International Women’s Day: Progress on Global Gender Equality — House of Lords, 2018-03-08
Topic: Civil Rights
Anthony Young (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I too pay tribute to the Minister for initiating the debate and giving us a very good introduction. I am part of the quota of men, by the way, and pleased to be so: I expected it to be a bit larger, I must admit. I have to confess that in this historic year I learned only recently the nuanced difference between the suffragist and the suffragette movements—a gap in my political education. I am not sure where I would have stood. I was reflecting on that. When they took the decision—I do not know if it was in a smoke-filled room—that somebody was going to slash the picture in the National Gallery, I might have asked for an amendment: could they not just stick "Votes For Women" over it instead? Whether they would have liked that, I do not know. We have had a fascinating debate with a welter of statistics. I have learned a lot and been educated, which is always a good thing. I pay tribute to my noble friend Lady Gale for reminding us that it is National Apprenticeship Week and giving us the statistics on apprentices, a subject that noble Lords will know I am quite interested in. It is true, as she said, that there are more women apprentices, but if you look where they are, they are in care, in hospitality, hairdressing, nursing, et cetera. When you look at the more highly paid side, it is obvious that we need more encouragement. There are successful women in IT and engineering and we need those young women to be able to go into every school and demonstrate as role models to their peers. I would welcome a comment from the Minister: can she give an assurance that the Government will insist that all secondary schools allow apprentices and employers to come in and talk to their sixth form, their 16 and 17 year-olds, and maybe even earlier, about the value of apprentices as another career path and not simply as an alternative to an academic one We certainly have not achieved equality in the realm of pay, or even responsibility. I was reflecting on the time when I was general secretary of my union. It was my good luck to have married someone who said to me: "Part of the contract is that I want two children and I’ll let you know when I want to go back to work". That was probably over 30 years ago. She was doing something exceedingly valuable in bringing up the family, but it gave me the luxury of not having that responsibility I reflected on my deputy general secretary, my noble friend Lady Drake, who unfortunately is not in the Chamber today. She had to carry out that job and worry about looking after three young children. Possibly, if she had not had that responsibility, she would have been the general secretary of the union. We know that the uptake of paternity leave is still woefully small, so most of the responsibility for childcare is falling on women. They get a tough deal because so many more of them have to go out to work as well in today’s society The noble Baroness, Lady Flather, is in her seat. I am glad she brought up the subject of sharia law. I absolutely agree with her. I cannot help reflecting on the fact that we had a previous most reverend Primate who recommended it. Today’s most reverend Primate fortunately has gone away from that position. I agree with the noble Baroness that it discriminates against women and should have no part in our society, where there are enough challenges to face We face a challenge in ensuring that women get a fair deal. We have made it clear where we stand on female genital mutilation. The late Ruth Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, was a tireless campaigner on that issue I pay tribute to the Government on the areas of equal pay and modern slavery. On pay, I cannot help but reflect on the difference between my son and daughter. My daughter is a trainee advanced medical practitioner—somewhere between a nurse and a doctor, I am not quite sure of the status. She has already done a four-year degree to become a paramedic and is now doing an MSc. She is on half the pay of her brother, who has a nice number in IT. He works hard, but is that really equal pay for work of equal value If I look at the four years of training and pay of a nurse and the pay of train drivers, I do not see a four-year training course there. I do not cast any aspersions on the talent or ability of train drivers, but we still have a long way to go in our society in rewarding women for the value of the work that they do I will focus briefly on some women whom I have met recently who made a huge impression on me. As part of the Industry and Parliament Trust fellowship programme on manufacturing, I came across a company called Fashion Enter. It is a social enterprise led by Jenny Holloway who has invested a huge amount of her own money in it. She has created a company that actually manages to manufacture clothing in Haringey. She has a phenomenal training scheme which draws in people from a very local and diverse community and teaches them how to cut patterns, sew and make garments. It is a fascinating enterprise. She is not a CEO who pays herself large sums of money, far from it. She has invested her "skin in the game", to use the title of a recent book, and I pay tribute to her As I was going round the factory, I met a young Muslim woman wearing a hijab and I asked her what she did. She said: "I work in Savile Row, I am a tailor". I have been to Savile Row and I do not think I have encountered many women there. I have certainly never encountered a Muslim woman. I asked her what her speciality was and she said that she made coats. I thought about how that situation has changed. I am sure that 10 years ago we would have seen hardly any women and certainly not a young Muslim woman. It is a tribute to Jenny Holloway that she has created an environment where people like that are able to prosper. I also recently met a Traveller woman who, at the age of 11, taught her mother to read—I apologise for having been absent from the Chamber, because I went to a Gypsy, Romany and Traveller event. The woman is now the director of learning and skills in Derby There are some great achievements out there and I end on this one. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Wyld. I was fascinated by her contribution about her children et cetera—we have all faced that challenge, in different ways, as to whether the things that you say tend to encourage the wrong attitude. She happened to mention Malala Yousafzai, for which I am grateful. What an astonishing young women she is. A few years ago, I suggested to the House that she should address Parliament, but I have to say the response was not very good. I think it was the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, who had the unenviable task of telling me that it could not be done because it would interrupt her education—if I have the wrong person and it was not the noble Baroness, I apologise, but somebody from the Government Benches said to me that it could not be done because it would interrupt her education. I groaned. Here we have this phenomenal role model, one of the most courageous young women you could ever wish to meet If you want to influence young women in this country, especially young Muslim women, that there is a really wonderful alternative to going to join ISIS, what a role model she is. Is it not ironic that, in 2017, the youngest-ever Nobel Prize winner—a Nobel Peace Prize winner—addressed the Canadian Parliament, but we have not found the wisdom, generosity or understanding to give her that honour? If I have one plea to the Minister who is replying, it is that she could take that issue away and perhaps give a more considered and sympathetic response, which I think would make a real contribution to young women in this country.