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Women: Government Policy

My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Gould of Potternewton, on introducing this debate with such clarity and good humour. With so many speakers, it would appear that everything has been said. I believe that the suffragettes, wherever they are, are smiling down on this debate because so many men have participated, which is unusual for such a debate. I am sure that the suffragettes will feel that 2008 is a good year when men are encouraged to keep alive faith in women. It is not in dispute that this Government have taken the issue of gender inequality seriously with the Equality Act 2006. Many provisions were made. However, when the Bill was brought before the House, I had concerns about how this would affect race equality. As research has shown, black women find themselves being doubly discriminated against by being black and by being women. They are twice hampered in reaching the top of their professions, even when they are allowed on the first rung of the ladder. Few black women have broken through the glass ceiling of inequality in race and gender. Today we heard of the many challenges that women face in reaching the upper levels of their career path. But I want to take this opportunity to highlight the bigotry and difficulties of discrimination faced by black women. Because of this I hope to bring to the attention of this House the ways in which it is felt that more could be done to secure a fairer and more equal society. After more than 40 years of equality legislation, the position of black and minority women is that they suffer disproportionate discrimination. For example, whereas 10 per cent of executive directors of the FTSE 100 companies are women, only 0.4 per cent are women from black or other ethnic minorities. The same is true of politics; only 20 per cent of Members of the other place are women, yet there are only two black women. Only 2 per cent of local councillors are women from black and other ethnic minorities. Even in other areas the levels of discrimination are higher for black women than for women. Yet here in the House of Lords, the glass ceiling was cracked with a Leader of the House and an Attorney-General from the Afro-Caribbean community. I am sure that the House will agree that they were of great benefit and that other minority groups will bring as much to this House as we would expect. The Fawcett Society’s 2005 study found that there are no ethnic minority women police chief constables and there are no ethnic minority women judges in the House of Lords or the Court of Appeal. A woman victim of domestic violence has 11 contacts with agencies before getting the help she needs; this rises to 17 if she is black. Furthermore black women are more likely to be refused small business or other bank loans than white women, and black women are more likely than white women to live in substandard accommodation. This handful of statistics provides a brief glimpse into some of the problems of discrimination preventing black and ethnic minority women reaching their full potential. To counter these pervasive trends we do not need new legislation to tackle the problems faced by black women today, and we do not need legal structures based on issues 30 or 40 years old. Current equality law comprises 116 separate pieces of legislation: 35 Acts, 52 statutory instruments, 13 codes of practice and 16 EC directives. The legal structure lacks consistency and is confusing to all except the experts. This complexity leads to problems for the Equality and Human Rights Commission in ensuring that the legislation is effective and for employers’ organisations in their efforts to comply with the existing legal codes. I should like to highlight a few areas in which the current legal framework could be improved. There should be designated people in an organisation who are publicly accountable for the organisation’s performance on equality. Individuals should have the power to obtain the information they need to see whether an organisation is meeting its equality targets and to question and monitor those targets. To avoid confusion there needs to be clarity on what is and is not permitted under the law. Legislation must be underpinned by clear, simple and practical guidance on how organisations can use the law to meet equality targets. Workable targets for increasing the promotion of black and ethnic minority women to high level jobs, once they are qualified to do so, is important. There should be government-supported initiatives to help and support black and ethnic minority women in establishing their own businesses. We need forums for supporting black women in certain professions, along the lines of the successful American system of equality forums. These are established within individual companies to encourage black women to reach higher positions. It is often said that we need role models in this country. Challenging inter-discrimination between different minority groups has shown that it would be impossible to produce role models for everyone. These are just a few suggestions that could improve the position of black and ethnic minority women and streamline equality legislation. I hope that in the near future we will be debating these issues on the Floor of the House as a matter of course and that eventually all women in this country will enjoy a life free from discrimination. There is a saying, ““Example is better than precept””.