Women’s Contribution to the Economy

Debate between Sarah Newton and Helen Grant

Thursday 6th March 2014 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities (Mrs Helen Grant)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Sheridan. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Meriden (Mrs Spelman) and the hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) on securing this very important debate. Both are passionate advocates of this agenda; in fact, the pair of them are fantastic role models in their own right.

I pay tribute to all hon. Members who have spoken. They have made excellent contributions. We have had speeches from my right hon. Friend the Member for Meriden, the hon. Member for Slough, my hon. Friends the Members for Mid Derbyshire (Pauline Latham) and for Suffolk Coastal (Dr Coffey) and the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson). They have made important contributions, but there have also been important interventions. We have heard not only from the many extraordinary women in this place, but from many enlightened men who recognise how critical the issues are. I am pleased to respond to the debate on behalf of a Government who are wholeheartedly committed to the cause. I want to summarise what the Government are doing, but I will do my best to respond to some of the many interventions and requests for clarification.

Today’s debate has given us a chance to reflect on and celebrate the enormous progress that has been made in this country, towards equality for women in the workplace, and in women’s contribution to the economy—progress that the generations before us could only imagine. I want to focus on two main areas: the growing importance of women in the economic recovery, and the need to shape our workplaces to enable women to be full participants, including the measures that the Government are taking to achieve that important transformation. I hope to continue the non-partisan tone of the debate. There is broad agreement on the issues across all parties, and we can all celebrate the increasing success of women in the economy. We should work closely together, not against each other, on that.

Securing economic recovery remains the most urgent task facing the Government. The evidence shows that the Government’s long-term economic plan is working, but, as the Chancellor said, the recovery is not yet secure. There is still much more to do, but we can take encouragement from the positive signs. My right hon. Friend the Member for Meriden and the hon. Member for Slough both mentioned that there are now 14 million women working. As well as being the highest number since records began that also represents the highest employment rate, and it is quite an achievement. Of course there is more to do, but there are 500,000 more women in work than there were when the Government took office. The pace of change is also quickening. Women’s employment increased by 93,000 on the quarter, and is now 199,000 higher than it was a year ago. I am also heartened that many more women see self-employment and enterprise as a viable option. There are 175,000 more women in self-employment than there were in May 2010, and we know for example that a third of beneficiaries of the Government’s StartUp loan programme are women. That is excellent news for women and for the health and competitiveness of the economy.

There is still, however, more we can do to help women to progress in the workplace and in business, which brings me to my second theme—shaping our workplaces to enable women to be full participants. In many ways, our workplaces have been transformed in recent decades. A key feature of that transformation has been the rising number of women in work and increasingly in senior roles across the whole economy. Thankfully, the rules are changing. Flexible working is no longer seen as a necessary evil to accommodate women with caring responsibilities. It is now rightly seen by leading businesses as good practice, which enables not just women, but all of us who require some flexibility in our increasingly busy lives, to make a full and proper contribution at work. Therefore, from June, we will extend the right to request flexible working to all employees, to continue driving that culture change across business, to the point where there is no longer the concept of full-time or part-time working—just the concept of working.

Extending to all the right to request flexible working will also help to challenge the unfair stigma that those that need to work flexibly are somehow less committed to their employer. Through the introduction of shared parental leave next year we are also working to end the assumption—another stigma, in my opinion—that women will be the main carer of a child; we will also be allowing fathers to play a bigger part in the first year of their children’s lives. That will help families to juggle their home and work life, and it will also lessen the negative impact on careers of time spent out of the workplace. The hon. Member for Slough pointed out that flexible working and shared parental leave should help families to balance their busy lives. She focused in her speech on the contribution made by women aged over 50, and I am sure that she will be pleased that the Women’s Business Council flagged up in its conclusions the “tremendous untapped potential” of women

“in the third phase of their working lives”.

The council has put out a marker, which is exciting; I look forward to working closely with it and others to develop that potential.

I am pleased to confirm that from October next year we will introduce tax-free child care, which will save working families up to £1,200 per child. Those are important and necessary changes, which will directly address issues that women face in the workplace, but we also need to tackle the cultures and attitudes that often prevent women from the reaching the top. Through our continuing work with Lord Davies and the business community, we will ensure that more talented women take their rightful place in the boardroom and, once there, provide a better balance of views and experience to ensure that businesses maximise their potential.

[Sarah Newton]

Did the Minister read the report produced by the Select Committee on Science and Technology following our inquiry into the number of women in senior positions in science—particularly universities? I think that she will find our recommendations helpful in getting women scientists and engineers to play their full part in the economy.

[Mrs Grant]

That is an important point. There never seem to be enough hours in the day, somehow, but I promise to look at the report and talk to my hon. Friend about its conclusions.

Since Lord Davies reported in February 2011, there have been unprecedented changes in the composition of boardrooms. Women now make up 20.4% of the directors of FTSE100 companies, which is up from 12.5%, and there are now just two all-male FTSE100 boards; that figure is down from 21. Again, that is great news for the economy, but it is vital that we maintain the momentum. We need just 51 more women on FTSE100 boards by 2015 to achieve the 25% target set by Lord Davies.

The pay gap is an important issue. I do not think that it has been raised directly in today’s debate, but it is never too far from my mind. It is a matter of concern that women are still disadvantaged in pay. We are addressing that in two main ways. First, for the vast majority of businesses who want to do the right thing by their female employees, we are encouraging good practice through the voluntary “Think, Act, Report” initiative. More than 170 organisations representing more than 2 million employees are showing that they are committed to equality in their business. As the Minister responsible for tourism I was pleased to announce this morning at a Women 1st women in tourism event that Merlin Entertainments, Brakes Group, easyJet, Advantage Travel and CH&Co catering have now signed up to that important initiative.

However, we shall also take tough action against employers who do not do the right thing, and from October when a tribunal finds that an employer has broken equal pay laws it will order a full pay audit, to prevent continuing sex discrimination in pay matters.