It’s Women who face the brunt of Tory cuts – Kate Osborne MP on Women’s History Month
By Kate Osborne MP
Every March we celebrate Women’s History Month, to raise awareness of the invaluable contributions women have made – and continue to make – to better our communities and the world we live in.
We must continue to raise our voices on the injustices that women face, but I want to start by highlighting the recent wins women have had to not only celebrate these but use them to propel our successes forward.
This year’s Brit Awards were dominated by women, with 70% of winning acts either female or non-binary.
The significance of this cannot be understated. Young women looking to go into the music industry will see that this is becoming a place for them, a place their value is recognised and their talents are celebrated.
After all, our successes aren’t just for this generation – they are for the next, and the next after that, and for all the women that follow.
The Women and Equalities Committee, which I sit on, has been hearing an inquiry on misogyny in music, looking into a range of evidence on how these attitudes can filter through society to impact attitudes towards, and treatment of, women and girls.
Little wins can have a huge rippling effect on our society, and although the Brit Awards don’t by any means signal the end to misogyny in music, they do represent a huge leap forward for the industry in recognising the incredible talent that women hold.
And they’re not the only sector changing – as of February this year women hold 42% of board seats at the UK’s biggest listed companies, up from 24.5% in 2017. Change is possible, and change is happening.
Across the channel, France has enshrined abortion into the constitution, marking an unbelievably significant win for women’s rights by becoming the first country in the world whose constitution explicitly protects the right to an abortion in all circumstances.
France was also right to call the rest of Europe into action, the UK has repeatedly let women down with regard to healthcare and – with the number of women becoming economically inactive due to long-term sickness reaching a five-year high – the Spring Budget should have been the turning point for change.
It is incredibly disappointing and quite frankly dangerous that this opportunity was not taken up.
This Government is failing women.
They are playing politics with real lives, real people, and real communities. They made no effort to address health inequalities, tackle the gender pay gap, or the huge levels of women in poverty.
Strong and well-funded public services would be vital for our social infrastructure, by promoting well-being and gender equality through a stronger economy with a healthier, better-educated and better-cared for population.
This should have been the cornerstone of this budget.
Instead, the Spring Budget made cuts to vital public service funding, ignoring warnings that by focusing on tax cuts instead of investing in our public services we risk reversing the already little progress made towards women’s equality.
The tax cuts funded by this downscale continue to benefit men far more than women, with the Women’s Budget Group revealing that women would gain significantly less than their male counterparts, with single fathers receiving hundreds more than single mothers.
The announcement of an increase in the Child Benefit Cap to £60,000 further feigned support by abandoning parents who already receive the maximum payment and are still struggling, and falling short of ensuring future parents can access adequate financial aid to support the next generation.
So, once again, it’s women facing the brunt of the Tory crisis.
Under this Government women are more likely to use a food bank.
Women are more likely to work in sectors experiencing detrimental funding cuts.
Women are more likely to leave work due to caring responsibilities, or long-term illnesses.
Women are more likely to be on precarious zero-hour contracts, and twice as likely to miss out on key protections such as statutory sick pay.
Women’s maternity services are struggling with black and ethnic minority women being failed.
Women pensioners are more likely to live in poverty, more likely to not have a sufficient pension and more likely to be living in cold homes.
From birth to old age women are being failed.
Women won’t forget what this Government has done.
The efforts of feminists are still needed in the UK. The same efforts that get increasing numbers of women elected to Parliament, that challenge the gender pay gap, that confront gendered healthcare standards.
This country is on its knees under the Tories, and is crying out for change.
Labour’s New Deal for Workers would mark a significant move in the right direction, by banning zero-hour contracts; closing the gender, ethnicity and disability pay gap; establishing a day-one right to flexible working; and introducing fair pay agreements to boost pay and conditions in social care.
Only under a Labour Government will women have their talents and efforts recognised and celebrated year round.
We need a general election now.
