Queen’s Speech Presents Major Risks and Opportunities For Women’s Equality – Fawcett
The Fawcett Society has responded to the Queen’s speech setting out the legislative agenda for the next year.
Ceri Goddard, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society said:
“Some of the measures outlined today pose real opportunities to progress the cause of greater equality between women and men, but others could well be regressive.
“Extending the right to flexible working could make a real difference for many millions of working women who are parents or carers and will help tackle the gender pay gap.
“When it comes to political reform, plans to ensure a fairer and more representative democratic system provide an opportunity to include measures to ensure a greater number of women enter and have a voice in local and national government and parliament.
“Attempts to restore trust between politicians and the public will be undermined if changes to the system still result in a legislature overwhelmingly dominated by men.
“Plans to restore the link between earnings and pensions are welcome news for women who make up the majority of low income pensioners, but the government must also take steps to include more women in the state pension system in the first place. The review of retirement and state pension age offers an opportunity to address this.
“We are also concerned that any measures outlined in the Welfare Reform bill don’t impact on women, in particular single parents, disproportionately – there is a real danger here that the drive to cut costs sees benefits that more women than men rely on slashed.
“We are also concerned that the forthcoming emergency budget and comprehensive spending review doesn’t leave women disproportionately worse off. Tackling the deficit primarily through cuts – rather than taxes – means it’s harder to judge the final affects of any changes.
“For this reason it is critical that the government fulfils its legal obligation to undertake a proper gender impact assessment of the proposed emergency budget and as part of the comprehensive spending review.
“As with all these things, the devil will be in the detail. We are keen to see the government do what it can to progress the cause of women’s equality, and it’s clear some of these bills offer opportunities to do that if they are seized. However, if the government continues with the deficit cutting approach outlined today, without assessment of and action on the gender equality impact, all evidence and experience tells us women’s equality could actually regress.”
The Fawcett Society will issue a fuller analysis of the Queen’s speech and wider proposed coalition government programme shortly.
