Women's Rights: What Are the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems Promising?

People would have you believe this is a single-issue election: Brexit versus a second referendum. But it’s about so much more than that. The vital political issues that have been on ice since the UK voted to leave the European Union will finally be addressed.

And what more important political issue than women’s rights? After all, two women a week are killed by current and former partners in the UK, and women have been shown to be the most affected by austerity. But which of the three main parties will do the most for British women? We stacked up their manifesto promises, so you don’t have to.

I’m not going to win any fans by saying this, but historically the Tories have been relatively progressive when its comes to violence against women, implementing the world’s first ban on coercive control in 2015. (Even if the Tories did also strip funding for life-saving women’s refuges – confusing!) Sadly, there’s none of that progressiveness in their 2019 manifesto.

There’s an astonishing amount of padding here. Mostly, the manifesto reaffirms existing government commitments rather than promising anything new, which is the exact point of a manifesto. Take this point: “We have reformed redundancy law so companies cannot discriminate against women immediately after returning from maternity leave.” That’s nice, but what’s new about that?

There are vague commitments to fighting FGM, rape and forced marriage, but absolutely no detail on how that would be achieved. It’s also worth remembering that the decades-long Tory policy of austerity has been proven to disproportionately impact women – so a vote for Boris Johnson this December is a vote for the further decimation of women’s right to live and work in a humane, equitable society.

Leader Jo Swinson embodies the sort of confused head-girl feminism you associate with leaned-in Crossfit #gals, but is the manifesto any better?

The Lib Dems have pledged to compensate the 3.8 million women caught in the so-called “pension trap” and have been unfairly hit by the rise in the state pension age. (Women who were born in the 1950s claim to have been given improper notice of the rise to the state pension age, meaning that they have to work longer or be left in poverty.)

They’Ve also revived a 2011 proposal from criminal justice reform advocates to establish a Women’s Justice Board to provide specialist training for staff dealing with vulnerable women in the criminal justice system. This isn’t a new idea, but it is a good one – the vast majority of women in prison are sent there for non-violent crimes and are often victims of abuse and exploitation.

They’ve promised to ratify the Istanbul Convention on violence against women (this sounds impressive, but Theresa May’s Government pledged to ratify the convention in 2017 as part of their wider Domestic Abuse Bill) and have promised to expand the number of refuges and rape crisis centres to meet demand. They haven’t specified how much funding they’d set aside for this.

There’s also some vague stuff about putting more women on boards. Interestingly, one of their flagship women’s rights pledges – giving local authorities the duty and funding tp provide accommodation for abuse survivors – was already promised by the government back in May. Guess they really are Tory-lite.

Let’s just get to the policies: the appointment of a Commissioner for Violence against Women and Girls. An independent review into the national scandal of our rape conviction rates (things are so bad that advocates warn rape has been essentially decriminalised). A National Refuge Fund, financial stability for rape crisis centres, and the reintroduction of the Domestic Abuse Bill, which got pushed off the legislative agenda due to the Brexit chaos earlier this year. They’d also compensate the women born in the 1950s who have suffered due to rises in the state pension age.

An end to the abuses of the family courts system (a national scandal – the family courts are currently ripe for exploitation by domestic abusers). The decriminalisation of abortion, still technically a criminal offence under the 1861 Offences Against The Person Act. Extra employment protections for pregnant women and women going through the menopause.

A new department for Women and Equalities, with a full time Secretary of State, dedicated to improving things for women and minority groups. (At present, the women and equalities is a junior ministerial role, falling under the brief of the Government Equalities Office and the Department for International Trade.)

Making the state responsible for enforcing equal pay, meaning that women no longer have to pursue equal pay claims through the court system. Increasing paid maternity leave from nine to 12 months.

Introducing 10 days paid leave for domestic abuse survivors. Making misogyny and violence against women a hate crime. Making it harder to fire pregnant women. Introducing a right for all workers to request flexible working – a huge boon for working mothers – from the first day of their employment. Requiring employers with over 250 employees to obtain government certification on gender equality or face further auditing on fines.

This is just specific women-centric legislation. Not much of this has been costed, although Labour are probably counting on reaping a windfall from increasing corporation tax and income tax for the most wealthy. It’s also worth pointing out that Labour’s pledge to end austerity will also benefit women the most, as they have suffered the most due to the cuts, and their increases to the minimum wage will also benefit women, as they are more likely to be in low-paid work.

The winner? It’s a no-brainer.

Confused about which party to vote for in the upcoming general election? Check out VICE's handy primer to all the manifesto policies here.

@thedalstonyears