No retreat on equality in the face of recession

By Emily Thornberry and Frances Singh

Around one hundred Labour party women from all around the UK travelled to London last month for Women’s Summit 2009, which took place at Labour Party HQ on Monday 9th February. The event was a follow up to the 2007 Women’s Summit, aiming to call on elected women to make sure equality issues remain high on the Government’s agenda.

The day was organised by Harriet Harman, Labour’s Deputy Leader and Minister for Women, the Labour Party and myself. Female Labour MPs, MEPs, councillors and prospective candidates joined together for the afternoon event which included a range of seminars and workshops looking at women’s participation in politics and what more can be done to push the equalities agenda.

Topics covered included women and the recession, the lessons to be learned from the American elections, an update on recent studies on women and voting and talks on mobilising women in the upcoming European elections and how to ensure Labour women’s voices are effectively heard by the media. In her keynote speech Harriet Harman told attendees the Labour Government is committed to giving real help to women and families and will continue to address their concerns at the highest levels.

Harriet said: “Today is about Labour women working at a local, national and international level to ensure that we are making yet more progress on equality.

“Labour has delivered more equal wages, better opportunities and education and training which have vastly improved women’s freedom and life choices.”

“As a party we lead by example. Labour has the best record of any UK political party in terms of women’s representation – we have more than three times the number of women MPs than all the opposition parties put together.

“But there is always more to be done and Labour is committed to respect for all, fairness for all and opportunity for all. Fairness and equality will be central to our work in Government and central to the mission of the Labour Party.”

Harriet shared the stage with other prominent Labour women including Glenys Kinnock MEP and the newly elected leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party Glenis Willmott MEP. Other speakers and chairs included Roberta Blackman-Woods, joint chair of the PLP Women’s Committee, Neena Gill MEP, James Morris from Chime plc who gave an update on women’s polling, Victoria Collins and Anne-Marie Baker from the Labour Party Press Office and Julie Morgan MP.

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