Old and new challenges remain for the women’s movement

By Harriet Harman

—Because of the historic strides feminism has made over the last decades, it is easy to believe that the battle has been won. But the truth is that the feminist glass is both half-full and half-empty. And, as many obstacles are tackled, yet more hove into view.

It is true that there are now many more women MPs. We have come so far since I was first elected into a parliament of 97 per cent men and became one of only 10 women Labour MPs. Now we have a parliament of 22 per cent women and in the parliamentary Labour party we are 33 per cent. This is a critical mass which has allowed us to move issues like domestic violence, work-family balance and childcare onto the political agenda and into the mainstream.

But we are still outnumbered by nearly five to one. Parliament is still male-dominated, reported through a male-dominated media. And the Labour party senior management remains male-dominated. So we have to, and will, press on with women-only shortlists – not just in the marginals we hope to win, but especially in the constituencies we are confident of winning because they have a Labour MP who is retiring. No one has ever liked women-only shortlists. They embody a contradiction. The local party members have a free choice – but only if they rule out all men! But the problem is that they are the only mechanism that has ever worked. We tried everything else – to no avail. And that is what the other parties are doing and they will continue to fail to make progress. Making a virtue of their rejection of women-only shortlists simply condemns them to continuing with a level of male domination which is frankly embarrassing in the 21st century.

And it is the same half-full, half-empty situation with the changes in women’s lives. Gone are the rules which say women cannot work after they are married. I remember when that was the case in most schools, most banks and in the civil service. Many more jobs can now be done part-time, which allows women to combine their work with their family responsibilities. But a woman working part-time because of her commitment to her children or older relatives is still a lesser creature in the workplace. And the vast pay gap and lack of opportunities for promotion experienced by women working part-time is daily testimony to that. We have to press on and implement the measures that are in the Equality Act which would make employers publish the average hourly pay for the women they employ and for the men. But the government has trumpeted that it is not going to implement this. The minister for women and equalities, Maria Miller, should be standing up for women. Instead, she is currying favour with the male hierarchy in her party by letting women down.

And, as younger women pioneer their way into previously men-only domains, the problem emerges of the double discrimination against older women. There is, undoubtedly, age discrimination against men and women. But an older man can be valued for his experience and wisdom, while an older woman is just regarded as ‘past it’ and heaven help her if she is both over 60 and part-time. It is a bitter irony that women are being told to work longer – to 62 or 67 – and yet their final years at work see them facing oppressive discrimination which is not because they are older or because they are a woman, but is because they are an older woman. There is provision in the Equality Act to outlaw this double discrimination. But, yet again, Miller has pledged not to implement it.

Despite the progress we have made, there is still a long way to go. The women’s movement remains strong and determined – and the Labour party remains the natural political home for feminists.

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Harriet Harman MP is deputy leader of the Labour party

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Photo: CJ Sorg