Has Theresa May abandoned her gender? When thinking of our current Prime Minister, we may associate her with many struggles: Brexit, Trump and her hold over the Conservative Party. But women’s issues do not spring to mind.
Interestingly, prior to becoming PM, May’s record on women’s issues is notable. As Home Secretary, she was heavily involved in bringing the problem of domestic abuse to the public eye, launching an enquiry into the ways that the police department handled abuse cases. She also raised the issue of emotional abuse, which led to this being introduced as a criminal offence of equal weight to physical abuse. Moreover, she passionately fought against FGM (female genital mutilation), pledging £1.4 million to the cause. These were her impressive feats, ones that had been promised in the 2010 election.
Following the 2017 general election, May was criticised for forming an alliance with the Democratic Unionist Party because of their hard-line anti-abortion stance. However, this coalition crisis did mean that a bill was suddenly approved that allowed Northern Irish women, who had previously had to pay £900, to gain free abortions with the NHS in England.
May’s first speech as Prime Minister promised to tackle societal inequalities. Yet, is it significant that she listed women fifth in her speech out of six issues of inequality? Is this because wealth, race, class and education are more important issues, or does she disassociate herself from women’s issues because she is woman in the man’s world of politics? If this is true then May is not alone; in 2013 Angela Merkel was asked whether she was a feminist, and replied ‘no’. It was only in Merkel’s third term that she pushed women’s pay inequality at the 2016 G7 Summit.
May needs to focus on women’s issues in order to inspire young women today. The perception of her clutching onto the hand of Trump is the kind of weakness that sticks in our minds.
So, what should May be doing? She should push for higher convictions of rape and sexual assault cases. She should investigate the gender pay gap, because on average, women only earn 80% of a man’s salary. By improving women’s access to childcare, women would be able to better compete in the workplace. May launched the Women2Win campaign in 2005, and since then female Conservative MPs have increased by 10%, but this number still needs to rise. However, the key to this increase lies in education, where girls from an early age should be encouraged into public speaking and politics programs.
As one of the most powerful women in the world, it is Theresa May’s duty to raise awareness of women’s issues, as she has done in the past. She should do this by discussing new ideas and sharing these with the press. If she were to make the public more aware of her policies and beliefs on women’s issues then she would be a far more relatable figure for young women. It is easy to say that May is in a difficult position and so should focus on Brexit. But most Prime Minsters find themselves in some kind of crisis. The time to change things is always in the present and therefore May should push women’s rights whilst she has this valuable opportunity.