Meeting of the Parliament 03 March 2020
Sandra White is correct. Women need independent financial control over their own lives, which is central when it comes to making decisions.
As the motion identifies, there are many layers of discrimination—that is key to addressing the different aspects of sex discrimination. I want to mention the disadvantages and discrimination that BME women face in their everyday lives. More has to be done to protect Muslim women in particular by looking at guidance and keeping them safe, in particular those who feel vulnerable when wearing head scarves. I commend Anas Sarwar and others on their work on Islamophobia last week.
Last month in Turkey, a law was introduced that will allow men accused of having sex with girls under 18 to avoid punishment if they marry their victims. That is hard to believe in this day and age. The controversial so-called marry your rapist bill has sparked fury among women’s rights campaigners in Turkey. According to the United Nations, more than a third of Turkish women have suffered physical or sexual violence from a partner.
Such legislation and legal revisions have been on the statute books in other countries in the middle east and north Africa, but, thanks to the wonderful work of women activists across those countries—in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Palestine—those loopholes have been removed in recent years. Male violence against women is global, so we must work globally.
This month marks five decades since the movement then called women’s liberation had its first conference at Ruskin College, Oxford. Its four key demands were: equal pay; equal educational and job opportunities; free contraception and abortion on demand; and 24-hour nurseries. The conference’s focus was not only on the demand for equal pay; it discussed the fact that work that was predominantly done by women, such as care work, was less valued. It is clear that those themes remain today.
It continues to be the case that most single-parent families are headed by women. They make up nearly a third of families in Scotland, and more than half live in poverty—a figure that, it is estimated, will rise to almost two thirds by 2021 as a result of welfare reform. The fact that women and children are living in poverty was the reason for my arguing for an amendment to the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 to take account of the specific hardship that single parents face.
The law on equal pay is clear: women should be paid the same as men not only for doing the same job but for doing work of equal value. Asda is still in dispute with more than 35,000 female members of its workforce over equal pay. So far, it has lost four appeals. When will it, and other companies like it, realise that women expect to be paid the same as men for work of equal value? The Court of Appeal has agreed with that view. In the latest equal pay claim to be brought against a major supermarket, more than a hundred Co-op shop-floor workers are seeking up to six years’ worth of back pay.