{"id":68346,"date":"2016-03-08T18:18:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T18:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=4f3edd07ce95cd596d362682a88ef30c"},"modified":"2016-03-11T14:33:16","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T14:33:16","slug":"speech-justine-greening-the-world-cannot-wait-for-womens-empowerment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=68346","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Justine Greening: The world cannot wait for women’s empowerment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated:<\/em> Updated from speaking notes to transcript of delivered speech.<\/p>\n

\n

Introduction<\/h3>\n

Thank you, Kevin. It\u2019s just fantastic to be here at the end of what I know has been a really amazing, very powerful day.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s also fantastic because of course it\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day, and as we look ahead, I think what I see ahead for 2016 \u2013 is that this is a really vital year in terms of pushing forward on women and girls\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

And, I know that some of you will be thinking, hang on, you actually said the same last year. And I did say, last year, that 2015 was also a key, critical year for gender equality \u2013 and that was true too.<\/p>\n

And 2015 was an important year for girls and women \u2013 because we successfully fought for the very first time for that standalone gender goal, Goal 5, in the new Sustainable Development Goals, and \u2013 I should say \u2013 against at times some real opposition to having that goal in place. And, in spite of that, now for the first time ever in 2016 we\u2019ve got key targets on sexual and reproductive health rights, ending FGM and also child marriage, amongst many other things. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, we\u2019ve actually ensured that gender equality runs through those Global Goals, because no goal can be considered achieved \u2013 whether it\u2019s on education, on sanitation, on health \u2013 unless it\u2019s achieved for everyone: women and men, girls and boys. No one can be left behind.<\/p>\n

So 2015 really mattered.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s also why this year, 2016, is so important. Because last year was about getting the rights of women and girls on the world\u2019s to do list \u2013 but this year is about doing that to do list. And I don\u2019t think we should lose a single moment in making those goals a reality.<\/p>\n

And as we\u2019ve heard 2016 will also be the year of the UN High Level Panel on girls and women\u2019s economic empowerment \u2013 announced by the UN Secretary General in January. It\u2019s really the first time that the UN have ever put together a High Level Panel on this sort of issue.<\/p>\n

And Ban Ki-moon rightly sees this as absolutely critical if we\u2019re going to see the Sustainable Development Goals actually work successfully. In fact, in his words, he said: \u201cTo achieve the Goals, we need a quantum leap in women\u2019s economic empowerment\u201d.<\/p>\n

So this panel is not just about making the next little baby steps, this is about a structural, fundamental change and step forward in women and girls\u2019 economic empowerment.<\/p>\n

And I absolutely share his view and I\u2019m very proud to be one of the founding members of that panel. I believe that women\u2019s economic empowerment is something that simply can\u2019t wait. Girls and women around the world can\u2019t wait. The world can\u2019t wait. And a lack of empowerment for women is pulling all of us down.<\/p>\n

The challenge<\/h3>\n

And I want to be very clear today that, for me, when it comes to winning the battle on gender equality – we are getting there, but it\u2019s taking far too long.<\/p>\n

And, yes, there have been big victories in the battle for women\u2019s rights \u2013 but frankly, for me, the pace of change has not been good enough \u2013 and that\u2019s also what I think we need to keep at the forefront of our minds this International Women\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

The problems faced by girls and women will have been set out many, many times over the course of today \u2013 the statistics that, in some parts of the world, paint such a terrible picture for so many women:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Child marriage. 1 in 4 girls in developing countries will likely be married before the age of 18, and 1 in 12 before the age of 15<\/li>\n
  • 1 in 3 women worldwide, as we know, beaten or go through sexual violence in their lifetime. How is that something any of us can accept?<\/li>\n
  • 200 million women around the world have undergone FGM. This represents brutal violence against girls and women on a daily basis<\/li>\n
  • In Uganda, a woman is 123 times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman here in the UK.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Globally, just 50% of women participate in formal labour markets and have that sort of financial independence that can bring – compared with 77% of men. In 17 countries, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working. In 29 countries, women are prohibited from working at night. In 34 countries, women do not have the same inheritance rights as men.<\/p>\n

    And even here, in Britain, we have to ask ourselves some searching questions.<\/p>\n

    This year marks 150 years ago since John Stuart Mill presented a petition to parliament, the very first one that was asking to give women the same political rights as men had. But it took over 6 decades till 1928 when all women over 21 in Britain finally won the right to vote. Change really took time on voting rights here \u2013 and we still have further to go. There are still many glass ceilings here in Britain to smash. <\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s look close to home for me as a politician: party leaders have come and gone, over the years but there\u2019s still just been one \u2013 out of all of them \u2013 one female leader of a major political party in Britain. And that was a long, long time ago \u2013 so long ago it was when I was growing up in the 1980s in Rotherham.<\/p>\n

    There are more women on FTSE 350 boards than ever before, which is great news, and in fact representation of women has more than doubled since 2011.<\/p>\n

    But as CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn set out earlier this year, there are actually just 9 more female executive directors on FTSE350 boards than in 2010 and actually the number of female chief executives has hardly moved.<\/p>\n

    Even in our schools, where you might think there must be more equality because women have been very well represented in the teaching profession for decades, actually only 37% of school heads are women despite three-quarters of teachers being female. So let\u2019s just look at the reverse of that \u2013 so 25% of teachers are blokes but actually they represent getting on for three-quarters of the teachers who go on to become head teachers.<\/p>\n

    Look at our own capital, we\u2019re sat here in London, one of the most advanced capitals, cities in the world. More progress, again, needed:<\/p>\n

    Less than a third of London Assembly members are women \u2013 that\u2019s 8 of 25
    \nOn average men working in the City earn over \u00a320,000 more than women
    \nMore than half of all newly identified cases of FGM, around 1,300, in the UK from July to September last year occurred right here in London.<\/p>\n

    And when we look further afield, let\u2019s look globally, according to the World Economic Forum, the global gender gap across health, education, economic opportunity and politics has closed by only 4% in the last 10 years, with the economic gap closing in that time by just 3%. They suggest that at this rate it will take another 118 years to close this gap completely.<\/p>\n

    Well, is there anyone here who wants to wait to wait to the year 2134? Because I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

    So let\u2019s look at the alternative though:<\/p>\n

    Because if girls and women were operating at their full potential and playing an identical role in labour markets to men\u2019s then, you look at the work that McKinsey Global Institute did \u2013 their recent research estimated that achieving gender parity would be worth around $28 trillion to the world\u2019s global economy, or 26% which is a huge, huge amount that could be added to global GDP in 2025.<\/p>\n

    They estimate that here in the UK gender parity could bring about \u00a30.6 trillion of additional annual GDP by 2025 \u2013 that\u2019s a massive value from improving gender equality and gender parity.<\/p>\n

    So my point today is the world shouldn\u2019t just wait for girls and women\u2019s economic empowerment to steadily happen \u2013 we should be looking to turbo charge it so that it speeds up at an unprecedented rate. <\/p>\n

    And what all of this shows, is that our global economy needs women\u2019s economic empowerment as much as any other lever that our central bankers can pull.<\/p>\n

    So as well as being about basic, human rights for girls and women, gender equality is also in all of our interests. And when women are losing out \u2013 we\u2019re all losing out. And at a time when there\u2019s so much economic uncertainty in global markets, the world just can\u2019t afford to lock women out of the workplace \u2013 we need to be in the board rooms, in the offices, in industry.<\/p>\n

    And economic empowerment goes right to the heart of women\u2019s rights \u2013 because it\u2019s about jobs but it\u2019s also about access to bank accounts, it\u2019s about tackling violence against girls and women, it\u2019s about overcoming discriminatory laws and reducing the burden of unpaid domestic work. All of these things need to be on the to do list for the High Level Panel to look at and tackle.<\/p>\n

    And I believe that women\u2019s economic empowerment is a game changer \u2013 both for tackling poverty but also for building global prosperity.
    \nNo country can afford to leave half its population behind. This has been going on for too long \u2013 and I don\u2019t accept it at all.<\/p>\n

    The UN High Level Panel is fundamentally going to be about turbo charging all of our efforts to deliver real and lasting change and I\u2019m very proud to be part of that.<\/p>\n

    Voice, choice, control<\/h3>\n

    And the question for all of us today, therefore, is not just where we need to go but how fast we can get there? How can we accelerate the pace of change?<\/p>\n

    What\u2019s that going to take? <\/p>\n

    And I think it comes down to voice, choice and control. We have to look at politics, we have to look at the business world \u2013 we have to look at the attitudes that people have within their communities and countries and even within the home. <\/p>\n

    So what about women having a real voice over the decisions that affect them? Internationally we really need the next UN Secretary General to really pick up the baton that\u2019s going to be handed over by the current one Ban Ki-moon on gender equality \u2013 so perhaps for the next UN Secretary General it\u2019s time that they were a woman for the first time. Why not?<\/p>\n

    And again, on women having a voice, we need women to be equally represented in Parliaments around the world.<\/p>\n

    In Somalia \u2013 where only 14% of MPs are women, in Sierra Leone \u2013 where just over 12% are women, but also in Japan \u2013 where only 9% are women. And in Britain where it\u2019s still only 30% despite the big progress that we have seen made. So we need around 130 more women MPs here in Britain to be equal in parliament. Let\u2019s find those 130 more women.<\/p>\n

    And my message to women in Britain is: if you\u2019re a great, capable woman then run, run for parliament, run for local government, run for being a police and crime commissioner. If you know a great, capable woman \u2013 then ask her to run. Dare I say \u2013 hashtag #AskHerToRun?<\/p>\n

    So let\u2019s make this happen \u2013 we can do it, it\u2019s in our gift.<\/p>\n

    What about women being able to choose their own futures? Whether they\u2019re sitting in Britain\u2019s boardrooms or whether they are smallholder farmers in Ethiopia \u2013 they need to be empowered economically. <\/p>\n

    And finally the control that women have over their own lives and their own bodies, our own bodies, when and how many children we have, when we get married, the right not to have FGM. <\/p>\n

    We have to finally overcome these discriminatory social norms that are holding girls and women back \u2013 the cultures and the traditions that can define what a girl is for. And I believe culture and tradition should never be used as an excuse for inaction on girls and women\u2019s rights and too often it is. <\/p>\n

    So Britain is going to fight for a world where there is voice, choice and control for girls and women.<\/p>\n

    Nationally, we are continuing to get our own house in order: new league tables putting the spotlight on companies that aren\u2019t addressing the gender pay gap. Supporting more and more women to start and grow their own business, including through Start-up Loans and mentoring. We\u2019re taking new steps that I think are really important on tackling FGM, on tackling forced marriage \u2013 setting up forced marriage unit, as well as on refuges and rape support centres. <\/p>\n

    But internationally, for myself as Secretary of State for DFID, we\u2019re going to continue to work with countries that are moving in the same direction on this \u2013 supporting countries like Ethiopia that are really now focused on stamping out harmful practices such as child marriage and FGM. And that political leadership is vital, but of course it\u2019s not the case that you see this political leadership everywhere.<\/p>\n

    So in the countries where that leadership just isn\u2019t there, we\u2019re going to keep on focusing supporting those amazing grassroots movements, those local organisations, the women\u2019s rights groups, the boys and men who are often the people advocating for change on the ground.<\/p>\n

    Go back to John Stuart Mill \u2013 he was an amazing man fighting for women\u2019s rights and it shows that men and boys can be the game-changers on this just as much as girls and women.<\/p>\n

    And indeed, when he presented that petition to allow women to vote to parliament, the establishment was all against him in 1866. But by 1928 that resistance had really broken down when women finally got the vote. And it was because of a grassroots movement here that that changed \u2013 it was the suffragettes who kept fighting for change and in doing so transformed this amazing country that we all live in for the better.<\/p>\n

    And I think it all adds up to this: the mission for gender equality will continue to underpin everything that we\u2019re doing at DFID. It underpins what this Government is doing in the UK. And it needs to underpin, I believe, the work of the UN, of all governments and businesses around our world. <\/p>\n

    I want to see this fight for women\u2019s rights having the same momentum, the same progress, the same international deal-making, and the same pace and urgency as we\u2019ve seen around climate change in recent years. We got that ground-breaking deal in Paris on climate change \u2013 so if we can do a deal to save the planet \u2013 why can\u2019t we start doing the deals that are going to sort out gender equality once and for all, in the 21st Century. <\/p>\n

    Call to action<\/h3>\n

    So, I want to conclude with a call to action \u2013 not just to everyone in this room but to everyone and anyone who cares about this issue, whatever your gender, wherever you are, whether you\u2019re in Britain or around the world. <\/p>\n

    Because inequality between men and women is the greatest unmet human challenge that the world continues to face this century. And it requires the same kind of global commitment that we\u2019re now seeing around climate change. And the whole world needs to rally round improving women\u2019s rights. <\/p>\n

    The Sustainable Development Goals gave us a blueprint for women\u2019s rights around the world \u2013 so let\u2019s use it.<\/p>\n

    And in the end by building a better world for women, we are building a better world for everyone. And we can see the world that we all want \u2013 we just have to get there faster and we need to go further.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019ve often said that when it comes to women\u2019s rights: if we\u2019re not winning this battle then, de facto, we\u2019re losing it. And there\u2019s plenty of people out there who do think things have already gone too far \u2013 and they\u2019re going to try and claw back the progress that we\u2019ve already made. They\u2019ll all be at the Commission on the Status of Women next week in New York.<\/p>\n

    But I\u2019m determined that, over time, we\u2019re steadily going to drown out their voices and those voices that are against women\u2019s rights and progress.<\/p>\n

    And those people will steadily understand what it feels like to be in a minority, because that\u2019s what we need to make their voices. <\/p>\n

    And that\u2019s because the other aspect of I think what we\u2019re now just starting to see is a network effect. Because as we\u2019re seeing more progress and more girls and women getting rights, there are actually more girls and women who\u2019ve got rights who are now speaking up like the rest of us for those who haven\u2019t \u2013 so there are more and more and more voices that are there to call for change.<\/p>\n

    So the more that we can be and give a voice to those that still don\u2019t have one, the more that we can all shout for change, the more that we can give that platform to those voices demanding change, I believe the more irresistible that movement will become, until in the end actually every country will have to move forward.<\/p>\n

    I talked about John Stuart Mill at the beginning of this speech. I don\u2019t want someone to be here in my place in 150 years\u2019 time talking about this day, this speech I made, that other people made, because they\u2019re here also having to make a similar speech about the need for more pace and urgency on women\u2019s rights because there\u2019s still more to do.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s too long to wait. <\/p>\n

    In our lifetimes, for our girls, for our children, for everyone \u2013 let\u2019s all of us, men and women, girls and boys, finish off that job. Let\u2019s make women equal.<\/p>\n

    Thank you.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Find out more<\/h3>\n