Labour in government has already achieved much for women, through initiatives such as the National Childcare Strategy, the Working Families Tax Credit and the minimum wage. Significant steps have also been taken in improving the representation of women, both in Parliament and in the Government.
But there is still much to be done in a second Labour term on a wide range of fronts, from childcare to transport to widening the participation of women in the political system.
It’s time, for instance, to make a reality of ‘parent power’ and give parents the choice they want about how they bring up their children. Many mothers want to take time off work when their children are young. That’s OK for the well-off. They can afford to lose one income. It’s OK for lone mothers on income support. They can draw benefits while at home till their youngest child is sixteen. But most parents can’t afford to lose one of the two incomes the household depends on just at the time when they have a new mouth to feed. Mothers either go back to work feeling miserable or they stay off work and the family faces a struggle to make ends meet.
A new Toddler Tax Credit would give parents up to £100 per week for the first three years of their child’s life. Replacing the Childcare Tax Credit, it would allow mothers to use the money either to stay at home, pay for childcare – and it’s most expensive for children under three – or to pay something to grandparents if they take care of the child. It would be universal but tapered. So, it would be redistributive, giving most to those on lowest incomes and nothing to those at the top of the income scale who already have the choice to stay at home or pay for high quality infant childcare.
We need to ensure that we continue to move towards equal representation of women in politics. When I was first elected in 1982, I was one of only three percent of women MPs. Now, thanks to all-women shortlists for the 1997 elections, we make up twenty percent. But the tribunal case which ruled that all-women shortlists contravened the Sex Discrimination Act has stopped that progress dead. We need to move beyond one in five female parliamentarians, so that women feel they are properly represented. But the evidence of the last round of selections is that, without positive action, this will not happen. We need, therefore, a new law to make it legal for political parties to take ‘positive action’ to increase women’s representation. Then the Labour Party could return to all-women shortlists for half the parliamentary seats that we hope to win.
We also need to make local government an equality zone, which should also help reinvigorate it. The new law allowing ‘positive action’ should be followed by a Labour Party rule change saying that in all wards where there are two or more councillors, the Labour candidates should be one man and one woman. And to increase the number of people prepared to stand for local election, we should abolish the controversial expenses system and pay councillors properly as a part-time job. If the salary was pegged at half the wage of MPs, many women who wanted to work part-time so they could care for their families, might consider standing.
Finally, we need to think about transport. Unmanned trains and stations are not public transport because outside of rush hours women are afraid to use them. It’s only rarely that you see a woman trying to get a buggy on the tube or the train. A new law should require train operators to staff all trains and stations and make them accessible to people pushing buggies and using wheelchairs. In 1997, Labour was able to narrow the infamous ‘gender gap’ which has traditionally meant that women are far less likely to vote for us than men. To go on winning with women, we have to make tangible progress on the policies that matter to them. This is not only crucial to the party’s future electoral success, but also to fulfilling Labour’s aims and values.