International Women’s Day

Baroness Nye Excerpts

Tuesday 10th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Nye (Lab)]

My Lords, I too am grateful to the noble Baroness the Minister for introducing this debate and I congratulate her on her new role. I am also grateful for the many interesting and informative contributions we have heard from all sides of the House. I am pleased to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Fall, because although I have not read her book yet, I am sure that we could swap stories about the trials and tribulations of gatekeeping as an occupation.

This is a timely debate which is taking place the day before the first Budget since the general election last year and at a time of great global economic uncertainty. It is therefore critical that women’s voices are heard and listened to by Governments if a gender-equal world is to be achieved. While we use International Women’s Day to celebrate women’s achievements, and we have heard about many of them today, it is also a call to action on accelerating women’s equality and challenging stereotypes. That call to action has to recognise the undervalued role of some women in the UK today.

Analysis by the Young Women’s Trust and the Women’s Budget Group shows that 60% of unpaid work is carried out by women. Those women might be defined as “economically inactive” but that is to ignore the fundamental contribution they make to the economy and the well-being of our country. The Government, and especially the Chancellor tomorrow, should remember that women’s unpaid work contributes £140 billion to the economy, which is more than the financial sector did last year. One way to acknowledge that unpaid work supports the economic choices of others would be to increase the carer’s allowance, as has been illustrated by my noble friend Lady Donaghy and the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that almost 40% of young female carers live in poverty.

Immense barriers to work remain for women, who are still responsible for the majority of childcare. Many young women cannot afford to go to work or stay in work because of the high cost of childcare. Perhaps the Minister will update us on when the Government will announce the results of the consultation on reforming parental leave and pay, which may now be getting a little more attention at the top. Stereotypical careers advice at school perpetuates the gender pay gap. The Fawcett Society has found that the majority of women felt their career choices had been restricted because of the advice they received and, although the trend of more women than men accessing higher education continues, it is still the case that men earn more than women within five years of completing their degree across all subjects.

If women go into apprenticeships, men get paid more, get more training and end up being paid more at the end of the apprenticeship. For every 20 men starting in engineering, there is still only one woman, as the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, highlighted in her speech. The Chartered Institute of Building says that we need to find 160,000 new recruits in construction by 2023 to keep up with demand. That is why a company like Wates should be congratulated on the announcement of a partnership with the Young Women’s Trust to support and inspire more women to take up careers in construction. More businesses in the UK need to follow Wates’s example and have diversity and inclusion programmes which create a workforce that is reflective of society. But as sectors denied to women are opened up, tools and equipment need to be made to female specifications. This time last year, the first spacewalk by two women astronauts had to be cancelled because NASA did not have the right size spacesuits. I hope that has now changed, because any woman wanting to be the first woman on the moon in 2024 has just the month of March to apply.

The Government’s aim to help provide 12 years of quality education for all girls globally by 2030 is essential if we are to live in a gender-equal world. We should remember in this debate the women and children in refugee camps around the world and the 130 million girls who are missing out on school, so I welcome the Minister’s appointment as the special envoy for girls’ education. She well knows the plight of the Rohingya in Bangladesh, having visited the camps herself, and I declare an interest as a trustee of the Burma Campaign UK. The Rohingya women and children fled genocide and sexual violence by the Burmese army and now live in the largest refugee camps in the world. Bangladesh, itself one of the poorest countries in the world, has to its credit accepted nearly 1 million refugees from Burma, but has denied them education. Now it has announced that 10,000 boys and girls aged 11 to 13 can enrol in school.

Nearly half the refugees fleeing the ethnic cleansing by the Burmese army were children. Basic nursery education for small children is provided only to some who can be reached by aid groups. For women and girls in the IDP camps inside Burma, there is no access to education or humanitarian assistance and they still suffer from routine sexual violence. While the investigation at the International Criminal Court and the genocide case at the International Court of Justice can address the issue of rape and sexual violence against Rohingya women, they will not be able to investigate or hold accountable the use of rape as a weapon of war against women from other ethnic groups in Burma such as the Kachin and the Shan. The sight of Aung San Suu Kyi defending the actions of the Burmese military against the Rohingya is not something to celebrate and I hope that the Minister will be able to say what steps the British Government are taking to ensure accountability for all crimes committed by the Burmese military, not just those against the Rohingya.

Finally, I pay tribute to the members of the Women’s League of Burma. They bravely document rape and sexual violence by the Burmese military and assist survivors, but they do not, as far as I am aware, receive any financial support from the British Government for this vital work. I am sure that the Minister will agree that these women’s organisations should be receiving British support.

Goal 5 of the UN’s sustainable development goals is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, and is a standalone goal, but the other SDGs can be achieved only if the needs of women receive the same attention as those of men. Gloria Steinem said:

“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”


That is a call we can all support.