What Women Wanted
One of the more significant achievement of the Blair years is the transformation of the lives of women up and down the country, writes Barbara Follett in The House magazine.
I do not often lose my temper on the doorstep. In fact, in almost forty years of canvassing, I have only done so twice. On both occasions it was with a woman.
The first was a tired, grey haired, pensioner with a chronic cough and a diminutive dog. The second was an equally tired, single mother with a baby on her hip and a toddler at her skirts.
Neither woman had ever voted. Nor did they ever intend to. They simply could not see the point
There is something particularly infuriating about people refusing to use what little power they do have to change things and, on both occasions, this provoked a lecture on citizenship from me.
Both women listened to this in silence. The pensioner gave me a slight smile as she closed her door but the single mother was quite hostile. “You all say that” she said “but nothing ever really changes for women like me”.
That was ten years ago. If I met either of these women today could I look them in the eye and say that I was right? I could. Because, I believe one of the best things about Tony Blair’s premiership was that it did change the lives of women like them.
The foundation for the catalyst for these changes was laid in 1996 when Tony Blair, as the Leader of the Labour Party, had the great good sense not to invalidate the selections of 38 All Woman Shortlist candidates after the Jepson Judgement made them illegal. Had he not done this, Labour could not have returned 101 women to Parliament in 1997.
The scale of this achievement becomes clear when you realise that only 291 women have ever been elected to the House of Commons. At present, women account for 126 of the 646 Members of Parliament. Of these, Labour has 97; the Conservatives 17; the Liberal Democrats 10; the Democratic Unionists 1 and the Ulster Unionists 1.
At 19.5% women’s representation in the House of Commons is much better than the 9% it was before the 1997 General Election. Most of the credit for this has to go to Labour. Without its positive action programme attitudes would not have changed and it would not have been possible to pass the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act of 2002.
Many column inches have been devoted to questioning the effect that increasing the number of women MPs has had. Critics tend to focus on their failures rather than their achievements. But, it is in the latter, that I believe the real effect of having more women in Parliament can be seen.
Take the Minimum Wage Act of 1998. The only thing that made the marathon sittings on this Bill bearable for me as a raw recruit to the House of Commons was the thought of the million low paid women it would benefit.
Having tackled one of the causes of low pay the government proceeded to raise Child Benefit by 25% between 1997 and 2007 and took steps to reduce the pay gap between men and women. This, despite having fallen from 30% in 1975 to 17.2% in 2006, remains high. But the government has recently launched an action plan, based on its Women and Work Commission’s recommendations to close this gap.
The working lives of most women depend, at one time or another, on the availability of good childcare. That is why, over the last ten years the government has doubled the number of registered childcare places; opened 1106 Sure Start centres; guaranteed all three and four years olds a free, part-time, nursery place and promised out of school childcare to all children between three and fourteen before 2010. Finally, it also introduced Working Tax Credits to help parents meet up to two thirds of the cost of their childcare.
But, as all parents know, the delicate job of balancing of work and family responsibilities is not solved by childcare alone. Time, or the lack of it, is another major problem. That is why, since 1997, the government has increased Statutory Maternity Leave from 18 to 39 weeks; introduced paid Paternity Leave and given fathers the right to take up to 26 weeks of their partner’s paid Maternity Leave should she wish to return to work.
Because of this need for flexibility many mothers work part time and, until this government came into power they did not have the same rights as full time workers. Now, those on fixed contracts get holidays and overtime just like everyone else..
Children require flexibility from their parents who, in turn, require flexibility in their working arrangements. So, the government granting parents with children under the age of six, or with disabilities, the right to ask their employer for this flexibility has been helpful;. In April this year this right was extended to people who care for adults as well.
Children also put an enormous strain on a family’s finances. It is the main reason behind the government’s doubling of the flat rate of Maternity Pay over the last decade. Ten years ago the government’s financial support to a child in its first year was worth £2,600. It is now worth more than £8000.
At present, it is at the end of a woman’s working life that the income gap with men is at its greatest and that they are at their poorest. But the Pension Credits introduced by this government have helped to lift a million and a half female pensioners out of absolute poverty.
But this is only a short term solution and late last year, the government introduced a Pensions Bill which contains a number of reforms, including the recognition of women’s parenting and caring contribution, designed to allow more of them to build up a State Pension in their own right.
All of these changes, taken together and combined with progress in healthcare and education have had a transformative effect on the lives of my female constituents, including the two that I lost my temper with so many years ago.
I have never seen the young single mother again but I do hope that she is one of the 1.7 million whose incomes have increased by at least 50% over the last ten years.
But, I have seen the pensioner. After our encounter at her doorstep she wrote to tell me that she had voted for the first time in her life, for me. I hope that she is one of the millions of pensioners who has benefited from the Winter Fuel Allowance, the free bus passes, TV licenses; prescriptions and eye tests.
I know that a lot of this would not have been done without the help of and pressure from Labour’s women MPs. I know that we did not get it all right. I know that there is still much to be done. But, I do think that Tony Blair can be proud of what his ten years in power has done for his countrywomen.
Barbara Follett MP
