International Women's Day House of Lords

We come together to recognise and

celebrate the achievement women and

girls across world. This year

International Women's Day is

significant for us in this country

on this Parliament. In 2018, we

celebrate the centenary of the first

British women getting bored and

there is much to celebrate. 100

years of women are represented at

every level public life. In my own

department, the Home Office, over

half the ministers are women

including the Home Secretary.

Cressida Dick was appointed the

first women commission of the London

Metropolitan Police and my

honourable colleague Baroness Hale

became the first woman president of

the Supreme Court. Danny Cotton

became the first female commission

of the London Fire Brigade. Jodie

Whittaker it in the first in a

Doctor Who. I waited to see the

first female James Bond. Although

this is a day to celebrate the

achievements of women we must also

recognise the challenges and

prejudice with which women and girls

are faced. Both at home and across

the world. We must continue to press

for progress to excel in gender

equality. We must not be complacent

and believe this struggle has been

consigned to the past. Just as the

sub suggests, suffragists and their

supporters stood side by side --

just as the suffragettes they fought

the past ballot 100 -- 100 years

ago, we have witnessed a global

movement of women coming together to

call out injustice. Women from all

walks of life have issued a rallying

cry, calling time on sexual

harassment, violence against women,

unequal pay and discrimination. We

must capitalise on the momentum of

campaigns such as the need to

movement to accelerate the drive

towards equality for all. This

government has been making great

strides to build on the work of

countless members on all sides of

both houses. The UK has a proud

history of playing the central role

in securing change for women and

girls and we are well respected

internationally or other world

leading policy and legislation on

equalities. Outside of the UK, many

women and gales still do not have

the opportunities and choices they

deserve more credit due to cultural

expectations, poverty, conflict or a

combination of all three. We know

there is a crucial role for us to

play to end injustice at home and

abroad in this country already does

great work internationally to ensure

gender equality reaches all corners

of the globe. The UK was

instrumental in securing agreement

for dedicated targets on gender

equality and women's empowerment

within the sustainable development

goals and right now as I speak, UK

it is having a significant impact on

the lives of millions of women and

girls across the globe. To name but

a few examples, UK aid has supported

over 6000 communities across 16

countries to make public commitments

to end female genital mutilation,

representing 18 million people. UK

aid has also enabled 8.5 million

women to access modern methods of

family planning over five years.

Yesterday, the Department for

International Development launched

their new strategic vision for

gender equality. This sets out the

UK's global leadership and securing

with our partners the rights of all

girls and women around the world,

particularly in fragile and conflict

affected states and in humanitarian

and protracted crises.

These are all great achievements,

but there is more to do to improve

gender equality and improve the

lives of women and girls around the

world. One in three women are beaten

or sexually abused in their lifetime

around the world. We hear so many

statistics in this chamber every

day, we risk becoming desensitised

to the horrific facts. We must do

everything in our power to ensure

that we do not. Imagine looking at a

class of young girls knowing that

one third of them will face physical

or sexual violence over the course

of their lives. That cannot go on.

Protecting women and girls from

violence and supporting victims is

an absolute priority, whether they

suffer violence in their

communities, relationships, or

online. The UK is leading the way

internationally, but we know there

is more to do. That is why we have

today announced that we are

consulting on our programme of work

to tackle domestic abuse. This

consultation will shape the response

to domestic abuse at every stage,

from prevention through to

rehabilitation and reinforces the

Goverment's aim to make domestic

abuse everybody's business. By

consulting, we aim to harness the

knowledge and expertise of victims

and survivors. Charities and

specialist organisations and

experts, professionals across

policing, criminal justice, health,

welfare, education, local

authorities, those who deal with

these issues everyday. Part of what

we are consulting on is a domestic

abuse Bill, aiming to better protect

and support victims, recognise the

lifelong impact that domestic abuse

has on children and make sure that

agencies effectively respond to

domestic abuse. The Bill will create

a domestic abuse Commissioner for

law to stand for victims and

survivors and hold the system to

account. It would also create a new

domestic abuse protection order

regime to create a clearer pathway

of protection for victims and will

make sure that if abusive behaviour

involves a child that the court can

hand down a sentence that reflects

the devastating lifelong impact that

abuse has. The Government is also

announcing today how additional

funding for domestic abuse will be

spent. This includes £8 million to

support children who witness

domestic abuse, £2 million to

improve the health response to

domestic abuse, and £2 million to

support female offenders who are so

often the victims of domestic abuse.

Internationally, we are generating

world leading evidence on what works

to prevent violence before it starts

through our £25 million What Works

To Prevent Violence Against Women

And Girls Programme. We contributing

to the UN trust fund to end violence

against women. The fund has reached

over 1 million people. Another

threat facing women around the world

is safe pregnancy. Every two

minutes, a woman dies in pregnancy

or childbirth. That means that in

the time that I've been speaking,

that's five women. The majority of

these deaths are preventable.

Millions of women in developing

countries do not have access to

modern contraception. In the summer

of 2017, this Government hosted a

family planning Summit to accelerate

global progress and reinforce the UK

is global commitments to give 120

more women and girls access to

contraception. Our ambition is that

all women around the world can

access quality care, and we will

continue to provide bold and brave

leadership by developing important

strategic relationships,

international summits, and

generating world-class evidence and

research. To make progress on these

important issues, we need to

continue the fight for women's

voices to be heard. Equal political

representation ensures that

Parliament's globally represents the

needs of their citizens. We support

women's political representation

around the world for a number of

programmes. For example, in

Pakistan, our support of the 2013

election helped many more women to

register as voters. With many going

on to the vote for the first time

ever. It brought national attention

to the 8 million women missing from

the electoral roll. Education is

crucial if we want to ensure that

women and girls are engaged and

active in political and public life.

In this country, girls tend to

perform well at school. In fact,

they regularly outperform their male

counterparts. However, around the

world there are 65 million girls

aged 5-15 that are not in school.

Almost the equivalent of the entire

UK population. Education is a

critical tool to tackle injustice

and to build a more equal society.

It provides girls with the space to

develop their own thoughts and

opinions, and, most importantly,

their voices. This Government has

championed girls' education across

the world. The Foreign Secretary has

made girls' education a foreign

policy priorities and pointed a

special -- appointed a special envoy

to make this work. We have supported

at least 3.3 million girls around

the world to get a good education.

Education is so important, but we

know it's not enough in itself to

ensure that gender equality happens

in the workplace. For women to have

equal opportunities to men at work,

employers need to take action, and

we all need to challenge harmful

social norms that can hold women

back. We want the UK to lead the way

for gender equality in the

workplace. Research has shown that

companies with more diverse

workforce perform better than their

counterparts. The employment rates

for women is at a joint record high

of 70.8%, we need to build on this

to make the most of women's skills,

Charlie Subban talent and potential.

To tackle the gender pay cap we have

introduced world leading regulations

requiring organisations with 250 or

more employees to report their gap.

These regulations will not only

drive employers to calculate and

report their gender pay caps, they

will shine a light on the factors

driving the gaps. Encouraged and

enabling employers to take action to

close them. Working with our

international friends is essential

in making progress. Over the past

year, we have agreed a road map for

gender equality with the other G-7

countries. We have taken extra steps

to strengthen our collaboration with

Canada following the Prime

Minister's visit in Ottawa last

summer. And the Government

equalities office signed a

memorandum of understanding with the

all China women's Federation. Next

month, women's empowerment and

girls' education will be one of the

key issues to be talked about at the

Commonwealth summit in London. My

Lord's, may I conclude by thanking

everyone who will be speaking in the

debate today, and I look forward to

hearing some of the contributions.

The question is that this motion by

agreed to.

I wish to thank the noble

Baroness, the Minister, for bringing

this debate before us today. And for

her opening marks, which shows that

we've made progress in many fields,

but we've still got a way to go yet.

And I certainly look forward to the

day when a woman gets a top job and

it doesn't make headlines, because

it will become the norm, and we look

forward to that day. My Lord's, the

theme for International Women's Day

is press for progress. And making

progress on what has so far been

achieved is something we should be

looking to accelerate in all walks

of life as far as women are

concerned. The eight women in

politics, in the workplace, at home,

young girls in school, or in young

women in further education -- by it

women in politics. We need to press

for more and faster progress. When

one looks at young women and girls

today, starting out in life, what

can they expect? The women and it to

Select Committee carried out in

inquiry into sexual harassment and

sexual violence in schools, and

published its report in September 20

16. And it showed that 29% of 16-18

-year-old girls say they have

experienced unwanted sexual touching

at school. And 59% of girls and

young women aged 13-21 said that in

2014, and I'm sure nothing has

changed since then, that they have

faced some form of sexual harassment

and school college in the past year.

Young people told the committee that

sexual harassment has become a

normal part of school life. And I

just think that's so sad, isn't it,

that it's become normal, to have

sexual harassment at school. Lord

Bates of the Everyday Sex Was

Project has described sexual

harassment in violence and school

as, and I quote, a widespread,

regular and common problem,

something that the majority of girls

are experiencing. The committee's

report found inconsistencies in how

schools deal with sexual harassment

and violence and a lack of guidance

and support for teachers. The UK

feminist and the National education

union published a report in 2017

called sexism in school. And it said

that sexism in school is in BMX, but

is not inevitable. -- is endemic.

Consistent and ongoing action is

required from schools, Government

and education bodies to tackle it.

The findings and conclusions were

similar to the women and it do is

report. Bearing in mind these two

reports, it shows us there is lots

of problems in schools. So I'd like

to ask the Minister, what action is

the Government taking on the

recommendations of the women and the

use Select Committee, as the

Government did respond positively,

and hopefully they have action and

measures suggested in their

response. One recommendation was a

setting up of an advisory group to

look at how the issues and

recommendations can be best

reflected within the existing DfE

guidance for schools, including, KCS

i:e., and that stands for Keeping

Children Safe In School, perhaps the

Minister could say, what progress is

being made and if the advisory group

is working? A change of culture in

our school must be what is required,

and it can be achieved, providing

the resources are put into it. I

feel only then the next generation

of girls will be able to attend

school without fear of sexual

harassment in a place that should be

one of safety. As far as educational

achievement is concerned, as the

Minister said, girls are

outperforming boys at school, but

they are not going on to be higher

earners than men, or to be equally

represented in leadership positions.

There are of course a number of

reasons for this. School and the

education system have their part to

play. Young women experienced gender

norms and stereotypes which prevent

them from reaching their full

potential. Only one in three girls

who take maths and science at GCSE

level want to take a stem subject at

a level or the equivalent, compared

to eight out of ten boys. The

education policy Institute has found

that there are large gender gaps in

entries to art subjects, with girls

far more likely to enter art

subjects than boys. This has been

the case throughout the last decade,

and it is widening. My Lord's, the

men and men starting

apprenticeships, men are dominating

the apprenticeships with higher

earning potential. We have seen that

the way that gender stereotypes move

from school subjects to

apprenticeships to the workplace,

and that male dominated work is

valued more highly. According to the

House of Commons Library figures, in

2016-17, 50 4% of the apprenticeship

starts work by women. And 46 by men.

The number of women starting

apprenticeships in England has been

higher than men every year since

2010-11, but men continue to

dominate apprenticeship with the

best earning potential. In 2014-15,

nearly 17,000 men started

engineering apprenticeships. Whilst

only 600 girls did. So, that's not

good. And much progress is needed to

be done to ensure that we make much

more progress than that. So, I'd

like to ask the Minister, what

action is the Government taking to

encourage more women to take up jobs

such as engineering? We mark the

Centenary of women getting the vote

and being allowed to stand for

Parliament, and I know we did have a

good debate on this on February

five. And we all know that progress

is so slow for women wanting to get

into politics. We know 489 women

have been elected to the House of

Commons since 1918. And of those,

489 women... No, wouldn't it be

great if it was men and the reverse!

I think there would have been quite

a row about that! But this is where

we are. Out of those women, only 45

women have been coveted ministers.

-- Cabinet ministers. There have

been two women prime ministers.

According to the global ranking

table for women parliamentarians,

the UK is 39th on that list. The

World Economic Forum 2017 global

gender Gap report findings tell us a

gender parity is over 200 years

away. That means it only happened in

the lifetime of not everyone on the

planet today and not for several

generations to come, that is

tremendously... We need to make much

better progress than that. Progress

in this field will not happen unless

action is similar to that the Labour

Party has taken for having all women

short lists since 1997. Now, this

progress has been used in all types

of election, not just of the

Commons, and it does work.

The in the UK we need to have a

serious discussion. I don't believe

gender parity will just happen,

action has to be taken and we will

wait to future generations of young

women who want to enter politics and

make their contribution in public

service in February 2017, the Prime

Minister announced we're working

towards a domestic violence and

abuse act which the minister talked

about earlier.

Last month Supply

Minister confirmed that there would

be a further wait for legislation.

The consultation, I'm pleased to say

has been launched today and this is

to be welcomed and we have waited

quite a while for it. What is

concerning is that the scope of the

bill will be too narrow and focus

solely on domestic violence and the

criminal justice system. It misses

out vital, wider issues such as

sustainable funding for refugees. I

will as the minister if you would

make a commitment of ensuring this

new bill will address the full range

of issues affecting victims of

domestic violence. On average every

week, we all know the statistics and

we quartered and as the minister

said many women gossip is to do and

they seek refuge and have stories

they had been turned away as there

is no place for them where once

there was. This is such an essential

service for the protection of women

and girls who are caught up in

domestic violence and more action

and funding is required in order to

see you this happen. I hope the

consolation arrives different

organisations to feed in and that's

obviously the purpose of the

consultation and hopefully a lot of

good things will come out of it. My

Lords, I really hope this domestic

violence and abuse act will address

these problems and make life a

little better for women who suffer

from domestic violence and abuse. My

Lords, we will need to continue the

press for progress for some time yet

but if the will and determination is

there it will happen and I have no

doubt about that. I looking forward

to the contributions of noble Lords

Baroness is and I look forward to

the minister's request.

I too would like to thank the noble

Lord -- the noble lady the Minister

for introducing this debate in this

key year when the Mark 100 years of

women Brassica Givaudan United

Kingdom. I think that we sorely miss

the noble lady Baroness Turner as we

debate this issue today. The

Baroness will have access to a very

large funds from the wonderful but

overstretched government equalities

office and she can best cover the

wide range of areas that we will no

doubt raise. During the coalition, I

was in the fortunate position of

being where she is, responding to

this debate but if I look back to

those days, it is stunning to see

what has changed since then. Who

would have thought then that we

would face the prospect of leaving

the European Union now, the union

that has brought such benefits for

women into UK law and that we

apparently planned to leave even

though the government's on analyses

shows that it is the poorest in our

society and women are poorer than

men, who will disproportionately be

affected by Brexit. Who would have

thought that we would have Donald

Trump in the White House, despite

all the abuse he has meted out to

women and carrying favour with the

right-wing over the rights of women.

Who would have thought that he would

defeat Hillary Clinton, the phrase

he Vries her own that women rights

are human rights. Make sure that

women in Afghanistan, for example,

were not pushed aside for so-called

cultural reasons. In a country where

perhaps all that has emerged from

Allied engagement is an improvement

in women's writes. On the other side

of things, who would have thought

that Harvey Weinstein and others

would have been brought down and the

world would listen when women

shouted me to an times about who

would have thought that Oxfam would

be on the ropes over the sexual

exploitation of women in countries

where they are most vulnerable?

Wherever there are inequalities of

power and in the relations between

men and women, globally, then such

exploitation has long been a fact of

life. We knew that in many

developing countries, girls were not

safe, even in school because their

teachers demanded sexual favours. We

knew that peacekeepers could not be

trusted not to abuse the female

population, whom they were supposed

to protect. I guess it should not

have come as a surprise that there

could be abuse, even by those who

should fully have understood their

responsibility. It is clearly the

case as the noble Baroness, the

minister, has outlined that we have

a secured greater equality in the

West and in Britain that we are all

here in this house playing the parts

that we do is testimony to that. But

women in Britain, as we had from the

noble lady, Baroness Gale, are still

far from equal in terms of pay,

responsibility for domestic work,

caring for children and our older

relatives. I was shocked today to

read that women are five times more

likely to be donors of kidneys to

their husbands than the other way

round. How about that for what's

expected of you and gender

inequality? Neither are we on the

boards of companies in the numbers

that we should be, or governors of

central banks. I had last night that

only 6% of central bank governors

worldwide are women. I met one last

night courtesy of the noble Lord who

is in its space just now and she was

a governor, as the governor of the

central bank of Serbia but even she

emphasised that she must also play a

full part at home with her family

cleaning, cooking and as she put it,

having a smile on her face when her

husband and children came home. This

is the governor of the Central bank.

We know that if equality is

far from far away and Britain, it is

even further elsewhere. We have had

the visited of trumpets of Saudi

Arabia. I welcome the ship 's been

made in his company -- country and

applaud the women who have helped

this along. I recall visiting the

country a few years back and seeing

for myself the inequalities are.

Women boxed away in a small part of

the University while the men ranged

through the rest, including the

library, which was barred to women.

In my hotel and a break in meetings,

I decided to take advantage of the

swimming pool as I headed in, I was

told, you cannot swim, this isn't

the women's hour. Disappointed, I

asked when the woman's hour was.

There isn't one came the reply. It

is because worldwide we see

inequality that I am such a

supporter of quarters and positive

action in Parliament. Including

ours. I have seen how much was

achieved in Pakistan, for example,

by those elected to the women's

places in the last parliament there,

70% of the legislation was taken

through by women and they were under

30% of the parliament. Working

across and deep into their own

parties. Their focus was on

improving the lot of women, for

example criminalising acid attacks.

It's also why, in terms of

development, it is right to put the

overwhelming emphasis on women and

girls, to invest in girl 's's

dedication. The longer a girl is in

school, the fewer children she has,

the better she is able to be

independent and provide for an

educate her family. She, her family

and community at her country will

benefit. It is also why emphasising

family planning is vital so that all

women who wish to access family

planning can do so. And we should

not ignore the challenge of

abortion. I welcomed the report of

the all-party group on population

and development on abortion and I

pay tribute to the noble lady

Baroness told him that regard. It

recognises that abortions will occur

and that so often deaths result

where these are not legal and

medically assisted. The proportion

of maternal mortality in developing

countries resulting from unsafe

abortions ranges as high as 18%, the

estimate. Maternal morbidity from

the consequences of unsafe abortion

is also common and the panda rightly

that young women, poor women and

women in conflict situations are

particularly vulnerable. I'm proud

of the fact that in coalition we put

into law a commitment to 0.7% of GNI

for aid with a particular focus on

women and girls. I'm proud of the

fact that David has not shied away

from areas like family planning and

abortion over recent years. Unlike

Donald Trump's America. Long may

that continue. I also paid tribute

here to the focus that David has had

on women with disabilities,

something pioneered by my noble

friend Lord Bruce when he was chair

of the International Development

Select Committee on my noble friend

Baroness Weatherstone as a minister.

Sight Savers point out that women

with disabilities are among the most

marginalised in the world. Many are

likely to experience the double

discrimination of gender and

disability. Men with disabilities

are almost twice as likely to be

employed as their female

counterparts. Women and deals with

disabilities suffer particularly

high rates of gender-based violence.

Although we recognise what has been

achieved globally for women, there

is indeed still much to do. Which is

why this annual debate is important.

We should not recall this only on

one day a year but this is a time at

the very least to take stock of

where we are and where we seem to be

going. In some regards, we appear to

be moving forward but in others, the

forces of reaction seemed to be

taking us in the opposite direction.

In the centenary year when we

celebrate the fact that some women

in the UK got the right to vote in

1918, I would like to widen the lens

to consider briefly the

international scene as it is now and

the noble Baroness is part of that

and I would like to focus on one

country in particular and that is

Albania. And not just because I

visited it last month in the

February says as member of the UK's

IPU group but also because Albania

provides an example of the

challenges that must be overcome

when seeking to achieve gender

equality and the progress that can

be made by determined efforts within

the country but also with the

assistance of the UK and also with

UN women. The report published this

month by the IPU Secretary General

states that the progress made in

women's political involvement is

slowing. With the exception of some

countries that have made headway

because of political will, this has

been overall a disappointing year.

It is vital that women are part of

decision-making institutions such as

Parliament. It is fundamental, not

just for gender equality but also

for democracy and the legitimacy of

the process. My lord, last year did

see some positive developments in

women's participation in elections

worldwide. A record number women

contested elections, more seats were

won by women than previous years but

this was largely due to measures

such as electoral quarters for

women. Whatever your views on gender

quarters systems, you cannot ignore

the impact that they have. In the 20

countries where quarters were used,

women 1/20% of the seats while in

the 16 countries where quarters were

not, it was just 17%. The

trailblazers in the Americas were

Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, all

countries that have developed

progressive legislation to promote

women's political leadership.

Elections across the Asia and

Pacific region generally affected

the fact that gender normality

continue to work against women's

entry into politics Society is lay

stronger emphasis on women's roles

in the unpaid domestic sphere. New

Zealand, of course, it was the

standout success when the elected

highest ever women MPs and 39% and

the Prime Minister. Her pregnancy

has given rise to a national debate

on women's ability to balance

political leadership. The most

prominent increase was in France

where President Micron's party

fielded gender balanced lists --

Emmanuel Macron. Now to Albania.

Historically it has a low numbers in

elected office but it made

significant progress last year. The

proportion of women elected jumped

from 18 to 20%. It is because they

benefited from a gender quarter and

from a public forum organised by UN

women which enabled them to raise

the awareness of the importance

women playing a role in public life.

Every UK Parliament hearings visit

to Albania was timely. There is a

significant focus on the Western

Balkans this year by the UK and by

the EU. We will host the EU Western

Balkans summit in London in me and I

believe we host a world summit on

the Western Balkans later in the

summer.