The last few years have seen a lot of progress for women and
girls.
We have seen the gender pay gap in the UK fall to its lowest
level, and got more women sitting on the boards of Britain’s top
businesses than ever before. We have pledged to eliminate all
violence against women and girls, backed by £80m funding across
Government. And in 2014, as the then Development Secretary, I
held the first ever Girls Summit to push for an end to the brutal
practices of female genital mutilation and forced marriage.
The Westminster political scene has seen progress on gender
equality. We have our second female Prime Minister. Women now
make up an unprecedented third of the House of Commons, as well
as a third of the Cabinet. And there are a number of cross-party
campaigns encouraging women to get into politics so that,
increasingly, women can directly shape the policies affecting our
country.
This International Women’s Day there is much to celebrate – but
we have to continue to be bold if we are to deliver real change
for women around the world.
The UK’s role as a world leader on gender equality is a personal
priority for me and I am very proud to be a founding member of
the United Nations’ first High Level Panel on Women’s Economic
Empowerment.
Economic empowerment for women is not just about pursuing gender
equality. It is also actually in everyone’s long term economic
interests. A report by McKinsey Global Institute report estimated
that if women in every country played an identical role in
markets to men, $28 TRILLION could be added to the global economy
by 2025.
That figure represents millions of potential female
entrepreneurs, inventors and business leaders who are currently
being airbrushed out of the picture. No woman should be held back
from fulfilling their ambitions in life.
So we can’t just wait for equality to happen — we need to keep
pushing for it.
That is why I am also proud that the UK is leading by example,
and becoming one of the first countries to introduce gender pay
gap reporting requirements. This law will mean all large
employers have to publish their GPG figure, shining a light on
where women are being held back.
This extra transparency on data will mean employers can take
action to address their pay gap. That could mean helping women
return to work after they have started a family, or traditionally
male-dominated industries doing more to attract women into their
professions.
I am confident that British employers will embrace gender pay gap
reporting and, more importantly, will deliver positive change for
their female employees as a result.
So there is a lot to be proud of, but there is still a lot of
work left to do. We need to pick up the pace as we approach this
year’s International Women’s Day, but I remain convinced we can
rise to the challenge, and create a world where women and girls
can achieve anything.
This message from Secretary of State for Education and Minister
for Women and Equalities first appeared
in Politics Home.
