by Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow
EACH year on International Women’s Day (8), we champion how far we have come in making Britain a more equal society, and renew our commitment to the work we have yet to do.
We may now have had more than one female prime minister in a generation, but 70 per cent of our MPs are men. More than 50 other countries have proportionally more women in their parliaments than the UK, and without change it would take 70 years – or 14 general elections – to achieve an equal number of women MPs.
Narrowing the gender gap in employment could add $28 trillion (£20.2tr) to the global economy in the next 10 years. If women participated equally to men, it would be the equivalent of adding the US and Chinese economies in growth.
Yet 48 years after the Equal Pay Act, the average gender pay gap in Britain is still 14 per cent, and has been stuck at this level for the last three years. It is even wider for women from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.
As the debacle over equal pay at the BBC has shown, many employers resist addressing
these issues.
Thanks to the Equalities Act, UK companies with 250 or more employees must publish data on their gender pay gap by April this year. However, at the time of writing, only 1,300 of the 9,000 or so companies that need to file have done so.
Women are still more likely than men to work in lower-paid and lower-skilled jobs – according to the Living Wage Foundation, women are 62 per cent of those earning
less than the living wage.
Research by the Women’s Budget Group and Runnymede Trust shows that since 2010, it is low income black and Asian women who have been hardest hit by changes to public services and tax.
In particular, by 2020, the cumulative effect of tax and benefit changes since 2010 on Asian women living in the poorest third of households will mean that their average individual income will be lower by over £2,000 a year, compared with what it would otherwise have been had no changes been made during the same time period.
In some areas we have gone even further backwards.
The ‘rape clause’ is now live, whereby a mother must declare that a child was conceived by
force to secure universal credit for it if she has more than two children. The women behind Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality), whose pensions were so cruelly cut with little notice, remain shortchanged.
Without interventions to tackle these issues it will take another 100 years for equal pay to be achieved, and many women will face poverty in their retirement.
We are not alone in facing this challenge – indeed, there is still no country in the world where women earn the same as men for the same work.
The scale of the task ahead in making Britain a country where everyone can succeed is not just about representation or poverty. It is also about safety. The #MeToo campaign has brought a sharp focus to the sexual violence and harassment women face on a daily basis.
More than a million women were victims of domestic violence last year, and around two women are killed every week by a current or ex-partner in Britain.
Around 85,000 women are raped and more than 400,000 women are sexually assaulted each year.
There were around 12,000 cases of so-called “honour-based violence” recorded by police forces between 2010-14, and it is estimated more than 135,000 women and girls affected by FGM (female genital mutilation) live in England and Wales.
Despite this, only 15 per cent of serious sexual offences and around a fifth of domestic violence incidents are reported to the police.
In particular, reporting of violence against black and minority ethnic women, as well as women with disabilities, women with mental health problems and others who are vulnerable, is even lower.
Our failure to tackle these issues doesn’t just cost lives, it also costs money. It is estimated the impact of domestic violence on England and Wales alone is around £6 billion per year.
Yet, instead of making refuge funding a priority, it has been slashed to such an extent that only a third of those who need one can get a place.
This year is a particularly poignant milestone, as it marks 100 years since some women in Britain were first able to vote. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act only allowed women over the age of 30 who were property owners the franchise – it is a sobering reminder that when it comes to equality, often we may not make the progress we think.
It was another 10 years before they gave men and women equal voting rights in 1928.
When we celebrate International Women’s Day, we recognise the benefits of equality to our society in increased prosperity, safety and resilience.
As the experience of getting women the vote shows, if we are ever to make this a reality it is vital we do not accept half measures and continue to press ahead at full speed in the fight for fairness.
Stella Creasy MP: "More work is needed to end the gender pay gap and keep women safe"