Today – to celebrate tomorrow’s International Women’s Day - I’ve met some of those who are doing their bit to make the positive case for equality for women both in this country and further afield.
Huge strides have undoubtedly been made since the first International Women’s Day was held in 1911. But there is further to go. We can, and must, do more.
The theme of this year’s IWD is Inspiring Change and the group of successful Scottish women I met this morning all had inspiring stories to tell. Some were entrepreneurs, others hailed from the arts or academia.
The women here were excellent examples of both women’s economic empowerment and raising aspirations for girls. As they – and thousands more like them – demonstrate, women make a powerful contribution to our economy here in Scotland. We also recognise the role that we can play in ensuring that more girls and young women decide to enter the workplace and take up challenges like starting their own business.
We discussed the need to break down barriers and how best to break through the glass ceiling. I heard from them about the challenges they have faced and we discussed ways in which government can make a difference to help all women be the best they can be.
Women have a huge amount to contribute to our economy and we must ensure they are not kept out of the workplace by lack of opportunities, the cost of childcare or inflexible working patterns.
The UK Government is committed to making a difference and we are driving through improvements in terms of flexible working, tax relief and childcare. Where we can do more, I am determined that that is what we must do.
But we’re also working to improve lives of women throughout the world. Globally, more than 125 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation but UK aid is working to reduce the practice by 30 per cent in at least 10 countries in the next five years.
I believe that empowerment is key to achieving gender equality and education is the key to empowerment. When we consider what success might look like, I believe that it is about more than getting equal numbers of women into the boardroom. It is about making sure that women are empowered to choose – if they want to be a CEO they should have the opportunities to achieve that but if they choose another route then what is important is that they have been empowered to make a meaningful choice.
There are also other issues. As my colleague Justine Greening said recently: “As long as early and forced marriage exists we have not fulfilled our promise to girls and young women. It’s time for us to break the silence and take action.”
I echo these sentiments and I hope International Women’s Day will inspire all of us to consider how we can make changes for the better.