It?s International Women?s Day on 8 March ? a time to celebrate progress toward economic and political gender equality. Or that?s the aspiration at least.
However, there?s bad news for British women I?m afraid. In the UK the current picture is bleak for gender equality and it seems as if Tory-led governments, economic gloom and gender equality are in some way intrinsically linked.
Let?s look at the evidence for this. The coalition?s cuts to child tax credit, childcare tax credit, child benefit, childcare vouchers and sure start centres all hit women hard ? and these benefits and services are crucial to enable many women to remain in work and build their careers. And female unemployment is now at its highest since the Thatcher years.
So what?s happened? Is this the result of an ideological problem with gender equality in the Tory-led coalition government, or simply the collateral damage of deficit reduction, as they claim? This may be an imponderable, but what we do know is that our last Labour government, during a period of strong economic activity, brought increased gender equality, rights and opportunities to women across the board. So it makes you wonder whether female equality can be viewed as some sort of economic and political weathervane?
However, there is no mistaking that the coalition government doesn?t seem to recognise the impact on gender equality of their cuts. And its stance on women in leadership positions is that women must get there on their own merits, without quotas, no matter how long it takes. Equality is not an end in itself, they seem to suggest ? as ever, the market must decide.
These points are the heart of the Tory blind-spot on women, because they fail to recognise two fundamental truths. First, that gender bias and workplace culture, if left unchanged, will continue to make it difficult for women to achieve gender equality in pay, potential and satisfaction in the workplace for many decades to come.? And second, that in order for women to really have a chance at equality in the workplace we must do more, not less, to support the costs of childcare.
Liam Byrne and Stephen Twigg are right to prioritise childcare at the heart of a new vision for Labour. We have led the way on this issue in the past, increasing tax credits to cover up to 80 per cent of childcare costs, with free nurseries for three- and four-year-olds and 3,500 sure start children?s centres. And we would do well for women, for working families and for the economy to lead the way again.
Childcare costs are rising inexorably year on year and, under the coalition government, public financial support for childcare will continue to decrease.? Independent research has shown that dual-earner families in the UK now spend a shocking 27 per cent of their income on childcare (the second highest figure in OECD countries). And for many the costs of formal childcare have simply become unaffordable ? 33,000 women alone were forced out of jobs this year because of rises in childcare costs and the lowering of public financial support.? And the picture is set to get much worse. This dangerous trend is now applying an ever-increasing pressure on household incomes as well as gender equality.
My preferred policy would be a bold one: the provision of universal childcare is in my view the single most aspirational policy we could offer women ? and hard working families ? for the future. OK, it would be controversial and yes, it would be expensive ? or would it? According to an IPPR report published in December, new cost-benefit analysis shows that universal childcare would pay a return to the government of ?20,050 (over four years) in terms of tax revenue minus the cost of childcare for every woman who returns to full-time employment after one year of maternity leave. And what would that return be across the next 20 years of each woman?s career? Keeping both parents in work gives them more spending power as well as resilience to cope with economic downturns. Enable a woman to stay in her career and she will continue to increase her earnings, her tax contributions and her family?s spending power.
A bold policy such as this could reverse the fortunes of many women and hard-working families ? as well as make economic sense for the country.
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Victoria Powell is a Labour party activist from Hornsey and Wood Green CLP, and a member of the Labour party future candidates programme. She is an award-winning TV producer and founder of a successful TV company.
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Photo: .DesertMonsterBell
childcare, coalition government, equalities, ippr, Labour, Liam Byrne, OECD, Stephen Twigg, universal childcare, Women
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