Under this Government, and for the first time in five years, we have seen the gender pay gap in Britain widen. Women today earn on average £5000 less than their male colleagues and will lose out on 63 out of every 100 private sector jobs to a male applicant.
At every turn women have borne the brunt of this coalition’s austerity drive; with around 80% of the cuts and benefit caps estimated to have affected women more , and more severely, than men.
Yvonne Roberts wrote in last week’s Guardian that “You just can’t trust a man with the nation’s budget […] without a woman co-advising, redirecting, reminding him, again and again, how the other half really live.” The fact is that women in this country have paid a hefty price for four years of Coalition Government, they have seen their living standards, job prospects and pay levels decrease disproportionately . We have a cabinet in this country of 18 men and 4 women and a Government that simply doesn’t understand the importance of putting pay to the gender equality gap that has been allowed to grow since they came to power.
In local government we are still failing to do enough to encourage women in our communities to stand for our local councils. Today women account for only 31% of Councillors in Britain when they make-up over 51% of the population; this has to change.
It has to change not just to achieve a level of female representation that better represents the make-up of our community locally but because so many of the decisions we make and the services we provide affect women directly. I want our daughters to see strong positive female role models in business, Government and industry and to know that the qualities of a good Member of Parliament or Councillor are not inherently male qualities.
It is not just our daughters who will benefit from these changes, our society as a whole and our policy making will be enriched by perspectives and experiences that have for too long been unjustly marginalised.
I am pleased to say that Lancashire County Council has a long and proud history of female Leaders including Louise Ellman MP and Hazel Harding CBE before myself and, in the days before we had an executive cabinet structure, women in positions of leadership at the authority, including the now Baroness Josie Farrington and Baroness Ruth Henig. These women have helped to shape Lancashire to be the County it is today and we stand on their shoulders.
As an administration we want to play our part in encouraging and supporting Lancashire’s young women to stand for office both locally and nationally and to use their unique skills and talents to work with and support their local communities.
To this end I am today announcing the launch of my first Young Women’s Network in Lancashire to be held on Friday 20th June at 12.00.
The network aims to bring together a range of young women from across Lancashire who are interested in becoming involved in working in their local communities and, particularly, who are interested in working in politics at a local or national level.
The network will build a supportive environment for these young women, to share their experiences and to work alongside female politicians and community leaders to inspire confidence and access practical advice and support from local and national female community leaders as well as helping to arrange and facilitate meaningful work experience.
If you would like to be involved in the first Young Women’s Network to take place in Lancashire and you are aged between 16 and 24 we want to hear from you. Please drop me an email at Jennifer.Mein@Lancashire.gov.uk with the subject header Young Women's Network to be added to our invitation list.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Jenny
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