Women in the US earn, on average, 80% of men’s median pay. And the gap is much greater for African-American women, who [...]]]> This week the latest attempt to fix the pay gap between men and women in the USA was stalled, after the Paycheck Fairness Act failed to get past the Republicans in the Senate.

Women in the US earn, on average, 80% of men’s median pay. And the gap is much greater for African-American women, who earn 61cents for every $1 a white man earns, and Hispanic women who earn 52 cents for every $1 a white man earns.

The US first passed equal pay legislation in 1963, seven years before the UK. The Paycheck Fairness Act was designed to amend the historic Equal Pay Act to make it easier for the law to be enforced.

Among other measures it would have prevented employers from punishing employees who ask about pay practices or who disclose their own rate of pay. As part of tackling the problem of secrecy around individuals’ pay (a notorious and difficult barrier to achieving equality in the US) the Government would have been required to collect information on the sex, race and national origin of employees. The Act would also have limited the allowed reasons for different rates of pay to reasons such as differences in education and experience.

For the Act to pass the Senate it first needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. To get past this procedural motion and be debated, the bill needed 60 members needed to vote in favour. The vote split down party lines with all the Republicans voting against. In the end Senators voted 58-41 in favour of debating the measures, two votes short. Meaning that the Act could not be debated and could not pass. The House of Representatives passed the Bill almost two years ago.

With the US Congress now in what is colloquially known as “the lame duck” session, before the newly elected members (from the recent November elections) take their seats in January, it is unlikely that further progress on the Act and overcoming this historic disparity in pay will be made in the near future.

The US is ranked 64 out of 130 for wage equality between men and women. (The UK is ranked 60). There are currently 17 women and 83 men in the US Senate.

Inspiring Leaders: Our fab Inspiring Leaders partner Laura Nelson over at Delilah has put together some great podcasts from the event. You can listen to them here:http://bit.ly/aYujBB

Fawcett’s initial response to the CSR The Fawcett [...]]]> How will the announcements in the Comprehensive Spending Review impact on you, your friends, your colleagues and the people you work with? We round up the best of the coverage, reaction and comment looking at the many impacts the spending decisions announced on Wednesday will have on women.

Fawcett’s initial response to the CSR
The Fawcett Society described the CSR as “a disastrous blow for women’s equality.” Noting that of the half a million public sector workers facing unemployment, more than two thirds will be women, (women make up 65% of public sector workers, and 75% or local government employees) this is on top of the 1 million women already unemployed in the UK. The cuts to benefits will also disproportionately impact on women. Benefits typically make up one fifth of women’s income (as opposed to a tenth of men’s) and one million more women claim Housing Benefit than men, many of whom will be single parents.
Read More.

The cuts: a disastrous blow for women’s equality
The commenters on the F Word discussed the impact these cuts would have on women and their independence.
Read More.

Will the cuts change the role of women?
On the BBC website, Mark Eastern considered what impact this shrinking of the public sector will have on women, not least because 40% of all working women are employed by the state. In a revealing interview with Jill Kirby, director of the influential Conservative think tank, Ms Kirby argued: “It may be better news for women not to spend money on childcare any more and to look after their own children and fit jobs into the child’s day…women going out to do jobs to pay for childcare generates a type of work which then requires subsidy from the state”. The piece notes, “For some Conservatives, it would seem, the effect of the cuts on female workers is a useful nudge to changing the role of women in society”.
Read More.

Spending cuts: ‘Westminster doesn’t understand how people will suffer’
The Guardian looks at the impact of the decisions on local government, suggesting: “If the iconic image of the last crisis to hit this area was of unemployed (male) miners and steelworkers, the modern equivalent will be that of public sector employees, most of them women. In Consett, it is the children and grandchildren of former steelworkers – who found work in the public sector when the steelworks closed – who are now in the line of fire: librarians, care workers, jobcentre workers, administrative staff in the nearby HMRC and Child Benefit Office headquarters.”
Read More.

We are not all in this together
The New Statesman argues that Government Ministers themselves, will be “largely untouched” by the decisions of the CSR and the few, if any, have a personal understanding of how the cuts will impact on individual lives: “Coalition ministers – Tories and Liberal Democrats alike – have little experience of unemployment or life on benefits; in fact, of any economic hardship whatsoever. Twenty-two out of 29 cabinet ministers (76 per cent) are millionaires, 19 out of 29 (66 per cent) were educated at private, fee-paying schools and 19 out of 29 (66 per cent) are Oxbridge graduates.” And let’s not forget that 25 out of 29 cabinet ministers (86%) are men.
Read More

The Bullingdon boys want to finish what Thatcher began
Seamus Millne, sums up the impact of the CSR by noting: “It is women, families and the sick who, it turns out, will be picking up the bill for the bank-triggered meltdown, along with low-income teenagers and public sector workers in their millions”.
Read More.

Party Lines
Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, Shadow Minister for Women argued: “Women are harder hit by the cuts in pension credit, working tax credit, child care support and the cuts in public sector jobs”.
Read More.

Vulnerable ’shut out of society’ by spending review welfare cuts
The Guardian looks at the benefits that will be cut, including, a reduction in the childcare costs that parents can claim back.
Read More.

How much do YOU stand to lose from the CSR cuts?
The TUC has a handy calculator to help you work out how much you’re going to loose.
Read More.

Are we really all in it together Mr Osborne?
And if you don’t have time to read all of the above, Beyond Retrograde also has a good overview here.

We’re delighted that our Inspiring Leaders event on November 6th has sold out. If you missed out on a ticket and would like to be placed on the reserve list please get in touch.

Maria Eagle, the Labour MP for Garston and Halewood, declared that she was going to stand for the Shadow Cabinet. [...]]]> In July, at the end of our ‘Where are the women’ discussion we asked each one of our panel members what one thing she was going to do to promote women in leadership.

Maria Eagle, the Labour MP for Garston and Halewood, declared that she was going to stand for the Shadow Cabinet. (Under Labour Party rules, the Labour MPs elect colleagues to the Shadow Cabinet, although the position they are given is decided by the Leader.)

So we were absolutely delighted to see that Maria Eagle MP, along with 7 other women, was elected to the Shadow Cabinet last week where she is now serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Transport.

Here at Progressive Women, we committed to do two things – one to organise an event where women (and progressive men) can develop their leadership skills. And we did – on November 6th we’re holding a day of leadership training, have you bought your ticket yet?

Two, to continue to encourage you all to get involved and to use your talents, skills, and experiences to be the next generation leaders. We asked every one who was at the event to think of one thing that they could do to promote women in leadership. What did you think of doing? Have you done it yet? And if not what better time than now to do one thing to promote women in leadership.

Don’t Forget: Join other aspiring future leaders at Progressive Women’s upcoming event Inspiring Leaders on Saturday 6th November. For more details see here.

This week, new Labour leader Ed Miliband unveiled a shadow cabinet in which women hold [...]]]> Ellie Cumbo is a policy researcher, campaigner and activist; she recently led on the development of Oona King’s women’s policy. Ellie comments on why Oona’s campaign and recent events of the Labour party are so important for women and for politics.

This week, new Labour leader Ed Miliband unveiled a shadow cabinet in which women hold a slightly disappointing 12 of 29 positions; this is nevertheless triple the measly 4 put up by the coalition Government. Reactions to these figures in the media ranged from casual observation to complete obliviousness: under-representation of women is such a fixed feature of our politics that it barely merits comment.

It was with a keen sense of this background, immediately following the May general election, that I read of Oona King’s bid to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London. Immediately, and despite my great respect for her rival, Ken Livingstone, I knew that I wanted to be part of her campaign. In addition to her forthright centre-left politics, her new ideas and her great personal charm, here was a candidate with the potential to demonstrate that leadership doesn’t require Y chromosomes, white skin or a vast disposable fortune.

Too often, the importance of diversity among our elected decision-makers is dismissed as tokenism or identity politics; it is in fact far more than this, and far more important. A politician’s greatest challenge is to find a workable balance between ideology and realism; to hold to the convictions that drew them to public service in the first place, while remaining receptive to outside evidence that may contradict them. The latter is dependent on access to the broadest possible range of experiences, and gender is unquestionably one of the forces that most powerfully shapes our lives.

Whenever it is suggested that more equal gender representation therefore matters and should be striven for, it is treated as an argument for elevating women regardless of their merit. This is a gross (and perhaps deliberate) misunderstanding of the argument, which is that talented and able women are not finding their way into the corridors of power at the same rate as talented and able men; not that femaleness is itself an adequate qualification for holding office. No-one wants poor female candidates to be preferred over good male ones, and this is simply not the inevitable outcome of factoring gender into our consideration of what matters in political representation (or even of outright positive discrimination). To believe otherwise is to believe that there aren’t enough capable women out there to get a roughly equal gender split, and that all our male politicians are uniformly brilliant: it’s nonsense, and must not go unchallenged.

So, disappointed as I was that Oona didn’t win the Mayoral nomination, I see it as a tremendous boon to our politics that she stood. Not only has she cemented her position as a role model, to unconventional candidates of all kinds, but she specifically raised issues and proposed solutions that had never made it into political debate before; in particular, her plans to tackle street sexual harassment met with more support than even the campaign team had imagined, from Woman’s Hour to Radio Five Live.

As we head into a future in which the only certainty is the suffering in store, especially for the most vulnerable, it is essential that we don’t lose sight of the need to do better on representation, across gender, race and, perhaps most urgently, income level and class background. Let’s be very clear that, besides the economic situation, there is another deficit that threatens the very legitimacy of our politics – and that’s one sacrifice we really can’t afford.

Ellie will be delivering a debating training session at Progressive Women’s INSPIRING LEADERS event on 6th November. For more info on the event & to buy your ticket read here

Attending a Conservative Party conference when they are part of the government is a novel experience for me (this might seem to be a banal statement but judging by the age of some of [...]]]> Emily Dover attended this week’s Conservative Party conference as a
delegate. She has formerly worked for both front and back bench Conservative politicians

Attending a Conservative Party conference when they are part of the government is a novel experience for me (this might seem to be a banal statement but judging by the age of some of the delegates there are a few that have fond memories of several Conservative governments).

Having first got involved in the party in 2001 I have become unaccustomed to winning things – as any Conservative will testify, there have been some dark days over the past 13 years. It could be expected then that – despite the rhetoric about tough times ahead and spending cuts – behind the scenes there would be a little self-congratulation and general back patting.

The reality however was a businesslike conference albeit one with simmering tensions. Late night bar conversations and fringe meeting after fringe meeting grappled with the concept of the “Big Society” – every delegate seems to have their own definition and their own local example of the “big society in action”.

If it is hard for them to grasp it is little wonder that the general public also struggle. Many of the activists and even candidates that I met were still smarting from the election campaign. It is rarely pointed out in public but they feel the fact that the Conservatives did not win an outright majority very keenly. Many feel like they suffered from being the guinea pigs in a grand ‘A’ level politics experiment. The party leadership is having to do just as much work to sell the coalition government to their supporters as the Liberal Democrats are.

The Conservative party is not unique in having a significant influx of first time MPs following the general election and conference has been a great opportunity to observe some of them in action. We have increased the number of women MPs significantly but there is still a way to go on that front. One of the early highlights of my conference was attending the women2win reception.

Women2win has done really great work over the last few years in mentoring and supporting women who want to stand as candidates for the Conservative Party but also in convincing Conservative associations of the benefits of putting their trust in women candidates. It is built on the concept of mutual support and advice and is a growing force within the party.

There are a great many talented and able women involved in all levels of the party. Trying to unpick why too few of them put themselves forward as candidates is not an easy task – some may feel that they are too busy juggling a family and/or career to consider entering politics, many may not be prepared to undergo the personal upheaval that comes with embarking on a political career. However, those concerns are not unique to women. I cannot compare with other parties who will obviously have their own rigorous processes, but having been part of a candidate selection panel in the Conservative party, I can testify that the selection process and the interview is a terrifying and sometimes confrontational experience.

Removing the possible barriers to entry is part of the solution. Improving confidence and professional and political skills of female candidates through training and mentoring may make all the difference – and will give us better candidates to boot. What seems to be the most important and successful element of women2win’s work is in creating that atmosphere of mutual support that will make the party a more welcoming place for women to do business without having to rely on crude list systems.

For more information on women2win check out their website

Join other aspiring future leaders at Progressive Women’s upcoming event INSPIRING LEADERS on Saturday 6th November. For more details see here

The Labour party conference began with much anticipation about the election of the future leader following a four month campaign that saw four men and one woman battle it out attending 100’s of hustings, meeting [...]]]> Nargis Khan was a senior Labour Councillor in Hackney for 8 years and writes from the Labour Party conference in Manchester

The Labour party conference began with much anticipation about the election of the future leader following a four month campaign that saw four men and one woman battle it out attending 100’s of hustings, meeting members across the country. While Diane Abbott MP, the only woman on the ballot was not declared leader on Saturday and throughout remained the ‘very’ outside favourite, her name on the ballot paper was certainly talk of the town and brought to the forefront women’s participation in politics and public life. It is widely agreed that Diane’s involvement gave prominence to issues around equality, social mobility, civil liberties and taxation.

When the results were finally declared and Ed Milliband MP elected leader, the work of the ‘next generation’ had started.

Whilst the media continued the scramble and commentary of divides in the party and family psycho dramas, the conference finally began with the tone moving to how “One United Labour Party takes on {taking on} one divided Government”

Early on Sunday a little bleary eyed I made my way to Manchester Town Hall for the first national ‘Labour Women’s Summit’, I had been expecting a small meeting but I was overwhelmed when I entered the great hall and was faced with a room packed with over 700 women, many of whom had travelled by coach overnight just to attend this event. These were Labour women determined to get their priorities on the new leadership agenda. We heard from prominent women such as Harriet Harman, Yvette Cooper, Oona King and many more all reflecting the full complexity of women’s lives. Women were taking to the platform, many for the first time to express their anger with the current government and their justification for an agenda of cuts.

Like many women in the room I believe that this current Conservative government is making a real attack on gender, this is ideology and we need to step back from the language of deficits and remember that these are real choices about care, living the weekly shop that will impact women and their families disproportionately. The two hour event heard from women from all around the country truly trailblazers and breaking new ground. I left the event inspired and with more than a suspicion that it will be progressive Labour women that will bring back the 5 million voters that we lost at the last election. It will be women winning for Labour in 2015!

With three days of conference still to go and a packed fringe and conference agenda debating among other’s the economy, foreign affairs and a future direction. Labour women are part of a new way of doing politics and will be at the forefront of tackling the tough issues as well as a celebration of the Party’s diversity. Still to come the new leader’s speech and the election of a shadow cabinet that will see women at the helm…watch this space.

If you’re interested in exploring the issues of women in leadership and developing your own leadership skills come along to our Inspiring Leaders event on Saturday 6th November

So I’m heading home from the Lib Dem conference feeling [...]]]> Progressive Women will be sharing first hand accounts from the 3 main political party conferences. This week Lee Chalmers shares her experience of the Liberal Democrat conference. Lee runs a coaching company Authentic Living and is a delegate at this year’s Liberal Democrat conference.

So I’m heading home from the Lib Dem conference feeling reflective and pragmatic, a state I often find myself in. This year saw the largest attendance ever, as our membership increased and the media got interested in what was said. The mood of participants was mixed. On the one hand, people are happy and proud to see our MP’s in government. So many of the policies and ideals that we care about and voted for are on their way to being implemented into law, something that we didn’t think was possible 9 months ago.

However, there is also a feeling amongst some people that being in government with the Tories will have a negative effect on the party and will result in us having to implement policies that we simply cannot stomach. For some, that is too much to bear, not the reason they are involved in politics at all. It really has got me thinking about my engagement in this crazy world. I like to think of myself as progressive, hence my connection with progressive women but what does that actually mean?

For me, being progressive is all about thinking about the future, to how things can improve. It’s about standing up for policies that allow us as a species to grow up, to stop acting like adolescents, to start to take responsibility for how we live, which means being aware enough of each other that we care more and start to create a truly equal society. It’s about equality, freedom and liberty. Recognise these terms? It’s why I’m a Lib Dem. It’s also about making sure that the policies we implement are not regressive, do not hit the poorest hardest. And there lies the rub of being a Lib Dem right now. How can we make sure that we are working with the government enough to implement the policies we believe in but mitigate against the worst of the right wing desire to reduce government and cut crucial services? If we can do that we will be entering into post-adolescent politics, leading in a way that understands the complexities of the role and the fact that you cannot please all the people all the time.

Did I hear anything at conference that specifically applied to me as a woman? What messages were there to move the cause of equality for women forward? To be honest, I didn’t even look. Such was my focus on the policies as a human being, not through the lens of my gender. I ran a training session on leadership for women candidates where I talked about the specific stereotypes we suffer from but at the end of the day the topics that mattered most applied to all people. I for one am starting to move away from an articulation of what is different or even special about women. I am much more focusing on what narrative we need to create which enables the men to understand that there is no womens vote, no special category called women with special needs. We are the majority of the population and the major topics of the day all apply to us. And on that basis we required a seat at the table. More on this at the Progressive Women leadership event.

Read Lee Chalmers blog

Join in Lee’s leadership training session at the Inspiring Leaders event on Saturday 6th November

It’s easy to talk about cuts in the abstract – and to presume that there are large-scale painless efficiencies across the public sector that will allow us to reduce our deficit with ease. But the reality is [...]]]> This week is TUC week. Nicola Smith, Senior Policy Officer at the TUC writes this week’s guest blog.

It’s easy to talk about cuts in the abstract – and to presume that there are large-scale painless efficiencies across the public sector that will allow us to reduce our deficit with ease. But the reality is that cuts of the scale that the Government are proposing cannot be made without significantly increasing inequality and taking substantial economic risks.

Women will feel the impact of these cuts. Earlier this year TUC research showed that women’s jobs were on the line in the public sector. Our analysis suggests that around 40 per cent of women in work in the UK are employed in public sector jobs – and that areas where there are particularly high levels of female public sector employment are also those where male unemployment rates rose the most during the recession. With the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasting that over 600,000 public sector jobs will be lost by 2015, it is clear that working women will feel the impact. And with 38p of every pound of state expenditure going directly to the private sector, it won’t only be state employees who feel the jobs impacts of the cuts.

But job cuts are only part of the story – when posts are lost across the public sector, so are services. Already, before the Spending Review has even reported, around £13 billion of cuts have been announced that directly cut services from children and families. These include cuts in free school meals, in Tax Credit payments for families with new babies, in careers services for young people who are not in education or employment and in the Future Jobs Fund for those facing the prospect of long-term worklessness.

As new TUC research shows, public spending is a driver of redistribution. Households in the poorest decile, whose average annual income is £6,500, receive transfers and services from the state equivalent to 328% of their original household income. In contrast, households in the richest decile, whose average annual income is £76,200, receive transfers and services equivalent to 19% of their original incomes. Spending on public services and social security makes a substantial contribution to the reduction of inequality in society. As services are cut it is the poorest, who are more likely to be women (and specifically women with children), who will feel the inevitable impacts.

The TUC believe that there is an alternative, based on reducing the deficit over a more sensible time scale, with much more flexibility and a far greater emphasis on closing the fiscal gap with fairer taxes and the proceeds of growth. We also believe that this change of tack is an economic as well as a social imperative. Taking large amounts of money out of the economy when the recovery remains extremely vulnerable risks increased unemployment (and consequently social security payments), slower growth, reduced tax revenues and may ultimately cause further damage to the public finances. In Ireland, which embarked on deep austerity measures a year and a half ago, public services have been slashed but the economy remains sluggish and the country’s credit rating has been downgraded.

Spending cuts are not painless and we urge the Government to recognise the economic and social consequences that steep cuts now will have. Until they do, we will actively campaign against the cuts –all progressive women should do the same.

Want to be inspired by strong women leaders? Want to develop your leadership skills? See here for more information on our Inspiring Leaders event