BAME Women Councillors Graduation Event

Monday 14th June 2010

 

Lynne Featherstone's speech

The years that we gave back in terms of all of these issues are phenomenal. I am absolutely delighted to be here today to say a warm welcome to the members of the Black and Minority Ethnic Women Councillor’s Taskforce who took it on right across the country, to SOLACE, to Operation Black Vote and to all of you who have successfully completed the Taskforce mentoring scheme, the SOLACE Community Leadership Scheme and their mentors.

Mentors are invaluable. I was one. I’ve been a mentor and I’ve been mentored and it really does make a difference.

I went to visit Mooredown St Johns Primary School last year in Bournemouth just prior to the Lib Dem Conference. The children had been asked to draw pictures of what they thought a politician looked like. Yes, you guess what’s coming. Needless to say the pictures were almost all male and pale, just like the House of Commons.

They had captured Parliament perfectly with the skills of a sketch writer. Sketch writers watch out!

One comment on one drawing said: ‘I have drawn a man because I think that men stand up and talk better than a woman.’

Having been in the House Commons for 5 years, I have to say this is entirely wrong.

Another had written: ‘I have chosen to draw a male MP because I have never seen a woman MP.’

It reminded me of the real power of a role model; the power to change our preconceptions and to bring hope alive.

And yes that is why you’re absolutely right that Diane has done a great service to all of us to go out there and fight. That is a big part of what today is about because the efforts of my department, the Government Equalities Office, Operation Black Vote and the BAME Women Councillors Taskforce aren’t just about changing the faces of our democratic institution.

We are creating role models for the right to equality, for other under represented communities. Inspiring them as to what is actually possible if you get going and do stuff, bringing voices to decision making that have been absent for far too long.

I want to pay special tribute to the members of the Taskforce and other local councillors.

Each of them has put aside their political differences to come together to encourage and inspire women from a BAME background to get involved in public life. I’m going to be telling our coalition government to look to the Taskforce as role models itself.

All of them travelled up and down the country speaking at awareness raising events, reaching over 1000 women. An amazing 70% of these women said that after the events they were more likely to consider becoming a councillor. That completely dispels the myth that BAME women are not interested in politics. It’s rubbish.

They garnered support from other councillors and politicians right across the political spectrum. They encouraged them to look within at what more they could do to remove those barriers which face BAME women who want to be councillors. By last October when the Taskforce published its final report, all major political parties committed to doing the work. This is exceptionally important; ultimately nearly all councillors were elected on a party ticket. That makes the support of all the political parties absolutely vital.

If it were not for the initiative of the Taskforce members, there wouldn’t be a mentoring scheme and actually I am proof that mentoring works.

If somebody tells you that they believe in you, that you can do something, you begin to believe. Now, I didn’t come from a background where politics was even thought of or even talked about. We had no books on the shelves in my family. But then I shadowed a Lib Dem MP, and then I became councillor because I think being a councillor is a fantastic first step; and now I am an Equalities Minister - so hey I’m not black, but I am female. It works.

The consistent theme from all their work was that mentoring and having the opportunity to shadow councillors would be crucial in encouraging more BAME women to get involved in local politics. So, it was because of the Taskforce recommendation that this scheme was set up.

Through their efforts they attracted 400 enquiries, 125 interviews, two programmes encouraging over 100 potential candidates.

Already we have seen four fantastic participants of the scheme being elected as local councillors from all three main political parties. I am confident that we will see more success stories coming out of future elections. Now people can see what’s actually being achieved. I’m also glad it was possible for a number of women to take up places in the SOLACE Community Leadership Scheme because you learn new skills and it brings you forward and makes you ready.

And a big thank you to the Taskforce for the energy and tireless commitment they have put into this project.

I also want to especially congratulate Meral Hussain Ece OBE who was just made a Baroness, another great achievement to add to your long list of achievements.

We also owe a massive thanks and congratulations to the women here today who did not just want change; but who have put themselves forward to affect change. You, the graduates of the Councillors mentoring Scheme and the Solace Community Leadership Course, give yourself a round of applause.

Anyone who is in doubt about the merits of schemes like this, because there are some very silly voices out there who write off schemes like this as being tokenistic. They are not. They only have to look at the breadth of talent and diversity of experience that these women have to know how wrong they are. But we must do better, we need more of you, we need many more of you to get involved in British politics. Not just at the local level, but every single level.

If you look at the up to date figures from 2008, although BAME women make up more than 5% of the population less than 1% are councillors. We’ve got to increase that representation.

In the House of Commons things have gone a little bit better; we’ve gone from having 0.3% to 1.2%. It has been a long journey, one step at a time followed by lots of other steps very quickly. But there is no room for complacency; the Commons as I said is pretty male and pale.

In the 21st century it’s been pretty difficult to believe that it wasn’t until last year that a black woman actually spoke at the Commons despatch box.

And I believe our society also needs to change its attitudes to females.

When Theresa was first appointed as Home Secretary it took precisely one hour before the press wrote lengthy articles about her fashion. She was wearing a “sensible pair of black flatties, adorned with a silver corsage,” they noted. Also “a blue collarless jacket and black knee-length skirt.” Later she changed her shoes and “slipped into a slightly racier leopard skinned.” It’s funny but come on! This woman has been involved with politics at all levels for years. She has also been a successfully career woman before she went into politics and held several high profile shadow positions before she became Home Secretary and Equalities Minister.

For women looking form the outside in, politics can appear inaccessible like Fort Knox. It is unacceptable and it has to change and the media has to change with it.

And it must change not because we want to tick boxes or make our statistics look better. This is because it is about the interest of the whole country to have these talents in elected positions making the decisions that count.

Our diversity is what makes this country so great. Women from a black and ethnic minority background contribute to every sphere of British life. I look around this room and I see so many strong, dynamic women. We need your talent, your life experiences and your perspectives to be running councils, to be in parliament and to be running the country. How else can we debate and formulate policies fit for all in an interdependent world?

Never has this been more clear to me than when I was Chair of Transport at the London Assembly. I observed there, that the men, sorry this is a bit sexist, had an obsession, a macho game they played of who’s got the biggest airport or who’s got the longest train. What I’m really talking about is getting female hands on delivers, on budgets and on power. We need great infrastructure, we also need how to get to school, how to do local shopping, how things are designed, how to get the double buggy on the bus. All of those things meant just as much. And if you only had one set making those important decisions, sadly you only get one answer.

Politics has gone through a bit of a crisis recently. The expenses scandal has meant that many citizens felt distant from Parliament and the wider democratic process. And when they looked at councillors and MPs debating, making decisions that affect their lives they saw very few that actually looked like them.

So, if our democratic institutions are going to be able to command greater public confidence, more legitimacy, then they have to be more representative.

Going forward, Theresa and I are clear we need to do better. This is a crucial issue which we will be addressing, considering how to best to take forward the recommendations from the Speaker’s Conference and representation.

We know we need to do better not just in politics, but also to make sure we remove the barriers to opportunity holding back individuals from a black and ethnic minority background in every decision and every walk of life.

To pave the way we have outlined some of our proposals for change in the new programme for Government.

So just a couple of examples:

We will be promoting opportunities for BAME communities by providing internships for underrepresented minorities in every Whitehall department.

We’ll be funding a targeted national enterprise mentoring scheme for BAME people who want to start their own business.

And I am confident that we will see progress. Not only because Theresa and I will be pushing for it. But also we have seen from the Councillors Taskforce and all of you, the work you have been doing.

This is not a Taskforce for the political arena alone. We are going to need you if we are to really transform things. You’re all in it now and we have to wriggle out and take it further on.

To our graduates you are not allowed to be secret heroes any longer. We need you now, to be our ambassadors, agents for change, to get out there and spread the word within your local communities, to mentor and encourage others from diverse backgrounds to step forward and take part. Many of you in this room are potential candidates and I need you right here to step up in the politics arena.

It’s not enough that we’ve made a little bit of progress and it isn’t enough to be constantly pushing and forcing change because there is so few of us.

Equal representation and involvement is our right, all of our right. It is women today who will bring about change tomorrow.

Thank you and congratulations to every single one of you.