Theresa Villiers has been taking part in various events and discussions to mark International Women's Day. These include an event organised by Barnet Council on Friday at its offices in the North London Business Park in Brunswick Park. Here is an extract of her speech on the importance of making progress on equality for women:
"This Government is determined to deliver greater security and opportunity for women. That is a key priority for me and my colleagues in the Cabinet. I welcome the fact that the Government has made some real progress since we took office in May 2010.
For example, there are now more women in work in the UK than ever before, an increase of over 800,000. There are more women-led businesses than ever before. 20% of small and medium sized enterprises are either run by women or by a team that was over 50% female, up from 14% in 2008. There are more women on FTSE Boards than ever before, 22.8% of FTSE 100 Directors, up from 12.5% in February 2011. There are now no all-male FTSE100 boards, down from 21 in 2011.
We are also reducing taxes and reforming pensions to give women greater financial security; 58% of the 3.4m workers we are taking out of income tax are women. A key goal of our pension reforms is a fairer system to try to try address the defects in the complicated two tier system which has historically often meant a raw deal for women. The Government expects that in the first 10 years after implementation of pension reform, over 650,000 women will receive on average £8 a week more in state pension.
We are helping women at work by helping with the cost of childcare. Almost 2m families could benefit from new tax free childcare scheme from autumn 2015. We’re also expanding access to free early years education. We are addressing the gender pay gap. It’s now the lowest on record and the gap has closed altogether for full time workers under 40.
This Government continues work to end violence against women at home and abroad by introducing protections from domestic violence, criminalising forced marriage, and prioritising women and girls in our work overseas.
Our extensive programme of overseas aid has a strong gender focus and is helping 2.3 million women overseas to get jobs and over 5 million girls to attend school. We are doing all we can to combat the abhorrent practice of FGM in a range of countries.
We are also taking action to provide more protection for children from harmful material online.
Whether it is in our work on criminal justice at home, or our aid programmes which does a huge amount to support education and empowerment for women and girls, or William Hague’s ground breaking international work on ending sexual violence in conflict, we are determined to do all we can to combat violence against women and girls.
This year is the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a historic blueprint for advancing women’s rights, agreed by 189 governments in 1995.
Much has been achieved in that 20 years but there is still work to be done to deliver genuine equality between men and women, and I and the Conservatives will continue to campaign to achieve that goal."