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No one could be further than I am from suggesting that men work on a broad universal canvas while women tend towards Jane Austens little piece of ivory two inches wide; we have only to think of Olivia Mannings Balkan Trilogy and Levant Trilogy to know that this is far from being the case. But women writers in all genres have a particular facility, not for domesticity and the domestic scene so much as for those other Ds: drama, dialogue and detail.
It is inevitable that writers, women and men, will chronicle the recession in their fiction. Just as men understand men so women understand women, and women will doubtless show female characters in their fiction suffering from money shortage, job losses, pension deprivation and the essential feeling of the unfairness of what has happened. I believe that when this economic downturn is over we shall look back on the novels written in the relevant period as giving an accurate picture of what life was like in the years from 2008 to 2010. Not for the first time, novelists will have become chroniclers, and those women writers, social historians.
Baroness Fookes: My Lords, I join the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, in rejoicing at the arrival of women pensioners at that great institution after 300 years. The other side of the coin, however, is that greater equality in the armed services also means that many women, now and in the future, are going to put their lives at risk. Equality comes at a price.
That said, there are tremendous opportunities in the armed services for both young men and young women, and I hope they will take full advantage of that during this downturn, because it is one good step forward that they could take. I remember, a year or
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I was glad that in her opening remarks on this debate the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, mentioned the plight of women overseas. This, of course, has been dealt with by other contributors to this debate. I shall not try to replicate that in this short contribution, but I am glad that it has been mentioned so forcefully and so movingly. Whatever deprivations there may be in this country, they simply cannot compare with the lot of so many women overseas. I hope that our own Government will encourage other Governments to keep up their official flow of aid; one can see how easy it would be to cut a little bit here and there, where there are no voters to do much protesting because they are not directly involved. I hope that they will take a lead in that, and also that charitable giving will continue to flow to overseas charities. That is particularly important because often they are geared to specific projects where we know that the people concerned are going to gain benefit.
I turn to the situation at home. I do not want to enter into the statistics of whether women are or are not disproportionately affected in terms of numbers; the point is that any woman now made unemployed or finding it difficult to seek employment is a key part of an economic household in a way that used not to be true many years ago. I remember that quaint expression from my childhood, which I never fully understood, women working for pin money. They do not work for pin money now. They work to contribute to basic household expenditure, if they are in a couple, and probably towards the mortgage. I was staggered to discover, while looking at facts for this debate, that one-quarter of families are now single-parent families, and to a large extentI think about 90 per centthat means women. They are, in effect, the chief breadwinner, so whatever happens to them in terms of employment is of immediate and continuing importance to them.
That is the situation. What practical steps might we take in this country to help? I am disappointed that the Government have not taken up the idea of giving employers a tax break for each new worker that they take on board. That would have been far better targeted than the reduction in the rate of VAT to 15 per cent, which seems to have been so widely scattered that it means losing a lot of money to no great effect. That would have been far better targeted on some such scheme as I am now suggesting. Every person in a job may well be paying a bit of taxor even a lot, depending on the nature of the jobbut each person unemployed receives benefits for themselves and their dependants. It is a real issue to get people back into work.
That brings me to another matter. There has always been a problem with getting the long-term unemployed back into work, but there are schemes which are extremely successful in bringing this about. They are more needed than ever at a time of recession, when
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I hope that the Government will look very carefully at using this as a model. However, the key point is that those who give the help are not officials from any department. They are trusted by those who go to them and a lot of the work is done by word of mouth. It is worth making that point in a debate of this kind.
The other point I should like to dwell on is better career guidance for young people while they are at school, or even after they have left. I am not referring to a pile of pamphlets which somebody flicks through, wondering whether something might do for them. That is just information; it is not guidance. I believe that schools and other organisations have a very important role to play in helping people, particularly young women, make really good choices based on an understanding of that persons abilities.
I think that there is hope for the future, even though there is, at this time, considerable anxiety on behalf of those of us who care deeply about the position of women.
Lord Smith of Clifton: My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, on initiating this very important and timely debate. As the noble Baroness, Lady Flather, highlighted, the position of women worldwide in terms of status, freedom and equality is, with few exceptions, inferior to the position enjoyed by men. In far too many countries, the differences are gross. That is particularly so in Africa, Asia, Latin America and much of eastern Europe. And yet, as small-scale experiments have clearly demonstrated, dramatic progress can be achieved when women are given greater opportunities.
Camfed, the UK-based charity that promotes girls education in selected parts of Africa, has shown the immeasurable benefits that flow from raising female educational opportunities. Camfeds support has led to three generational cohorts of girls and women being taken through primary, secondary and third-level education. Its philosophy is that by concentrating on women, there is a much greater multiplier effect in raising skills and attainment standards. Educate the girl and you will educate her future family.
Similarly, the system created by the Nobel peace prize winner, Mohammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank, has greatly enhanced the prosperity of working women in Bangladesh. By facilitating the provision of small-scale loans to women workers, it has helped to foster a class of owner-managers. Their increased profitability enables them to repay loans which are then recycled to extend the scheme to others. It has
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I should like to turn to the position of women in the UK and look in particular at the inequalities they suffer in employment and pay. I have called attention to this before in your Lordships' House and will no doubt have to continue to do so. It is an area where we too could learn from the example of other countries. The Government have, commendably, sought to improve the status of women in the workplace. They have appointed successive Ministers for Women, Miss Harriet Harman being the latest in that line. The Prime Minister has created a task force to promote the enhancement of womens working conditions, and not before time.
In terms of general gender equality, the World Economic Forum rates the UK 13th among the top 15 nationsbelow Sri Lanka. The forum also reports that in the international rankings on equal pay, the UK comes 83rdout of 130 nations. In 2007-08, the gross median wage rate for men was £27,500 per annum, and for women it was £21,400.
In the Citys financial services, the Equality and Human Rights Commission found a much worse gender gap of 44 per cent, compared with a 23 per cent gap nationally. The position is much worse in the senior echelons of finance. I find that certain women who succeed try to play this downplaying it up comes better from a man. The ratio of women on the boards of major companies has not significantly improved in the past decade. Among FTSE 100 companies, there were 79 directors in 19996.9 per centcompared with 13111.7 per centin 2008. A further breakdown of the figures revealed that female executive directors numbered 13 in 19992 per centas opposed to 174.8 per centin 2008. Non-executive directors comprised 10.8 per cent in 1999 which rose modestly to 14.9 per cent 10 years later. And so one could go onand one will. As I said in my response to the Queens Speech, one study has estimated that at the present rate of progress, it will take until 2225 for gender balance to be achieved on the boards of major companies.
In the light of the statistics I have enumerated, it is unfortunate that the Governments earlier commitment to gender equality appears to be weakening. It has been announced that, after powerful lobbying from the Institute of Directors, Miss Harman has dropped her intention of including in the forthcoming equality Bill compulsory full gender pay audits for companies in receipt of government contracts. This climb-down is most unfortunate and should be reconsidered.
Another unfortunate indication that greater gender equality is now less of a priority for the Government came in the Second Reading debate on the Banking Bill on 16 December last. In my contribution, I inquired whether the Government would impose a requirement of 40 per cent women on the boards of banks. This proportion, as I had pointed out in my response to the Queens Speech, had been legislated for in Norway
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I think that all our boards will have more female directors in due course because they prove to be better. Enlightened self-interest will see that trend continue.
He continuedand this is most important:
It is not for Parliament to direct private companies on the make-up of their boards.[Official Report, 16/12/08; cols. 823-824.]
Why not, I ask? Norway has done so, and Spain and Sweden are following suit. Why are the Government not committed to the same policy? I should be obliged if the Minister could answer that. The glass ceiling must be abolished if the economic performance of the UK is to achieve its full potential.
Baroness Crawley: My Lords, I add my congratulations to those offered to the noble Baroness, Lady Gould of Potternewton, not only on securing this important debate to mark International Womens Day but also on her strong leadership on womens rights, most recently representing at the United Nations the voices of the womens voluntary sector throughout the UK.
The global economy will grow by 0.5 per cent this year, which is the lowest rate since the Second World War. For us in the United Kingdom, where we have become used to year-on-year growth, with all its benign consequences for employment and economic activity generally, this is a trauma. The previous recession seems a long time ago, although it was only in the early 1990s. A great deal has happened to our society since that recession. It predated the internet, new Labour, multi-channel TV, speed-dating, mobile technology, the maternity leave directive, Big Brother, the Spice Girls, the Kyoto Protocol, the Stern report, amazon.com, civil partnerships, the knowledge economy and the national minimum wage.
However, we are now again in the eye of the recessionary storm and this debate highlights womens response in particular. Some noble Lords might question, and indeed have questioned, the need to separate mens and womens roles in these difficult times, when everyone is feeling the pain. However, as my four year-old grandsonI have also joined the grannies clubhelpfully informed me the other day, Girls and boys are different, grandma. He also thinks that I work in Big Ben, but that is another story. Yes, men and women are different for the purposes of this debate, as they have a different purchase on the economy and family life. Great progress has been made, but women are lower paid than men. Womens mean hourly pay was 17 per cent lower than that of men in 2008, although I am the first to acknowledge the work
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Women are also clustered in different sections of the job market from men. They are often in the public sector, the caring professions, the retail sector and the service industries. Some of those sectors are feeling recessionary pressures ahead of others. Recent figures from the RDAs show, as the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, said, that female employment has fallen by 33,000 in the south-east, which is the biggest fall of any region, while male employment rose by 7 per cent. The south-east of course has a high proportion of service sector jobs.
As noble Lords have said, women engage in part-time work more than men, making them more vulnerable when it comes to the economic downturn. There is more than anecdotal evidence that employers are trying to keep full-time staff, but that, in trying to do so, are prepared to sacrifice part-time and temporary posts.
Women are different from men in their caring roles, looking after young children and elderly relatives. The burdens in families fall in different places, but the caring role makes women more vulnerable in a period of economic downturn. Unfortunately, many womens organisations fear that financial and emotional pressures on families could lead to more women experiencing violent abuse and to a greater call, therefore, on womens refuge services.
While there is no doubt that women are experiencing anxious times with the onset of this recession, there is also a positive context for dealing with it, set by progress in the past 12 years of government working on behalf of women. Greater work/life balance measures for families exist; affordable childcare is more easily available now; there are family tax credits, flexible working, extended maternity and paternity rights; and an increase, as the noble Baroness, Lady Perry, said, in the number of women in different sections of education. In higher education, for instance, the future bodes well. Since 2007, there has been an increase in undergraduate women of 11.7 per cent compared with one of 7.3 per cent for men. And, of course, the introduction of the national minimum wage has lifted women out of poverty wages.
There are a lot of frustrated, fearful and angry women and families in the country who are reeling from this economic downturn. Are the Government responding to their concerns, as reflected in the Ispos MORI polling carried out for government this year? I believe that they are. The Government have not allowed the banks to fail. They have put enormous pressure on financial institutions to start lending again to businesses and individuals. We have seen the result of that pressure in the past couple of weeks and days. The Government have put £12.4 billion in families pockets through the VAT cut. They have brought forward an extra £3 billion in investment in projects that will protect and create jobs. There is an extra £60 for pensioners this winter, and child benefit for the first child has risen to £20 a week.
Noble Lords have spoken about the global effect of this recession. The effect on women globally of the downturn is to be discussed at the G20 in April, and so it should be. The plight of women in developing countries is of paramount concern for us, as the noble Baroness, Lady Fookes, and other noble Lords said. The Government have published a helpful, practical guide for women called, Real Help Now for Women. My plea to my noble friend the Minister is that it is distributed widely.
According to my friend Professor Ormerod, there have been 255 recessions worldwide since the French Revolution. Let us mark International Womens Day this year by ensuring to the best of our ability that this recession is not the longest or the worst, and that women, men and their families not only survive it effectively but prosper into the future.
Baroness Howe of Idlicote: My Lords, my warm thanks go to the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, for once again securing this annual debate. I hope to say a few words on employment and equal pay, education and violence against women, both in the UK and internationally.
As the noble Lord, Lord Smith of Clifton, said, the disbanding EOC made it clear two years ago that there is still a huge way to go in achieving equal pay for work of equal value. The estimated 100 years wait is certainly not acceptable. I hope that the Minister can reassure the House that the new equalities and human rights legislationdue any moment now, I believeaddresses this vital issue rather more effectively.
On female company directors, Cranfield Universitys valuable Female FTSE Report, already mentioned, shows at least a slight increase in the overall number. A newcomer, Alliance Trust, tops the list with 43 per cent women, including a female chairman and chief executive officer. However, there is clearly a long way to go: 22 of the 100 companies still have exclusively male boards, and of the 149 new appointments to FTSE 100 boards, only 16, or 10.7 per cent, were women. I would like reassurance from the Government that they have a realistic plan to encourage far faster progress.
Like other noble Lords, I accept that this years economic climate is much less helpful than that anticipated a year ago. Sadly, the unfolding picture of increasing job losses and lack of employment opportunities is decidedly uncomfortable. Others have put it quite clearly that it will be women who suffer most. Whichever the hardest hit, it is likely to be a fairly horrid time for both sexes. However, like the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, I congratulate the Government on what they have done to promote flexible working already. That is crucial for womens career development and I hope that they will continue, as now, to persuade and incentivise employers in difficult times such as these to stay afloat by adopting part-time flexible working arrangements for all staff. As noble Lords may know, employers are currently far more likely to grant flexible working to women employees than to men.
Bringing up the next generationfor what is numerically, sadly, a dwindling percentage of our overall populationis an important job, not least, although this is being selfish, because we will be relying on them
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Finally, there is an effective campaign against violence towards women in the UK, currently being conducted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the third sector. It highlights the appallingly high incidence of violence, especially domestic violence, against women. Alas, the continuing postcode lottery in local authority services for abused women would have Erin Pizzey turning in her grave. The UK figures are quite appalling, with 3 million women experiencing violence every year. The financial cost of domestic violence alone is an estimated £23 billion. Of course, the damage goes far beyond that; children in those families are often abused as well or, at the very least, made to witness what is going on. So they learn that this kind of behaviour is normal, and, sadly, all too often the boys repeat it when they grow up and form their own relationship.
The stark truth is that violence and sexual abuse towards women is still, quite intolerably, tolerated nationally and internationally. We have surely now reached a time to plan for and mount an effective international and, I hope, United Nations-led campaign with our Government playing a leading role. In the UK, NGOs can claim that the UK does not fulfil its CEDAW obligations. If that is so, how much more must that apply to those countries where women have almost no human rights and certainly no effective defence against domestic or other forms of violence? It is quite clearand everybody has stressed the amount of extra help that we will need to provide for those countriesthat that side is equally important. One in three women worldwide suffer from some form of violence in their lifetime and, worse even than that, as the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General said:
State and non-State actors increasingly resort to violence against women as a weapon of warfare.
I underline that point, because it really exists.
Hints are rife, and I would love to believe that they are true, not least from Stephen Lewis earlier this month, that the United Nations is at last going to set up a top-level United Nations womens agency, which would probably include the excellent UNIFEM as well. It will not have the resources of UNICEF, alas, if he is right, but the very most that we must hope is that it models itself on that organisation, which has committees in all the contributing countries and is very much a pattern for the United Nations. What better campaign with which to launch its work, if it is set up, than one that promotes and achieves worldwide equal human rights for women and, above all, campaigns to end violencephysical, sexual and psychologicalagainst women, and most especially in conflict areas?
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