basic question. My noble friend Lord Purvis is right that women and girls must be front and centre in our new, upcoming international development strategy. Will this be the case?

I now put forward the key area of sexual health and reproductive rights. This is absolutely essential to women and to their families, communities and countries. It is of fundamental importance as a pillar for achieving all other areas of gender equality. I recall, when I was a DfID Minister, being in a community where we supported family planning. The image will always stay in my mind of a young woman, probably in her teens, with twins attached to her, sitting on the ground with other small children under five playing around her. She was exhausted. We know exactly why family planning would help her—and she would know too, if she could give any energy or attention to it at all. Fewer children in a family means more of them in school, and the mother is better able to earn a living and more likely to be able to take advantage of the possibilities of microfinance, as the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham mentioned.

We all know that we face the climate emergency, which the noble Baroness, Lady Armstrong, mentioned. This will roll back women’s rights globally. The poorest and most vulnerable women and girls are often the most vulnerable to climate change, and often lack the resources required to adapt to it to ensure the protection of their livelihoods and well-being. With increasing drought, women and girls are expected to travel longer distances to collect water and firewood, exposing them to further sexual and gender-based violence. The destruction of households and livelihoods has become a reality for communities hard hit by climate change. In some cases, this loss of livelihood leads to increases in transactional sex and the risk of teenage pregnancies. Women are especially vulnerable in conflict, which will be promoted by climate change. I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson, for her work in this area over so many years, including her necessary work in the role of women in peace in Syria and, now, in Afghanistan.

When the West went into Afghanistan, I recall that at first people said that nothing could be done about women’s rights because of the culture, but that was turned around so that the key change that occurred in Afghanistan was a dramatic improvement in women’s rights, and the noble Baroness played her part in that. It is heart-breaking to see that the Taliban is back in control, so much has been reversed, and families are in such desperation that you now hear of people selling their kidneys. I am glad that we passed that amendment in the health Bill, whichever night it was when we were here so late. Could the Minister update us on what engagement we are having in Afghanistan, having had so little influence over the United States, despite post-Brexit claims? It has cut and run without our being able to exercise any influence over it whatever.

We see even now the impact on women of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with women fleeing with their children and leaving behind their menfolk, their lives potentially changed for ever, as the noble Lord, Lord Loomba, and others have mentioned. There was the mother who was hurt in the attack on the Mariupol hospital, then losing her own life and that of her baby. During disasters, health services are often limited and, at times, not available, which means that more women give birth without much-needed medical support. The noble Baroness, Lady Cox, has spoken of the pressures in Sudan, Nigeria and elsewhere, while the noble Lord, Lord Hussain, spoke of the situation of women in Kashmir and elsewhere.

Then there is the double or multiple discrimination to which the noble Lord, Lord Loomba, has often pointed. The noble Lord, Lord Sikka, mentioned this in relation to the UK—and, of course, it applies even more internationally. In his work on widows, the noble Lord, Lord Loomba, emphasises that they suffer the double discrimination of being women and widows. Older women can suffer particular discrimination, and then there is the double discrimination against women with disabilities and the multiple discrimination against women with disabilities, who are widows and who are simply women.

The sustainable development goals demand that no one is left behind—but the cuts that have been meted out undermine all that. There is so much that we will need to do to deliver those sustainable development goals in only a few years’ time. We are not on track, even in the United Kingdom, to deliver the SDGs, and certainly not worldwide. The pandemic has meanwhile shown that we are all globally interconnected, and the war in Ukraine has shown the geopolitical tectonic plates shifting. How this will settle out is yet to be seen, but we must ensure that, whatever the outcome, the position of women and girls and the need to fight for gender equality is not left behind.

This has been as wide-ranging a debate as ever, and I certainly welcome the fact that we have something of a gender balance here—and so it should be. I look forward to hearing what the Minister says in reply. I think she will see that she has an uphill task and that words need to be matched with actions. She knows, if anyone does, that we can see through empty words.