| Previous Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |
I shall quickly suggest two implications to close. First, a whole new political agenda is emerging, which centres round lifestyle and identity. Many of our big emotional problems centre round identity and are not easily catered for by traditional economic arrangements. Eating and food are the new front line of the lifestyle agenda. Secondly, there is a rise in addictive behaviour, which is associated with the special strains to which successful women are subject. Binge drinking is a quasi-male activity, but it looks heavily addictive. Anorexia is obviously an addictive, compulsive phenomenon. It is the same with self-harm and the other pathologies of a high-achieving society.
Finally, before I get kicked off the stage—I am allowed only seven minutes—Mrs Pankhurst was mentioned. I shall repeat the slogan that she gave to Keir Hardie, which shows that there is some progress. She advised,
1.14 pm
Baroness Greengross: My Lords, the first activists for equality for women and the early feminist movement concentrated on young women. Those who were older were largely ignored. Thankfully, that situation has improved, and in some ways the life of older women is better than ever. We have better health, more longevity, better choices in employment and leisure time, and we are often able to retire before the default age of 65. Many from the current generation enjoy final-salary pension schemes, though sadly this is a fast-disappearing benefit. Demographic change means that some of those changes will not be sustainable in the longer term unless we radically rethink our approach, and I shall concentrate on older women and work.
This year—2007—is the year when the number of people over 65 in the UK is expected to exceed the number under 16. Two-thirds of the workforce increase by 2020 will be people over 50, and the rise in state pension age for women in the decade 2010-20 will bring another 2 million within the definition of “working age”. Last year, more than 11 per cent of women over state pension age were employed—the highest rate yet, according to the Office for National Statistics. Sadly, there still seems to be a deeply ambivalent attitude towards the potential of older workers to contribute to the economy. Most of the arrivals from eastern Europe and outside the EU entering on work permits are now under the age of 40. At the same time, 5 million people are on benefits in this country, with 2.5 million claiming incapacity benefit, almost half of whom are over 50. It has been estimated that the under-employment of this group costs the UK economy £29 billion every year.
Clearly someone in their 20s or 30s engaged on a working gap for a year or two in this country is likely to have different motivations from those of a working woman in her 50s who may well still have a mortgage payment to meet, have children at university, or
8 Mar 2007 : Column 352
It is vital that employers and the Government recognise the diversity and complex demands of older women's working lives. The Government have, for instance, brought the contribution of many carers within the scope of the state pension, which is welcome, but merely rewarding people at the ultimate stage with a pension is not enough. Workplace culture and practice must adapt and provide a more flexible and, I would argue, realistic framework.
Women, as we know, are the major carers both within the residential care sector and in informal caring. We have often in this House debated these problems and are well aware of the overall position—low income, inadequate respite services, and cumulative health problems, all of which can lead to the permanent exclusion of the carer from the workforce. We know that that makes no sense.
Approximately one in eight workers in the UK currently combine work with care responsibilities, and we can expect these numbers to increase because, by 2025, half of the UK population will be over 50. That age group can expect to live for another 30 to 35 years.
This is not merely about cost to the UK economy. The recent UNICEF report made sobering reading for anyone concerned about how these issues impact on family life and children in particular. Parenting and other care responsibilities may be among the chief reasons why flexible working is sought, but there are others, including study, improving skills, winding down towards retirement, and volunteering.
It is obvious that older workers are the great untapped resource. The Leitch Review of Skills interim report stated that,
would not help the UK to meet its goals in international competitiveness and productivity. Innovation flourishes when knowledge, skills, energy and experience interact. How often do we hear that people in their 50s have been turned down as “too well qualified”—that phrase is in inverted commas in my brief—while there is a skill shortage in older workers? The Government must do more to facilitate training and education in later life—real life-long learning.
Last year's Budget announced free further education learning up to the age of 25, the same as the age ceiling on funding for apprenticeships. This is of course welcome, but why is there an arbitrary age limit? Is that acceptable from the point of view of equality provisions?
Briefly, on the pensions gap, in 2002-03, 55 per cent of men and 73 per cent of women had personal and stakeholder funds with a total fund value of less than £10,000. For men of 50-54, the median estimate of
8 Mar 2007 : Column 353
To support individual choice, I would also ensure that everyone received a state pension forecast at 55 to encourage financial planning for the future, taking into account the increasing work options at 60 and beyond. Included with this forecast would be information on how to maintain good health through the entire life course. We ignore the value of older women as a key part of the workforce at our peril. It is more than an insult to them, it is a denial of equality and human rights and a huge and growing cost to our national economy.
1.21 pm
Baroness Billingham: My Lords, I, too, congratulate my noble friend Lady Gould on setting up this debate, giving us the opportunity of hearing from noble Lords around the House with so much expertise. Today’s debate is both a celebration and a wake-up call for women everywhere. Equality is still a distant dream.
I agonised about my topic today. Should I highlight perhaps the most important current debate in which women must be engaged, climate change? Would my time be well spent talking about urban regeneration? What about my beloved Lighter Evenings Bill? At the back of my mind, however, I wondered whether my annual review of sport and women would be more appropriate. By coincidence, at my breakfast table yesterday, I, too, was reading the Guardian. The Guardian made up my mind. I turned to the sports section; 12 excellent pages, splendid journalists, marvellous action photographs. But there was not a single mention of a woman in any shape or role—no journalists, no feature writers, no sporting performers: nothing. I could not even find a woman jockey at the listed Catterick meeting. But, no, wait; here on page 12, is a whole sentence:
“England badminton world No. 1 Gail Emms’s mother played as centre forward for England in the 1971 women’s football world cup”.
So today I am back on the rampage.
I thank the Women’s Sport Foundation, from which I have plenty of statistics. I tell your Lordships in advance that they do not make good reading; this in the year when the nation has woken up to childhood obesity, and with the prospect of the 2012 Olympic Games, which should inspire all our youngsters. Two-thirds of boys and girls between two and 11 take part in about one hour’s moderate activity a day. Boys continue to 15; girls have by that time dropped by half. More than a third of girls quit all sport on leaving school; two-thirds of boys
8 Mar 2007 : Column 354
Social class has a huge impact. Only one in 10 women designated “unskilled”, as opposed to one in three designated “professional”, take part in sport. Only 10 per cent of women over 55 do any regular exercise at all. Damagingly, 70 per cent of Asian women of any age do not exercise at all.
What is to be done? No one can deny the efforts across government ministries and agencies. Sport in schools tops the agenda; more time in the school day, and much more after it; better facilities, better teachers and more coaches, particularly in primary schools where it is especially important. The national governing bodies are playing their part in clubs, schools and parks all over Britain: mini-tennis, mini-cricket, mini-golf, rugby; the list is endless. Their programmes are excellent. Sport has taken on many new guises for women, and all of them are welcome: health and fitness clubs, dance and Pilates—new opportunities to be more active.
With school sport in renewal, prospects are certainly better. I am particularly keen for Sport England and the CCPR to take a lead, not only in schools but in clubs and parks. That brings me to local authorities, which are crucial in providing facilities, coaches and programmes. I long for local authorities to be given mandatory provision for our neglected areas, so that they can all be brought up to standard. They should also be encouraged to uphold planning applications for clubs which seek to upgrade their facilities, usually in the teeth of objections from nimbys. Let us work for the greater good, not for the mean minorities. Individual clubs are improving. Community amateur sports clubs are gaining in numbers, and opening their doors to everyone. But we must still overcome those clubs that regard junior members with the same enthusiasm as a dose of Asian flu.
We saw the renaissance of British athletics last week, and hip-hip-hoorayed in a very British way when the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club announced equal prize money for men and women—a small step for mankind. But I return briefly to my Guardian grouse; in fact, to all media and sports financing. The USA has Title IX, introduced in the face of huge opposition but guaranteeing equal funding in schools, sports colleges and national events for men, women, girls and boys—and for equal publicity and reporting. You can turn on your television in America at any time, day or night, and see women’s sport.
Should we look at a similar provision here? Perhaps we should look at a new clause in the BBC charter, or via the Equal Opportunities Commission and Women’s National Commission. I am sure it can be done, and it must if we are going to show girls and women role models across the piece—new heroines and aspirations. Unless being active is linked to success and attractiveness, girls will continue to turn away from sport in droves.
8 Mar 2007 : Column 355
On International Women’s Day, I highlight another facet of sport. It can and does offer a way out of poverty. In poor areas, in developing countries, it can be the chance of a lifetime. Look at the apparently endless stream of young Russian tennis players. It is not a coincidence but a deliberate policy. Just as the USSR produced outstanding gymnasts in the 1970s and 1980s, tennis became the preferred vehicle in the 1990s. President Yeltsin, himself a huge tennis fan, funded the setting up of the Moscow academy. The rest is history. Some, like Maria Sharapova, chose Florida; others stayed and drilled eight hours a day, and now make a fortune on the tennis circuit. There will be others. China is putting down more tennis courts in Beijing than are currently in the entire UK; do not be surprised to see a medal winner on the rostrum at the 2008 Olympics in China. Whatever the pain, there will be girls willing to sacrifice their childhood for the chance of a glittering prize. Global sport is here, and the internet has revealed all. Let us hope that young women are given their chance.
Finally, success should not only be judged in sport by medals and trophies. Our objective must be to break down barriers, create new opportunities and empower our sports supremos to motivate and energise the whole nation. So, my sporting sisters, if the sky is the limit, let us reach for it.
1.30 pm
Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall: My Lords, I wish to add my tribute to the pile mounting up around the feet of my noble friend Lady Gould, who has been formidable in keeping this topic before us year after year. She has stimulated an interesting debate, and there is much more to come. One or two previous speakers mentioned the Equalities Review report published last week, which pointed to the discrimination still experienced at work by women with young children. I find that particularly depressing. I first took maternity leave in 1975, and the organisation I worked for at that time had never previously had to accommodate a request for a job to be kept open in that way. However, we worked it out together, and I went on to take maternity leave a second time. Looking back, particularly inthe light of the recent research, I realise that I was extraordinarily fortunate. My organisation, which was dominated by men, supported me through two periods of leave, the inevitable tribulations of managing a full-time job and a family and the crisis of a painful divorce while my children were quite young. It not only supported me, but encouraged me, developed me and, crucially, promoted me until I eventually reached the most senior tier of the organisation—I have to say I was alone up there, but it was a start.
It is therefore pretty dispiriting to realise that 30 years later, when women are in the workplace in much larger numbers—55 per cent of women with children under five now work outside the home, compared with 25 per cent in 1975—the struggle for equal treatment still goes on. I believe my experience—which I am ashamed to say I took for granted at the time—was possible largely because of the way the organisation was led. It felt a bit chaotic
8 Mar 2007 : Column 356
The recently published Equal Opportunities Commission report Sex and Power: Who Runs Britain? makes some cogent observations about the distribution of women in senior positions in the workplace and about the obstacles and stresses they face when attempting to develop their leadership potential. My noble friend Lord Giddens mentioned some of them. I am sorry that he is no longer in his place, and I wish we had been able to hear more from him on that subject. The research states:
“Far too many workplaces still follow a long hours, inflexible model of work. This has never worked well for women and is increasingly out of date for the ever-growing number of men who say they want to be more involved at home”.
Research commissioned by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows a 40 per cent fall in the number of women in senior management positions between 2002 and 2007. Among the likely reasons for that, it cites the rising cost of childcare.
Notwithstanding what I said earlier about the generous support that I received from men as I progressed through my career, my view is that we shall not make inroads into the problems of inequality to which PwC and the EOC report have drawn our attention until we get and keep a significantly higher number of women in visible leadership roles. A great deal has been said and written about leadership over the past 50 years. Lately, a lot of it has concentrated on the necessity to move on from command and control models towards methods that are more focused on building effective relationships in the workplace through flexible, responsive management practices, encouraging autonomy and creativity in workforces large and small, and developing leadership skills at all levels of an organisation. Leaders who successfully embrace these challenges often see increased productivity and improved morale evidenced in things such as diminished sickness absences and better retention rates; in other words, enlightened leadership is good for business. I know I stray into dangerous territory when I suggest that the characteristics needed to lead in this way come more naturally to women, but other speakers have said that, so I am not going to be too risk-averse. I am going to take the risk in order to make my point, which is that we need a wider range of strategies to address the deficits indicated in the Equal Opportunities Commission report if we are not to continue wasting a huge percentage of our nation’s human capital.
There are some reasons to be cheerful; for instance, one result of the difficulties women face in making progress in the workplace appears to be that they are increasingly driven towards setting up their own businesses, as the PwC research confirms. The EOC tells us that just over 1 million women in the UK are now self-employed, which is an increase of 18 per cent over the past five years. It is therefore encouraging to note that my right honourable friend Margaret Hodge, Minister of State for Industry and the Regions, recently launched a women’s enterprise initiative, co-ordinated jointly by the Make Your Mark campaign and Enterprise Insight, within which a national network of 1,000 female entrepreneurs will
8 Mar 2007 : Column 357
There is also an increasing number of leadership programmes specifically directed towards women and at least one women-only MBA—at the University of Bedfordshire. In the area I know best, the cultural sector, excellent work is being done by the Clore Leadership Programme, of which my noble friend Lord Smith of Finsbury is the inspirational director. More than 50 per cent of the highly sought-after places on its programmes are taken by women. There are also, of course, many organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors all around the country where good practice is quietly being developed and implemented without any great fuss being made. However, despite all this, we are left with the disconcerting reality that for many, probably most, women, the route into leadership is fraught with difficulty and life when they get there is often uncomfortable, as we may discover from one or two contributions still to come. This Government have done a lot for women, as my noble friend Lady Gould pointed out, and we should celebrate that, but the job now is to build on those achievements.
1.36 pm
Baroness Verma: My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, on securing this debate. On a day that celebrates and highlights the role women play across the world, it is easy to feel that we have come a long way. In some ways, we have, but much more needs to be done. I shall concentrate on two aspects of that in Great Britain: young women and girls from low-income families and females from the south Asian communities in Great Britain, particularly those from the Muslim and Sikh communities.
Before I start, I would like to inform your Lordships’ House that Leicester, the city in which I live, is celebrating its sixth LeicestHerday, an all-day event with workshops and events to celebrate International Women’s Day. It is well supported and offers a great opportunity to revisit some of the issues that we are discussing today, such as female infanticide, domestic violence, poor education and poor employment prospects.
For many women, education is the ladder to better employment, better job opportunities, better life choices and better health outcomes. However, recent reports have again highlighted that Great Britain has the highest number of teenage pregnancies, drug problems and alcohol problems in Europe, yet we are economically better off. So how do the statistics stack up?
It is hard to imagine why a 13 or 14 year-old girl would think that having a baby is a means to live independently in her own property. In households where education has little or no value, being dependent on the state has become a matter of
8 Mar 2007 : Column 358
An area of great concern is girls and women in the south Asian communities, whose lack of access to education greatly worries me. If families do not wish or allow their young girls to go into employment, those girls will never break the cycle of being unable to make their own life choices. They remain the silent citizens in Great Britain; they have little or no say in how their lives are shaped.
| Next Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |