Labour Women’s Conference — Making Policy with Labour’s Phenomenal Women
Labour’s National Women’s Conference took place in Liverpool yesterday, ahead of the main conference which opened today. It shone a spotlight on the phenomenal insight, talent, passion and commitment of Labour women activists who as well as being workers, carers, partners and parents are also active in their CLPs, on their councils and in their communities fighting for women’s right and Labour values.
I was privileged to be the delegate for Hornsey & Wood Green CLP, the largest CLP in the country at an inspiring event that left me ever more determined to go back to my constituency and ensure we return a Labour Government at the earliest opportunity.
A day of inspiring keynote speeches
Conference opened with keynote speeches from Labour General Secretary Jennie Formby; Debbie Wilcox, Leader of the Welsh Local Government Association; Dawn Butler, Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities; and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Jennie spoke of the need to get more women into leadership and representative positions at all levels of the party and described the work of the Jo Cox Foundation which is seeking to achieve this. Debbie echoed this call and highlighted that just 28% of councillors in Wales are women compared with 38% in England.
Your Hornsey and Wood Green Labour delegates will this week bring a motion to conference supporting a change to party rules which would mean that one of the two positions of leader and deputy leader must be occupied by a woman. H&WG CLP members believe that the party leadership must be representative of its members.
There was thunderous applause for the fantastic video, ‘We Stand on the Shoulders of Phenomenal Women’, which highlighted the work of women MPs in the 100 years of women voting. Women such as Margaret Bondfield MP, the first woman cabinet member in 1929; and Barbara Castle who introduced the Equal Pay Act in 1970. Bringing us up to date the video highlighted our current phenomenal women MPs including Angela Rayner, Cat Smith, Diane Abbott, Jo Cox, Dawn Butler and many more. Labour has more women in Parliament than all the other parties combined.
Dawn Butler’s speech highlighted the appalling attacks women have suffered under the Tories. Attacks on pay, trade union rights, job security, pensions, council services, refugees. childcare, education and more have all disproportionately impacted women negatively. It is women who are more likely to be low paid and on zero hours contracts; women who bear the brunt of caring responsibilities; women who have to pick up the pieces when refuges are closed down and when adult care services are cut.
Dawn announced that the next Labour Government would require employers to grant ten days’ paid leave to victims of domestic violence. She also spoke about intersectionality and said Labour would amend equality legislation so people could bring forward claims against more than one type of equality discrimination.
Jeremy received a huge and warm welcome from delegates. He spoke with passion about the injustices facing women in Tory Britain. He highlighted the £6.3 billion cut from adult social care since 2010 and acknowledged that it was women who were picking up the pieces through unpaid and unacknowledged caring responsibilities. Jeremy announced that Labour would create a national care service and increase carers’ allowances. Labour would also end the hostile environment and restore the social security system to one that put people’s needs at its heart. To tackle unequal pay, he pledged that Labour would introduce fines for employers that failed to take action to eradicate their gender pay gap — which, at 19%, is an ongoing national disgrace.
The priorities for the rest of conference
There were debates on the four policy areas that had topped the priorities ballot following voting by Constituency Labour Parties and affiliated organisations. These were:
- Women and the Economy
- Childcare
- Abortion
- Women’s Health and Safety.
Each of the debates saw strong speeches from a diverse group of delegates and all were passed unanimously by conference, but it was Women and the Economy which was ultimately prioritised.
Women’s conference is a unique opportunity to witness the enormous talent and commitment of Labour women, learn from one another, share our stories, cry together (there were a lot of tears during some very moving personal accounts) and importantly make policy together.
February 2019 will see the first full weekend-long women’s conference in Telford. Finally, women’s conference has been given the recognition and status that it deserves as a key policy-making body of the party. It can only go from strength to strength.
You can find out more about our manifesto and what’s going on in Hornsey and Wood Green on our new website.
