Socialist women have been at the forefront of struggles for liberation for over a century. In Salford I have been lucky enough to have been surrounded by the history of pioneering suffragettes from Mary Clarke to Elizabeth Wolstenholme as I grew up, and that socialist feminism has shaped my politics.
After 120 years it is time that Labour finally elects a woman as leader, not just to tick a box but because of what I stand for.
I know that I was one of the lucky women from where I grew up who has done well, but that’s not good enough. Feminism must always be about much more than individual women doing well simply because they are lucky like I was; it is about changing the system to ensure that all women in all our diversity succeed. Not just tinkering around the edges. I don’t want to see an increase in women CEOs if it doesn’t also mean the end of women being the majority of those locked into low-paid, insecure work.
I am proud that women are now just over half of elected Labour MPs and in recent years women have been half the Shadow Cabinet. As Labour leader I will make sure that women in all our diversity and strength are represented at every level of our party, participating and making decisions. It means ensuring our party, its structures and events are accessible. And I want women to see our party as having their interests, their equality and liberation at its heart, and coming up with the answers to the challenges they face.
Entrenched ideas of a woman’s role still permeates society. I am often asked how I manage being a mother to a young child, an MP and in the Shadow Cabinet. There is no denying it is hard juggling different responsibilities, as many women know but I wonder how often my male colleagues and counterparts are asked such questions. It is part of the same spectrum that leads to 54,000 women a year losing their jobs for being pregnant, and many more find they are sidelined at work and fewer opportunities for promotion appear.
“There is no path to power which does not have the equality and freedom of all women at its heart.”
- Rebecca Long-Bailey
Take the care industry, for example - when it’s paid employment, caring is undervalued, low paid and insecure – and yet it is emotionally and physically demanding, and much needed. As social care has become ever more restricted and childcare more expensive it is women who have by and large picked up these responsibilities: caring for older relatives and young children. Why is that a woman’s role and why is it not valued? These are structural issues which must be pulled down.
It is clear in this, and a multiplicity of other ways, that as a society and country the potential and aspirations of millions are left unfulfilled – and that things have got worse in recent years, not better. Amnesty International have said that the burden of cuts and austerity – 86 per cent of which has fallen on women ―have left women in a “precarious” position, with Black and Asian women, disabled women and single mothers being hit hardest. The impact of austerity and cuts has been to limit women’s voices and choices even further at every turn.
It is why so-called ‘women’s issues’ can never be seen as a separate interest to the broader questions of how we redistribute power and wealth in our society, and how we solve the connected crises we face as a country; the crisis in our living standards, our climate, our democracy and in our public services. As a movement we must have a goal of changing society to one where women are able to have control and choices over their lives and bodies. I fully support a woman’s right to choose and defending women’s reproductive rights.
The cuts to social security and the very design of Universal Credit penalises women. The cuts to our NHS and public services hurt women as they are the majority of public sector workers, women need those services more, and cuts to public transport have impacted women’s feeling of safety.
I want a society where girls and women are free from violence and abuse. This means fighting for cultural change and holding the government to account for the nearly £7 million cuts between 2010 and 2018 made to women’s life-saving services such as refuges. Cuts to our police services, the criminal justice system and women’s specialist support services are letting women down. At present the conviction rate for rape cases is currently at 1.4%.
This has led to the End Violence Against Women and Girls Coalition and the Victim’s Commissioner to state that ‘rape has been decriminalised’ and that men can rape with impunity. Recently the media shone a light on the failures of the criminal justice system in Cyprus, but we have a similar crisis here in the UK. Despite more women coming forward, powered by the #MeToo movement, only a small percentage of these cases will result in a conviction and, due to cuts, survivors are forced to wait months for therapy.
In building a society where all women live free from violence and are equal we must ensure we are fighting for the rights of all women, seeing off the rise of the far right and racism, supporting the rights of migrant women and calling for the closure of Yarl’s Wood and cruel detention centres, and supporting the rights of trans women.
But we all know it is not enough to simply end the cuts. It is why some of Labour’s most far reaching and ambitious policies were about going further than we have done ever before to achieve equality. As Labour leader I will keep these, for example, our target of ending the gender pay gap by 2030. We cannot retreat from this ambitious agenda – that would be to let women down. It is why the elected Senate I want to replace the House of Lords would be tasked with assessing legislation against how it contributes towards equality.
I am proud of the Green Industrial Revolution policies I developed to remake our economy so it is sustainable and delivers social justice, creating good quality unionised jobs in each and every local community – and for the whole community. It is an invitation to break down the gender and other occupational segregation that remains in place. We should continue to push for equality audits that take action to end the gender, race and disability gaps that exist in recruitment, pay and promotion. We need cultural change to end the gender stereotyping of roles that continue to narrow and restrict the hopes and dreams of young girls.
There is no path to power which does not have the equality and freedom of all women at its heart. It is striking that at the last election Labour polled higher among women than men in every age group — amongst 18 to 24 year olds there was a 19 point lead amongst women. This is something we got right – and we need to develop further, not retreat from.
We have a mountain to climb over the next few years and we need to be fighting the Tories now to begin to meet that challenge. Over the past few weeks during this leadership election I have faced attacks on my background, my family and my faith. I have experienced a tiny fraction of what Diane Abbott has experienced for years.
Last week my colleague Tracy Brabin faced a vitriolic tide of abuse on her ability to do her job and her personality simply because of her choice in clothes: questions that are rarely hurled at a Prime Minister who makes a virtue of being permanently dishevelled. We have always been stronger than the bully boys, our voices won’t be silenced and we won’t stop taking the actions needed for women’s collective empowerment. It is why I am standing for Labour leader and why I believe it is time we had a woman leader.
Rebecca Long-Bailey is the MP for Salford and Eccles, the shadow business secretary and a candidate to be leader of the Labour Party.