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I remind the House of one striking example of this. In South Africa, every committee engaged in the creation of a new relationship between white and black had on it at least one woman. Nelson Mandela insisted that

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there was female representation on all those committees from beginning to end and from top to bottom. South Africa is an example of the great contribution that women have made. Another country, Bosnia, is still plagued by extreme conflict and secular prejudice and hatred. In the wisdom of the West, we imposed the Dayton agreement. There was not a single woman representative on that. Absolutely no time was given to the issues of whether there were equal rights for and representation of women. Perhaps most seriously, in a country where rape was deliberately used as a weapon of war, there was no discussion of rape. I beg to put my case. It is a radical case but I believe it to be true.

2.48 pm

Lord Crisp: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness on securing this debate and on her speech. I use my few minutes to talk about women, development and health in the poorer countries of the world. I will draw attention to two major, continuing problems facing women in these countries, and the way in which women are building their own future and are truly worthy of celebration today.

I start by following the noble Baronesses, Lady Tonge and Lady Massey, on maternity. At the time my mother was born in 1915, a woman in this country had about the same chance of dying in childbirth as is true in many poor countries today. For example, in Bangladesh it is about 1 in 200 or 250. That is not an extreme example. In places likes Afghanistan and Sierra Leone a woman has a 1 in 8 lifetime chance of dying in childbirth. I mention my mother because so much has changed. The difference is extraordinary from 1915 to now. We know how to make the difference: the science is the same. This is about science and resources. We know how to treat a woman in pregnancy to ensure, by and large, that she and the child have a safe outcome.

However, there are deeper issues here. At least half the problems in many poorer countries are about social issues. They are problems such as in northern Nigeria where women cannot leave the house without permission of the man and so cannot get to services. They are issues about contraception, as the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, already mentioned, where the simple truth is that the more pregnancies a woman has, the more she is at risk of dying in childbirth. Some very interesting research has been done on this; for example, in Ghana, where a study looked at three different communities where women had different degrees of autonomy and independence. It was interesting to note, as one would perhaps predict, that in those areas where women had less independence and less autonomy, maternal mortality and maternal morbidity were higher.

There is a similar and less well known fact about blindness. Eighty per cent of blindness is preventable or treatable; 90 per cent of it takes place in poorer countries. Here again, we know what to do. We know what the scientific and technical issues are and we know what resources are needed, yet-and this is much less well known-women are about twice as likely to go blind. This is not about genetics; it is because women are more at risk with childcare, more in contact with disease, more in contact with dirty water and more likely to get diseases such as trachoma,

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that awful blinding disease which strikes the eyelids. They are hit in a second way, because they are less likely to get treatment. I suggest that these two examples around health are similar to other diseases and that there is a great need for further social change.

These social issues which affect women's lives are not just about men's behaviour and male hierarchies, although they are fundamentally important. African women friends tell me how much of a role women play in child-birthing practice, in how girls are educated and brought up in family traditions and in the things which constrain them and their opportunities. There is an echo here, I guess, of the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, about the attitude of women on political selection panels of 30 years ago. These are genuinely societal issues.

In drawing attention to these problems, I recognise that today's debate is about celebration. In development circles, we all know how micro-finance, the giving of small loans and credit to women, is leading to extraordinary economic growth and extraordinary improvements in societies through the opportunities that it provides. We also know that the education of women is probably the most important health intervention that one can make. The evidence suggests that if a girl has five years of education, her child is 40 per cent more likely to make it to the age of five. We can see this throughout poor countries, with many wonderful examples of women individually and collectively leading the way. I think of Ghana, where the Queen Mother's Association-your Lordships may reflect on how many other countries have a Queen Mother's Association-is taking the lead in tackling maternal mortality. I acknowledge the part played by Sarah Brown as patron of the White Ribbon Alliance in advocating and working with First Ladies globally to help them to lead on this issue, although I note the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, in her remarkable speech, that First Ladies and Queen Mothers are dependent on monarchs and presidents who are normally men. I see the importance of education also in the women of Bangladesh with lesser status, who have massively reduced childhood death from water-borne diseases through a shared programme of education. One sees it everywhere in the growth of small businesses and in the development of the arts and cultural activities. There is much to celebrate and much still to work for.

2.53 pm

Lord Parekh: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Hendon, on securing this debate. When a similar debate took place about six or eight months ago, there were 12 speakers and only one of them a man: that was me, and I felt extremely uncomfortable. Today, we have 26 speakers and five of them are men, so we have certainly made some progress, but it also goes to show how far we have to go before there can be a genuine balance of representation along gender lines.

The eighth of March marks International Women's Day. When we celebrate it, it is worth bearing in mind that it was initiated by the socialist movement, especially by the Socialist Party of the United States. That may surprise your Lordships, but it did exist in those days,

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and it took the initiative in sponsoring women's day. The day used to be 28 February and was transferred to 8 March in 1913. Next year, I am told, we mark the global centenary year of International Women's Day, when I am sure that we will conduct this debate even more vigorously than we have today.

During the past 100-odd years, much has been achieved and the position of women has changed considerably for the better. There is greater appreciation of women's rights; there is greater recognition of their needs; and there is increasing education of women at all levels. There is also greater awareness of, and resistance to, domestic and sexual violence, and to many other practices such as dowry, female genital mutilation, honour killing and female foeticide that obtain in many parts of the world.

However, in spite of those improvements, we still have a long way to go, in developing countries as well as in the West. As the noble Baroness, Lady Williams of Crosby, said, it is worth remembering why changes have taken place in some developing countries and not in others. Three factors in particular have played a very important part. One is education. It is striking that development in women's education is closely correlated with the human development index. One could contrast, for example, Sri Lanka, with 92 per cent female literacy, and Myanmar, with 32 per cent female literacy. In the country that I come from, India, one could contrast Kerala, with female literacy of 97 per cent and a very high human development index, with a state up in the north, Bihar, where female literacy is 38 per cent and the human development index is extremely low. Education therefore plays an extremely important part.

The second factor which has played a very important part is democracy, which gives women a sense of dignity and power, and a determination to take control of their own affairs. Democratic countries have by and large done much better than non-democratic countries where the human development index is concerned.

The third factor has to do with active civil society associations. When they take up women's causes and give support to women with problems, the literacy rate among women tends to be high, and many of the social practices which hold them back tend to be contested and fought.

I turn to Britain, which in some senses is the centre of our debate. We have made considerable progress under Labour during the past few years. In 1992, female representation in the Commons was 9 per cent. It began to go up in 1997 and, today, it is 19.5 per cent. Female representation in the Cabinet was 7 per cent; today, it is 17 per cent. On boards of public bodies, it was 25 per cent when Labour came to power; it is 33 per cent today. In senior grades of the Civil Service, it was 12 per cent in 1997; it is 29 per cent today. Among officers of the Royal Air Force, it was 8 per cent in 1997; it is 15.3 per cent today. Among university professors, the profession to which I belong, it used to be 8 per cent; today, it is 18 per cent. It is obvious that things have improved considerably, but there is still a long way to go. In the private sector, the picture is rather depressing. Just 11 per cent of FTSE 100 companies have sufficient women as directors;

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22 per cent have no women directors. Of the banks, partly responsible for our chaos, only 8 per cent have female directors. If we had more, perhaps that chaos could have been avoided a long time ago.

We can learn much from Norway. In 1984, 83 per cent of companies there had women on their boards; today, it is 100 per cent. Five factors are responsible for things moving faster in Norway and Scandinavian countries, all of which we need to bear in mind in our struggle in our own country. First, government pressure is very important. Secondly, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has a very important role to play. Thirdly, freedom of information is important in finding out how certain companies behave and how they promote. Fourthly, private and public pressure is necessary to change the organisational culture of those companies. And, finally and most importantly, where equality is equated with uniformity women make less progress because their differences are not taken into account. Therefore, we need to define equality in such a way that differences are fully taken into account and fully reflected in the policies and practices of the organisations involved.

2.59 pm

Baroness Verma: My Lords, I join all noble Lords in congratulating my noble friend Lady Miller of Hendon. This debate is important, because while we all recognise that much progress has been made to the lives of many women in the world, and that is to be congratulated, there is, ashamedly, a lot more to do.

I will concentrate the few minutes available to me on women in and from the Indian subcontinent. As someone born in India-a country that has had a woman Prime Minister, a woman president and a woman Speaker of the lower House-in the great city of Amritsar, Punjab, into a Sikh family, and proud of my historical roots, it is also important that I raise the issues that need highlighting again and again. While we think that we are immune to their impacts here, sadly that is not the case.

Where education has been allowed to play a major role in the lives of women, there has no doubt been positive progress to the outcomes of those women and their families. But large parts of the Indian subcontinent are still rural, and there remains huge poverty both rurally and in the cities, even though the economies in the region are growing at a phenomenal rate. For example, while India has a predicted economic growth rate of around 8 per cent this year, 400 million people live on less than a dollar a day. All countries in the region recognise that investment in education and training is the way forward to ensure that people are lifted out of poverty. In fact, on a recent visit to India, it was a great joy to meet the Minister responsible for education. He was determined that education should be available to every child in India-a huge task, but one that has the determination of the Prime Minister behind it. That is a positive step, especially for girls.

I emphasise education as the key because it enables women to seek employment and to access services in their own right, and ensures that they know exactly what they are signing when unscrupulous men ask for

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signatures. While women from better-off or better-educated families live lives very much like those of the liberated women in the West, dowry, widowhood, the colour of your skin or just being a female remain huge disadvantages in these countries. While we may abhor these burdens imposed on women and girls, sadly these practices remain as traditions in many Asian families, even in Great Britain. Therefore, it is important to recognise that these practices continue to exist and that often, because the nature of these traditions is closely linked to cultural expectations, people feel resistant to challenge them.

If we are to improve the outcomes for those females who depend upon us to be their voice, whether we witness cruelty and abuse here or know of its practice in other countries, we need to challenge the politicians and communities here and of those countries to respond.

As someone who has supported women who have suffered terrible abuse at the hands of men, usually from their own families, and having always stood up for those wishing to go on to higher education because they were articulate and competent, I know how hard it is to change mindsets. But if those do not change, traditions do not change and cultures do not evolve. Wishing that your baby had died at birth must be the hardest thing that a mother can bear when she finds out that she has given birth to a girl. Sadly, for many families in the Indian subcontinent, that remains a reality, and let us not be lulled into thinking that it does not happen here.

I pay tribute to all men who are enlightened and who value the great strength that women bring. It is vital that they play their role in helping to resolve the issues that we face. However, it is the role of women to ensure that they are enlightened. My mother empowered me with confidence and self-belief, but it was my husband who supported, and still supports, everything that I do.

3.03 pm

Baroness Howe of Idlicote: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, on securing today's debate and on her sparkling and challenging speech. I think that all noble Lords would agree that while there is much to celebrate in the hard-fought-for achievements of women internationally, there is still a great deal more to do in achieving real equality of opportunity for women.

In the UK, the Equality Bill currently going through Parliament will, suitably amended, be a positive step change-of that I am quite certain. However, we need to remember that today's world is global. Thus our concern and help for equal opportunities and women's achievement must also be global. Differences in wealth between countries and in the ways in which women are treated are huge. It is on how we can best help to increase global equal opportunities and achievements for women that I wish to speak.

We will not succeed in improving the lives and achievements of women without first securing progress for girls. Women whose development has been stunted by malnutrition, who have been denied an education, and who have become accustomed to abuse and exploitation in their childhood, will find it harder to claim equality and realise their rights in adulthood.

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Plan International is an organisation that is a mover and shaker in this area. Its reports over the past three years, The State of the World's Girls, have highlighted some of the shocking discrepancies between young women's treatment and opportunities which combine to hamper development efforts. The reports outline how, in many countries, the birth of a boy is to be celebrated while the birth of a girl is a cause for commiseration. Male infant and child mortality rates should, in fact, be higher than those of females, as girls have a biological advantage over boys. Despite that, most of the 10 million children who die before the age of five every year are girls.

One of the saddest consequences of the discrimination faced by young women is that they often have a shorter childhood and are forced to take on adult responsibilities earlier than their brothers. Their productivity and work in the home, caring for family members and carrying out domestic chores, which are increasingly recognised here, are seldom recognised there. The loss of childhood can have serious and dangerous consequences. Nearly 50 per cent of all sexual assaults worldwide are against girls under 15. One in seven of the world's girls will be married before their 15th birthday, and pregnancy-related illnesses are among the leading causes of death for young girls aged between 15 and 19 worldwide. The younger the girls are when they give birth, the higher the risk of complications and death, as other noble Lords have mentioned.

Despite all this, we know that where they are valued, supported and invested in, girls can transform their lives, their communities and their countries. Educated and empowered girls are agents for sustainable change. I have two examples which I had intended to read to noble Lords, but there is no time. A 100-country survey by the World Bank found that only a 1 per cent increase in the number of female secondary students boosts a country's annual per capita income by 0.3 percentage points on average. That is an amazing figure. India alone misses out on potential economic growth worth around US $33 billion each year through underinvestment in girls. In developing countries, more than 60 million girls of primary age are out of school-more than all the girls in North America and Europe combined.

While there is no magic bullet that can ensure that the millennium development goals are met, education, particularly secondary education for girls, should be a catalyst to hasten the achievement of all other MDGs by creating a demographic dividend whereby young women will have fewer children, reducing the number of financial dependants per worker, while at the same time spurring increases in per capita wealth.

I hope that when the Leader of the House replies she will be able to confirm that helping girls worldwide to achieve an education and skills for life will continue to be a top DfID priority.

3.08 pm

Baroness Prosser: My Lords, I join others in thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, for bringing this debate to the Chamber.

In recent years, major changes have taken place in our society. Relationships between men and women

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are not as they were 50 years ago. Women are more likely to be financially independent, participate in paid employment, be well educated and expect to be treated as equals. Yet we have an hour-for-hour gender pay gap of 22 per cent. The gap is more than 40 per cent if you compare the rates earned by part-time women workers. We have women corralled into a narrow range of labour market areas. We have more women qualifying as doctors and lawyers, while their numbers are not reflected in consultancies or partnerships.

Many of these problems would be better addressed, and solutions identified, if decision-making bodies were more evenly balanced, enabling the voices of women as well as men to be heard. Unfortunately, we are a long way from that ideal. Women occupy only 19 per cent of seats in the UK Parliament and make up only 11 per cent of FTSE 100 directors, and only 33 per cent of non-executive directors on public boards. As long as decisions on strategy, direction, employment policies and so on are made by groups of people who are unrepresentative either of their workforce, customer base or society at large, those decisions will not contain the richness of life's diverse experiences.

Our Government have taken a number of initiatives to try to remedy the diversity deficit on public sector boards. Both the Women's National Commission and the Government Equalities Office are running programmes up and down the country that bring in women with board experience to encourage and assist other women who would like to get more involved.

Changing the male/female balance on private boards is trickier for government. Such decisions are rightly made by companies themselves. I do not believe that male directors make deliberate decisions to keep women away from company boards: I think that most of these people have no idea how to bring about change. They do not think about how to advertise, or how to ensure that the image of the organisation will appeal to women. They do not test out the headhunters-firms that are paid significant sums and yet time after time identify potential candidates from the same pool of people: safe, known and just like the ones we already have. A few weeks ago in this House, I proposed that the Government should address the problem by bringing together an exemplar group of companies so that issues could be considered, ways forward identified and best-practice guidelines produced. I hope that the Minister will push this proposal with her colleagues.

So what of this House and the other place? The Labour Party decision on all-women shortlists, taken some years ago, has obviously made a difference, not only to Labour representation but to the thinking of the other parties. However, with only 19 per cent representation, there is clearly some way to go. The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly both started with a blank sheet of paper, enabling better and more representative systems to be put in place. The UK Parliament does not fare well in global comparisons. It has already been mentioned that Rwanda leads the way with more than 50 per cent female representation. Sweden has 47 per cent and Argentina 40 per cent. Even Bahrain, placed in the conservative Middle East, betters the United Kingdom with 28 per cent female representation in its parliament.

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Change will not come about by osmosis. Saying that we want more representative systems will not make that happen: we must identify the hurdles and stumbling blocks and determine to remove them-and by "we", I mean all of us.

3.13 pm

Lord Dholakia: My Lords, I add my thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Hendon, for this debate.

I received the briefing pack prepared by the House of Commons Library, with the social and general statistics setting out the trends in female representation in public life. The note covers politics, public appointments, civil servants, the judiciary, the NHS, education and leading private sector vocations. Many of the statistics have already been quoted by the noble Lord, Lord Parekh. I will resist the temptation to repeat them. The statistics are predictable. The rate of advancement of women has been slow, and there remain many areas and positions where women are significantly underrepresented.

I will come back to my perennial grumble. I say this every time I speak in such debates. One significant area where there is zero representation of women is on our Bishops' Benches. I do not for one minute underestimate their contribution on equality matters, but it would be helpful to know when we can expect this anomaly to be rectified.

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