Another government assault on women’s lives

By Yvette Cooper MP

Another day, another government assault on women’s lives. From Sure Start closures to No 10 discussions about scrapping maternity leave, it is clear that none of the hard won opportunities for women and families are safe from this Tory led government. It should be unthinkable generations after women won the vote that we should face so many threats to women’s equality and also to the support for young families. Yet there are serious signs across the government not just of carelessness about women’s lives but of an ideological approach which risks turning the clock back.

It is hard to imagine anyone who has any idea about working mothers or their importance to the British economy proposing the abolition of maternity leave – unless of course they think mothers shouldn’t work at all. So to hear it put forward by top Downing Street aide Steve Hilton is incredible. No 10 can try as they might to play this down. But Steve Hilton isn’t a free thinking academic or a character from the Thick of It pushing zany plans. He was appointed by David Cameron as one of his closest government advisors alongside Andy Coulson. The fact that he supports such a crackers and unfair plan says something ominous about this government and once again about David Cameron’s judgement too.

And it’s not just about maternity leave. At the same time we now learn that 31 Sure Start Centres have already been forced to close since the election – a direct consequence of the 20% cuts in the budget for Sure Start. David Cameron promised “the money for Sure Start is there, so centres do not have to close”. And the Liberal Democrats Minister for Children claimed “there is enough money in the system to maintain the network of Sure Start services”. Yet they have cut the budget, those promises lie broken and the young families who depended on those services are betrayed.

I think Sure Start was one of the best things Labour introduced – help for families at the most important time in a child’s life, with benefits to flow for decades to come. It is devastating to watch this careless government destroy such valued services now.

Working parents across the country will already know Sure Start is not the only children’s service being badly hit. Summer play schemes and child care services are being cut back hard too, according to the Daycare Trust nearly two thirds of councils have already had to cut back on child care provision. But the result of this is that many mums in particular will find it much harder to work, to support their families and to contribute to the economy too. Stopping women working costs us all more in the long run – something the government simply fails to understand.

We’ve known for some time that the Conservatives have a blind spot on women, but it’s becoming much worse than that. Time and again women and families are being hardest hit. From public sector job losses hitting women the hardest, to the closure of specialist services protecting vulnerable women; from policies on rape to refusing to sign the EU Human trafficking Directive; right through to the rank assault on women’s pensions, which denies 33,000 women in their mid 50’s more than £10,000. House of Commons research shows overall the cumulative tax and benefits changes take £4.20 a week from men and £8.40 a week from women, even though women still earn less and own less than men.

Too many people in this government are clearly out of touch with the reality of most women’s lives. Few seem to understand the pressures mothers face, or carers of elderly relatives. And there is an ideological problem here too. Many seem quite content that their polices – be it free floating ideas about maternity leave, or the hard reality of existing child care cuts – are making it harder for women to work and to have more equal choices about their lives. Ministers have a deep rooted hostility to public sector intervention – be it through child care provision, tax credits, social care or maternity rights – as creating dependence. Yet the truth for many women is that these services and this support is what gives them greater independence, and greater opportunities to shape their own lives.

For generations we have seen steady progress in women’s equality. Now that is at risk of being turned back. We must not let the government get away with such an unfair assault on women’s lives, and on the prospects for young families too. Because in the end these polices aren’t just bad for women, they are bad for our economy, bad for men and worst of all for our children too.