Kirith Entwistle
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Kirith Entwistle (Bolton North East) (Lab)
I add my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) for bringing this debate to the House. I am especially proud to speak in this debate as a member of the Women and Equalities Committee. I am also the first woman to represent my constituency�frankly, far too many of us are. I hope that changes.
On Monday, I was proud to host a coffee morning in aid of Fortalice, which provides refuge accommodation, wraparound support and one-to-one sessions for women and children to work through their trauma. It also has an outstanding nursery on site to help kids smile, and it provides a lifeline for victims and survivors of domestic abuse. I also hosted two events on Tuesday, and spoke proudly about Endeavour, which is the UK�s first domestic abuse service to provide pet fostering. It recognises that women facing domestic abuse may also feel trapped because they do not want to leave a pet behind, and it removes a huge barrier to finding help.
Today is a day for honesty, and as we have heard in so many wonderful contributions to this debate so far, it is a dangerous time. We are seeing women�s rights being rolled back across the globe. We face the stark reality that, while amazing work is being done by so many women�and having followed her career so closely, I am honoured be in this place with the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), and reassured that she is on our Front Bench�we have a long way to go in this country. Women must fight for everything in society, and we have to keep working together to fight for and protect women and girls.
We are still fighting for equal pay. We are still fighting for safety on our streets and in our homes, and now in the digital world we are seeing abuse of and violence against women and girls taking on new forms as technology evolves. We have seen the creation of deepfakes, non-consensual image-based abuse and online harassment. Let us not forget that social media platforms�those that shape our conversations, our culture and sometimes even our self-worth�are owned and controlled by men.
Yes it is true that women have more opportunities�we are able to work, to go out and earn our own wage and to have our independence�but the expectations placed on us remain. We still carry the mental load, we are still the primary caregivers and we are still in charge of household chores and of managing childcare, so we have to keep fighting for, working for and demanding better. We tell young girls that they can be anything and that they can have it all, but we do not tell young boys about making sure they take on their share of the housework, manage the household and become a good parent. This must change: we cannot create a safer and fairer world for women and girls without working with men and boys.