International Women�s Day

Sarah Owen Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Owen (Luton North) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) for introducing this incredibly important International Women�s Day debate. The debate is always well attended, but it is also one of the most informative and heartfelt debates we have in Parliament. I am incredibly proud to take part as Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee.

It has been said that the Committee has had quite a flying start. We have done a lot, but I answer that with the fact that there is a lot to do. This year�s International Women�s Day theme, as has already been said, is �Accelerate Action�, and we know that we cannot slow down; we do have to accelerate, and not just with words but with action. On behalf of the whole Committee, I am proud to say that we will not be slowing down any time soon.

In less than a year, we have focused our work very much on key areas�we have also continued the fantastic work of the previous Committee�and particularly on health. Last year, we produced a report on women�s reproductive health, which we called �Medical Misogyny�. Some people said, �That�s quite strong,� but frankly we could not describe the evidence that we had seen in the inquiry as anything other than medical misogyny.

Diagnosis for adenomyosis and endometriosis takes on average eight years. That is the average, so there are people waiting much longer than eight years just for diagnosis, not treatment. That is women being ignored and being left in pain. I know women who have been eventually diagnosed with adenomyosis or endometriosis but were fobbed off time and again by medical practitioners and doctors. They were told, �Have some paracetamol, a hot water bottle and a lie down and you�ll be fine.� That, again, is an example of where women are ignored to the detriment of their health as well as our country�s health and our economy�s health.

Painful procedures such as hysteroscopies and intrauterine device fittings are still taking place for women without any offer of pain relief. A sharp pinch? No, not on my nelly is that a sharp pinch. Again, I am grateful that men do not have to endure that pain, but why is it that women still do? Even though the guidelines have changed, women are still having to go through incredibly painful procedures without the relief that they deserve.

One recommendation in our report made clear the need to educate our young people better about what to expect for women�s reproductive health�that goes for boys as well as girls. We need to end the stigma of periods, and period poverty in particular. Young people also need to know what is normal. We were often told, �It�s normal that your period will hurt. You�ll bleed and you�re going to be uncomfortable,� but it is not normal to be curled up in bed for seven days. It is not normal for periods or menstrual cycles to be so painful that they stop us from going to school, taking part in PE or going to work. All those things are not normal, yet it has been ingrained in us that it is normal for us to be in pain and that it is normal for our lives to be disrupted by our hormones and everything that is happening with our bodies. Frankly, it is not. That is why one of the recommendations made it clear that we need to do better to educate ourselves and our young people and enable our educators to have the tools and the resources they need so that the next generation of women�and young men�know exactly what happens to a woman�s body.

When it comes to research�this stuck in my mind when we were doing the report�far too much has been tailored towards men and men�s medical needs. We know that the average paracetamol dose, for example, is the correct dosage for a western male, not for a woman. It is the same with seatbelts and everything else. But here is something: five times more research goes into erectile dysfunction, which affects 19% of men, than premenstrual syndrome, which affects 90% of women. When we talk about action, we need to see it across the board, particularly in health.

There is progress�absolutely, there is�and I am so proud that we will see the Employment Rights Bill come forward next week. But there are always ways to improve�always. The Committee produced a report in January that looked specifically at miscarriage bereavement leave. That issue is very close to my heart, and I know that many inside and outside this Chamber have long campaigned for the right to grieve the loss of a pregnancy following miscarriage. We have seen some movement, and that is incredibly welcome. Now is the time for action.

There are thousands of employers out there that already offer bereavement leave for workers who miscarry. Many are private sector employers and, let us be honest, they are not doing it out of the kindness of their hearts. They are doing it because it is financially rewarding, it is reputationally good and it is good for their workers. They include massive companies such as TUI, which I went to visit last week at the hangar in Luton airport. I did not contain my inner child when I sat in a cockpit, I will tell you that, but once I gathered myself, I asked, �Where are all the women engineers?� They said that they were really struggling, as they want to have more women engineers. I also asked, �Where are your women apprentices?� because they have fantastic apprenticeships there. They are so ripe and they are ready. I asked, �What are your workplace policies for miscarriage?� They said, �Do you know what? I wish more people knew.� TUI offers time off for grief, with miscarriage bereavement leave. There are companies out there�the Co-operative Group is another�doing the right thing and trying to make sure that the workplace is right for women.

In the case of public sector employers, the NHS offers miscarriage bereavement leave for its workers. The largest public sector employer of women in our country offers bereavement leave for those who miscarry. I have had representatives sat in front of me in two different Committees�the Public Accounts Committee pre-election and now the Women and Equalities Committee �and I asked them twice how much that cost. The chief finance officer for the NHS said it was de minimis. Translation: basically nothing. It is not costing them anything to offer that; if anything, it is saving them in terms of staff retention and length of time off sick. When we do not grieve well and do not have the space and time to grieve, we store up problems in the longer term. I think society has caught up with that; it is time the law did too.

We heard in Committee about the difference that a change in law could make, from women who were brave enough to give testimony of their experiences of multiple miscarriages, and of having to drive themselves to hospital because their partner or their husband could not take time off and nearly bleeding to death along the way. I know the difference a change in law could make and how angry I was when I had to take sick pay. When I had my three miscarriages, people were really lovely and I was very open about it, but not one single person said to me, �Get better soon.� They said, �I am sorry for your loss.� If society has moved on and realises that miscarriage and pregnancy loss is a loss and not a sickness, it is time our law did as well.

My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton) mentioned maternal health in her intervention, and I know that we will hear more about the need to close the gap on maternal death rates for black mothers. Clo and Tinuke at Five X More are doing fantastic work on that, and I praise everybody who is working to close that gap, because it is much needed.

Yesterday, at the Select Committee, we heard evidence on female genital mutilation. There are an estimated 137,000 victims of FGM in our country, and I fear that number is much higher from the evidence we heard yesterday on the levels of under-reporting. There was much noise and much movement and progress made 10 years ago, but that progress has stalled. Some of the training manuals for doctors and midwives are 10 years out of date. They are well past time for review, and in the last 10 years, we have seen about three prosecutions for FGM. I know that prosecution is perhaps not where we need to be, and I do not want to predetermine the outcome of the report, but prevention is a huge part of the answer. We will present our report accordingly.

Another area on which we have produced a report is technology, which has already been touched upon. We produced a very chunky report on non-consensual intimate image abuse, which is a deeply personal crime that can have life-changing and life-threatening consequences, as the lived experience of inquiry witness Georgia Harrison demonstrates. The Committee heard shocking evidence about the scale and impact of NCII abuse, with a tenfold increase in just four years and more than 22,000 reported cases in 2024.

Every victim of a sexual offence deserves to be treated with respect and have their case investigated promptly and effectively by the police; however, that is not what we heard. In many cases, police treatment of victims of intimate image abuse has been characterised by a lack of understanding and in some cases misogyny, with officers choosing to patronise victims rather than support them. That is totally unacceptable and must change.

We welcome the Government�s proposals to make creating NCIIs an offence, but a legal gap remains. NCIIs can continue to circulate online years after the image was posted. Even though many sites will eventually remove the content when prompted, around 10% do not. There is not yet enough in the Government�s proposals in the Crime and Policing Bill to address that concern. We would love to see the Government bring forward amendments to the Bill to make possession of NCIIs, in addition to their creation, an offence. That will put NCIIs on the same footing as child sexual abuse material in how they are treated online and, we hope, provide the necessary encouragement to block or disrupt access to such content, particularly that which has been hosted overseas.

We are also doing work on community cohesion, gendered Islamophobia, shared parental leave and women in business and entrepreneurs, which is incredibly important because the Government are focused on growth. Women must play a significant part in that.

There is a lot that I could talk about; there is far too much in this speech already, and I am sure that there will be loads in this debate. But we live in an increasingly divisive world, and women are at the sharp end of it. Why do we even need an International Women�s Day debate? To be honest, I really wish we did not, but we need it because progress is not inevitable. We are seeing in countries such as Iraq the lowering of the age of consent to nine. �Nine� and �consent�: those two words do not go together; a child cannot give consent. Women�s bodies are being used as weapons of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Kashmir, in the middle east and in Xinjiang�the list goes on. It is harder to be a woman than it should be.

One day, I really hope that we will need International Women�s Day not to highlight the problems or ask for action but to celebrate the progress. There has been progress made, and I want to end on a high note, which is sport. Women�s sport: I love it�absolutely adore it�and I know that there are some big fans here. From the Lionesses to Luton Town Ladies, there are fantastic successes. I was all excited when the Lionesses were on television, but I am so glad that when I said to my five-year-old girl, �Look at this! Look at women�s football! It�s on the television!�, she looked at me and went, �Yeah,� and shrugged her shoulders. For her, that is the norm; it is not something special. For me, it is something special to see that, but for her, it is the norm. I want it to be the norm for every little girl in our country.

I will now do something that is a little bit left-field for me. I went to a Sky Sports event and it was fantastic. Sporty Spice was there, so the 16-year-old me was even more excited than in the cockpit of a plane. There were fantastic sportswomen but also the people who support and show the sport and show that there is money and progress to be had from it and that people want to watch and consume it and cheer sportswomen on from the stands. At the start of the event, there was an incredible spoken word piece�there was also a song, but do not worry, I will not sing�by a fantastic and beautiful artist called Sophia Thakur. We all know that famous Barbie monologue; we have all heard it, haven�t we? For me, this just goes one step further, and I will end by reading just a little bit of what she said.

It is called �Gladiators�:

They say you�re strong for a girl. Or fast for a woman.

How can she be a girl? How can gold be a woman?

They call you a butterfly because they see those wings.

I know you�re the eagle type, high above these things.

They say to act like a girl, but the whole world wouldn�t be

if we deceived our power.

The land trembles as we rise from the dust came our towers.

But we meet these mountains that we are expected to climb.

But with no sweat, no muscles, no grind.

But with makeup and gentleness,

and the kind of competitiveness that�s comfortable for them and kind.

They�re like, �Would you mind maintaining your shape? Your figure 8.

Don�t get too strong. Practise a soft voice and some grace.

But still win. Still first place but like a lady might.�

Funny there. It�s when I�m my strongest, I feel most like the lady type.

When these legs activate and I can jump to crazy heights.

When these shoulders broaden and I can carry both the world and its opinions straight to the finish.

God bless the strength in these arms. Ah, how they have held me over the years.

And God bless the sisters I have found sat across from my fears.

This table is laid before us in the presence of our frenemies.

We�re celebrated for our wins. Whilst they berate our anatomy.

To be a woman is to live twice. To live firstly for the thing that you love

and then a second life for the fight.

One mind for the game and then this other for the might

that it might take to still choose this day after day.

Give the girls two gold medals.

Give the women double the pay.

Give them triple their portion.

Let your applause reverberate.

Sing her song when you sing of the greats and strike for a woman from after her name

because if she has changed the face of the whole game, she is victorious over history.

Would you like to be as you grow? Who would you like to become as you age?

Would you like to be pretty, have your face across pages, or would you like to be demure?

Known for your softness and your patience or a girl.

Tell me how would you like to become a gladiator.

To all the women gladiators in this place, past and present, and outside it�thank you. One day, International Women�s Day will be about the realisation of all our hopes and ambitions. Until that day, I am proud to be gladiators with you.

[Several hon. Members rose�]