“We will never be a successful society in which everybody is able to achieve their potential until we have full equality for women. We will take action to remove the barriers in our society to women achieving full equality. We will tackle discrimination, sexism and violence against women and girls. We will not transform society overnight but working together we can take us further along the path to an equal society for all”.
The next Labour government, under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, will take decisive action against sexism, discrimination and violence against women and girls.
1. We will invest in an economy that delivers for women.
86% of cuts since 2010 have fallen on women. Our public investment strategy will provide a foundation for the economy to grow, and from which to properly fund and democratise our public services and end the cuts that women, as the majority of public service users and workforce, have borne the brunt of. Ending Britain’s housing crisis by building a million new homes and introducing rent controls will help to address the nightmare of being trapped in abusive relationships simply because of a lack of somewhere else to go.
Labour will ensure increased recruitment of women into Science, Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing occupations and will tackle occupational segregation in our economy. Labour will also give enhanced powers to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to penalise companies that do not publish detailed gender pay data at a company-wide level as part of tackling equal pay issues.
2. We will increase women’s representation in our society, democracy and party.
We will support all women shortlists to achieve 50:50 representation in Parliament and the same aim for all public offices, and support a policy-making annual Labour Women’s Conference.
We will also publish a regular ‘gender audit’ of Labour policies and consult on establishing a high level, strategic Women’s Advisory Board linked to the Leader’s Office to ensure women are at the heart of our policies, and to support the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, along with advisory boards on other equality strands.
3. We will tackle sexual harassment as well as threats online.
To tackle harassment and abuse, we will ensure that Sex and Relationship Education is compulsory in all schools, with a focus on sexual health, healthy relationships and consent.
Online, we will deliver a wide-ranging consultation exercise on how to strengthen the law and its implementation and increase organisations’ responsibility towards promoting safe and respectful ‘community standards’. Within the party we will take forward the recommendations of the Shami Chakrabarti Inquiry to consult on and introduce a wider Equal Opportunities Policy, training and guidance for members and staff, recognising that online abuse is often also racist and homophobic in nature as well as misogynistic.
