Fabian Women

On 11th June 2007, the Fabian Women’s Network hosted a hust for the Labour Party Deputy Leadership contest.

This was the only hustings event held specifically for women, and it was organised in conjunction with the Labour Party Women’s Committee. Candidates included Fabian Women’s Network members Harriet Harman MP and Hazel Blears MP, as well as Hilary Benn MP, John Cruddas MP, Alan Johnson MP, and Peter Hain MP.

The Fabian Women’s Network has worked in partnership with various third sector organisations to hold a number of successful fringe events at the Labour Party’s annual conferences. In 2006 the Network joined with Girlguiding UK to host a policy breakfast on encouraging diversity in volunteering. Ed Miliband MP and Tom Levitt MP spoke at the event which was attended by approx 20 key opinion formers and stakeholders.

At the 2008 annual conference FWN held two successful events. The first was a training session for women’s officers entitled “Putting women’s voices at the heart of policy”. Women’s Minister Barbara Keeley MP also spoke and the event was attended by delegates, women’s officers, party staff and MPs. The ways to engage younger women were particularly debated, and attendees drew on their experiences within the Labour Movement to share ideas of best practice on encouraging women to get involved in politics.

The Network also co-hosted “Mum’s the word:  is ending women’s poverty the key to ending child poverty?”  with Oxfam UK and the Fawcett Society. Speaking at the event were Katherine Rake, Director of the Fawcett Society, who spoke about Fawcett’s campaign “Keeping Mum”. This is exploring the impact of motherhood on women’s financial position and risk of poverty. Kate Waring, Director of Oxfam’s UK Poverty Programme, discussed the gendered nature of poverty in Britain and the impact of this on families. Emily Thornberry MP also spoke about her experiences of women and poverty in her Islington constituency. A lively question and answer session followed the speeches.

In September 2008 the FWN held a walking tour of Bloomsbury. Guided by Maire McQueeny the tour looked at Bloomsbury’s Fabian history.

Several members of the FWN committee attended the launch of the “Day the Carlton Club accepted women” collection at the National Portrait Gallery, hosted by Barbara Follett MP and Women’s Parliamentary Radio. Alexandra Kemp subsequently contributed an interview to Women’s Parliamentary Radio (www.wpradio.co.uk)

In November 2008 the Network, along with the Young Fabians, supported the Labour History Group’s panel discussion ‘Women who made Labour’, featuring Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP and Dianne Hayter.

A key area of the FWN work has been to raise awareness of the gendered nature of UK pension policy and to campaign for improvements in women’s pension entitlement. The Fabian Women’s Network has been an active part of the Women and Pensions Network co-ordinated by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (previously the Equal Opportunities Commission) which has been widely credited with developing a consensus on pensions reform and working closely with Ministers on delivering this. A particular issue that the W&P Network lobbied was extending the ‘buy-back’ period for women who had not made sufficient National Insurance contributions to qualify for a state pension, from six to twelve years. FWN Committee member Alexandra Kemp was interviewed on this topic for the Women’s Parliamentary Radio website http://www.wpradio.co.uk/.
The Network has also held two events on this matter. In October 2005 we held a seminar titled “Tackling equality & poverty in retirement: a fair deal for women?” In May 2006 John Hutton MP, then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions gave a keynote speech on how the Government’s proposals for pensions reform would affect women at an event held by FWN and chaired by political commentator Jackie Ashley.

The Female Futures Programme aims to inspire Fabian women through the stories and experiences of other women to pursue their own ambitions. The programme has been coordinated by Kate Groucutt, and involves a series of informal discussion meetings at which senior women in public life share their experiences with members of the network who may be interested in going forward in a public role, elected or otherwise. Past meetings have included MPs Fiona Mactaggart and Linda Gilroy.