International Women’s Day

Baroness Sugg Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sugg (Con)]

My Lords, I am pleased to speak in this debate and to congratulate the noble Baronesses opposite on their excellent maiden speeches. It is good to hear that they will be joining noble Lords from across this place to champion women and girls. I say that as a former backroom girl.

I will start with a focus on women’s health in the UK. Sadly, too many women are still waiting too long for healthcare, still not being listened to and still facing barriers that should have been removed years ago. I was grateful to the Minister for mentioning the women’s health strategy in her opening remarks and to hear the maiden speech from the noble Baroness, Lady Nargund. I look forward to her bringing her significant expertise on women’s health to this place.

Across England more than 570,000 women are waiting for gynaecology care, one of the highest waiting lists anywhere in the NHS. As the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has pointed out, if every woman waiting stood shoulder to shoulder, the queue would stretch for 191 miles. Behind that concerning vision are women living with endometriosis, fibroids, heavy menstrual bleeding and chronic pelvic pain, conditions that really can be life altering. Yet diagnosis time for endometriosis now averages more than nine years, during which far too many women have been told that their symptoms are normal or in their head. These delays are not only deeply damaging to women’s lives; they come at a significant economic cost of around £11 billion per year in lost productivity.

We also know that investment in women’s health pays dividends. For every £1 invested in obstetrics and gynaecology services, the return is elevenfold. Supporting women’s health is not an optional extra. It is essential to our country’s well-being and economic strength. There have been positive developments. Women’s health hubs are beginning to show what can be achieved when services are designed around women’s needs, bringing care closer to home, improving access and reducing pressure on hospitals, but provision remains inconsistent. What steps will the Government take to reduce gynaecology waiting lists? Will the Government commit to protecting and expanding women’s health hubs across every integrated care hub? Will the new strategy ensure that there are women’s health champions in place across the country?

I turn to the international. Around the world, progress on women’s rights, hard won over decades, is under increasing pressure. In many places the rollback is deliberate, well funded and strategic. This was starkly underlined in an evidence session I attended earlier this week, hosted by the APPG on International Law, Justice and Accountability and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. We heard from women on the situation in Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Iran and North Korea who gave powerful testimony about the current realities. We have heard many noble Lords mention this today, including a powerful speech from my noble friend and previous ministerial colleague Lord Ahmad. Extreme anti-gender movements are gaining influence. Funding for just three global anti-rights actors is twice that of more than 1,000 surveyed women’s rights organisations combined. At the same time, 90% of women’s rights organisations report being affected by the global aid reductions, with nearly half fearing closure. In the very context where conflict, climate shocks and poverty are intensifying, the space for women and girls to speak, organise and lead is shrinking. Progress for women and girls has been fought for, funded and defended over decades, but it can also be undone quietly, gradually and faster than many expect.

The UK has long been a respected and principled voice on gender and equality, but leadership is not something we inherited. It is something that we must choose to exercise, and we have three powerful levers: money, power and influence. How we use them now will determine whether progress is protected or allowed to erode. How will the Government ensure that key priorities, including women, peace and security, ending violence against women, PSVI, girls’ education and, importantly, sexual and reproductive health and rights, will remain supported despite the wider aid reductions? If the answer to that is mainstreaming, how will that differ from previous attempts that have not been effective?

I am pleased to hear that the Minister who will be responding will attend the Commission on the Status of Women, as well as our excellent envoy for women and girls. What diplomatic steps are being taken to counter the global rollback on women’s and girls’ rights? How will the UK use its upcoming G20 presidency to ensure that gender equality is embedded at the heart of global decision-making? The choices made now will shape whether progress continues or the world moves backwards at precisely the moment it can least afford to.

International Women’s Day is a moment to celebrate progress, but it is also a moment to recognise how fragile that progress can be. The UK has the resources, voice and global standing to make a real difference. The question is whether we choose to use them both at home and abroad to ensure that women and girls are genuinely prioritised in policy and in practice. International Women’s Day should not only celebrate progress; it is a moment to ask what it will take to sustain it.