A BETTER FUTURE FOR WOMEN A BETTER FUTURE FOR WOMEN FOREWORD Labour Party values start from the belief that who you are or where you come from should never hold you back from achieving your potential. We have made great strides in improving equality for women, from the right to vote to the right to equal pay, and Labour has consistently lead this progress. Under the last Labour Government, the gender pay gap closed by almost a third, we opened 3,000 Sure Start Centres, extended maternity leave and introduced paternity leave, and transformed the way that police, prosecutors and courts dealt with cases of domestic violence. But progress for women has never been achieved by sitting back. In the last five years progress to close the gender pay gap has slowed. More women are low paid and on zero-hours contracts. Many families feel that they have never been so stretched. Instead of taking action the Tories have chosen to hit women harder, with women bearing 85 per cent of the impact of tax and benefit changes. Violence against women and girls is a national scandal. Rapes and incidents of domestic violence reported to the police have gone up, but the number of cases prosecuted and convicted has fallen. And there is still much further to go to change a culture that permits everyday sexism. Labour has a better plan for equality for men and women from the shop floor to the boardroom. We’ll do more to help women and men balance families and work through more free childcare. We will support the millions of women trapped in low paid work by raising the Minimum Wage and addressing discrimination. We’ll put tackling violence against women and girls back at the heart of government, and lead by example to increase women’s representation in public life. Labour has a proud record of working for equality. Building on that record will be at the heart of our agenda for government. Ed Miliband Harriet Harman Gloria de Piero 5 Introduction I Labour believes that Britain will only women’s pockets. Low pay, rising The next Labour Government will build • Double paid paternity leave and succeed when everyone has the childcare costs and an outdated parental on this record by working for an increase paternity pay. opportunity to achieve their potential. leave system are making it harder for economy that creates the more secure • Consult on allowing grandparents to Achieving that goal for women will men and women to balance their work and better paid jobs we need to raise share in parents’ unpaid parental require us to do more to break down the commitments with family life. living standards and support people’s leave. barriers to equality, from discrimination choices at work and at home. Many are also concerned that the narrow at work, to domestic abuse that goes • Work to close the gender pay gap, by portrayal of women in cultural and public We have a clear plan for equality, tackling unchallenged. requiring companies with over 250 life can reinforce ongoing problems of low pay in the sectors dominated by employees to publish information on Life has changed dramatically for many casual sexism, discrimination and women and strengthening the law on the gender pay gap and strengthening A better future for women A better future women over the past four decades. outdated views and behaviour towards maternity discrimination. We will put in the law against maternity The aspirations and opportunities them. When one in six teenagers in place a system that reflects the realities of discrimination. available to women have expanded relationships say they have experienced modern family life, with more free beyond recognition. sexual violence and the police receive a childcare and better leave for fathers and • Support healthy relationships by call every 30 seconds about domestic grandparents. We will do more to support introducing compulsory sex and But despite this progress, women still abuse, violence against women and girls healthy relationships, and to tackle relationship education. face persistent challenges. They are remains a national scandal. domestic violence. And we will always under-represented in senior roles and • Step up action to stop violence against A better futurefor women lead by example when it comes to women over-represented in poorly paid work, Labour has a proud history of supporting women and girls, by appointing a new in public and senior roles, not only to earning on average just 81p for every and championing changes to ensure that commissioner to enforce minimum ensure fairness but because we know pound a man earns. Too many women women can achieve their potential and standards in tackling domestic and that the exclusion of women’s voices find themselves pushed into jobs below organise their lives in the ways they want. sexual violence, and providing more makes our public life poorer. their skills and abilities because they From the Equal Pay and Sex stable central funding for women’s cannot balance work with looking after Discrimination Acts in the 1970s to the refuges and Rape Crisis Centres. children, grandchildren or caring for an 2010 Equality Act, we have legislated to Labour’s better plan for women’s equality • Lead by example in public life including elderly relative. tackle discrimination in the workplace • Address the low pay that affects through the use of all women and in public life. The last Labour For many women these challenges have women most, by raising the Minimum shortlists in Labour parliamentary Government extended maternity rights, become more acute in the last five years. Wage to more than £8 an hour by selection contests. introduced paternity leave, and extended Stagnating wages and rising insecurity October 2019. childcare, supporting women and men to have fuelled a cost of living crisis that has balance their work commitments with • Support women and men to better hit women hard, and the Tories’ tax and family life, and took action to ensure that balance work and care, by extending benefit changes have left families across the criminal justice system takes free childcare for working parents of the country £1,100 worse off on average, domestic abuse seriously. three and four year olds from 15 to 25 with £6 in every £7 raised coming from hours a week. 6 7 1. A fair deal at work 1 A workplace culture that leaves women • Sex discrimination claims have fallen employers to dismiss female employees Labour will: too often trading off decent pay and by over 80 per cent since the while on maternity leave. We will take • Increase the National Minimum Wage progression opportunities for the introduction of employment action on the gender pay gap by to more than £8 an hour before chance of flexibility at work leaves tribunal fees. requiring companies with more than October 2019. millions trapped in poor quality jobs, 250 workers to publish their hourly pay The last Labour Government took action with the jobs dominated by women gap in their annual report. • Promote the living wage with a tax to address these challenges. The most likely to be low paid. Over forty-five rebate for firms who sign up in the first introduction of the National Minimum And we will ensure that women who years after the Equal Pay Act we have year of the next parliament. Wage helped lift the pay of millions of may face more than one form of further to go to eliminate all forms of women across the country, and the 2010 disadvantage at work because of their • Strengthen the law against maternity unfair treatment from the workplace, A better future for women A better future Equality Act strengthened protection age, ethnicity, sexuality or disability are discrimination. with many women disadvantaged not against discrimination. protected, implementing the dual only by their gender, but by their age, • Abolish the Tory-led Government’s discrimination provisions of the 2010 ethnicity, disability, or sexuality. The next Labour government will go employment tribunal fee system. Equality Act. further to improve the working life of Britain has been characterised in the last women across the country. We have a Labour will ensure that those who do five years by a rise in low pay and clear plan to tackle low pay, and will face discrimination are able to challenge insecurity, with women often at the raise the National Minimum Wage to it. We will abolish this Government’s A better futurefor women sharp end of an economy that doesn’t more than £8 an hour by October 2019. employment tribunal fee system as part work for working people. And tackling We will promote the Living Wage, with a of reforms to make sure that workers workplace unfairness has been made tax rebate for firms who sign up to have proper access to justice, employers harder by the introduction of fees for become Living Wage employers in the get a quicker resolution, and the costs to employment tribunal claimants of up to first year of the next Parliament. And we the taxpayer do not rise. £1,200 locking many women out of will do more to ensure that sectors access to justice when they face dominated by women such as care, discrimination at work. retail and hospitality are better valued, In Britain today: with new powers for the Low Pay Commission to set up taskforces to raise • A quarter of women now earn below productivity and pay in low paying the Living Wage and 60 per cent of new sectors. jobs for women since 2010 have been in low paid industries. We will go further to tackle discrimination in the workplace, • As many as 60,000 women are being strengthening the law on maternity forced out of their job each year due to discrimination to make it harder for maternity discrimination.