Julie Morgan MP

Public meeting this Saturday

Julie Morgan MP will be hosting a public meeting this coming Saturday, 10 March, from 10am to 12.30pm at Ararat Baptist Church, Whitchurch Common, to celebrate the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery and International Women's Day.

Julie, Sue Essex AM, Councillor Sophie Howe, Glenys Kinnock MEP, Race Equality Commissioner Uzo Iwobi and Mutale Nyobni of BAWSO will all be in attendance, and there will be stalls for charities and non-governmental organisations. Refreshments will be available and there'll be some African drumming too!

All are welcome to this special event celebrating Wales' role in the ending of the slave trade — and discussing the problems which remain today in terms of trafficking and exploitation. Contact Julie's office on (029) 20 624166 for more information.

Harriet Harman's new site and blog goes live

Harriet Harman MP's new website and blog has gone live today. I'm supporting Harriet in her campaign to become Deputy Leader of the Labour Party when John Prescott stands down later this year. The polling suggests that more people would be likely to vote Labour with Harriet as Gordon Brown's deputy. I also feel that it is crucially important that we have a gender balanced ticket at the top of the party, so that we are most able to speak up on the issues which concern women and the family — issues which more than ever are at the top of the political agenda.

Harriet has been a tireless campaigner for women's rights and for some of Labour's greatest achievements, such as the minimum wage. I have no doubt that she would make an exemplary Deputy Leader.

More pressure in the Fawcett

Julie Morgan finds the director of the Fawcett Society broadening her remit and taking aim at a new panoply of obstacles to the advancement of women

MY MEETING with Dr Katherine Rake, director of the Fawcett Society, is particularly timely. Alarming recent research has shown that juries have a tendency to partially blame a women for her rape if she has been drinking, while investigations continue into the murders of women working as prostitutes in Ipswich.

"The situation with the public debate is extremely worrying at the moment, because I can't think of any other crime where we try and blame the victim in the way that we do try to put blame on women for their rape," she tells me. "I find it extraordinary that public attitudes are such that the credibility of women who take rape cases forward is in such doubt, and sets issues around their sexual history, the clothes that they had been wearing, whether they had been drinking or not.

"Interestingly, the issue of why men rape is very rarely discussed, as is why we still have a society in which there is a level of tolerance of violence against women. I think we need to start a debate about public attitudes to rape, but also about services we provide for rape victims. If you happen to be raped in the wrong area, there is no support. Clearly there still neds to be a lot of work done on the attitudes of the police, prosecutors, right through the system, judges, and the public. So I find it a very sorrying situation, and an extraordinary message to give out to women."

The conviction rate for rape is now lower than in the 1970s — at around 5%. What can be done to change the situation?

"What we know is where decent services are provided, you get a higher conviction rate, so where women are supported through the process, you get a higher rate of conviction," Rake explains. "Obviously it's always going to be a difficult crime to deal with, because there are very rarely third party witnesses, but I think we need to work on making sure the evidence is gathered correctly, used properly in court, making sure the prosecutors are informed and communicate properly.

"There has been increased reporting, so on one level people are feeling more confident in the system. But we just haven't given enough priority to services, or work on attitudes."

With this in mind, I wanted to know Rake's opinion of the media coverage of the recent tragic murders in Ipswich.

"These are victims of murder, and they're all labelled as prostitutes, and I think that is quite extraordinary. Again, I think it plays into this notion that somehow their lives are less valuable, but also that they're responsible for what's happened. My heart goes out to the families of those women; for that to be the media portrayal is quite awful."

As well as these alarming reports focusing on women's safety, there have been interesting developments at Westminster. As an MP who was selected from an all-women shortlist, I am particularly interested in how we can increase the representation of women in Parliament. But Katherine Rake is quick to point out that "it's not just about numbers for numbers' sake".

"What is very worrying is that every poll we've seen shows that women are becoming more and more disengaged from the political process," she warns. "And we know that where there is a woman MP, their sense of engagement increases. In terms of delivering more women candidates, internationally we know that the only real way there have been significant increases in the number of women candidates has been through positive measures like all-women shortlists."

So what does she make of David Cameron's 'A-list' of candidates? How is that making an impact?

"A big issue has been about the winnability of seats that women are selected for. It seems to me that the A-list is a bit better than the situation before it. One of my biggest concerns at the moment is with the Lib Dems — the Conservatives have got the longer journey, but I feel that the debate has started with them. If the Tories deliver more women, the Lib Dems are going to have to face that debate."

And what about Cameron's support among women voters — does he really appeal to them more than Tony Blair or Gordon Brown? Or is this a myth?

"What we've found is that the notion he had more personal appeal among women is actually a myth," Katherine confirms. "All the political leaders are ranked more negatively by women than men; generally, women are more sceptical of politics, more disillusioned, and they have more negative views of Cameron as well. And certainly on things like honesty, they can be much more negative about Cameron, but that is going on at the same time as him actually picking up those votes, so I think there's quite a complex picture out there.

"On personal appeal, women seem to be ranking him negatively, but he is picking up women's votes — he's picked up four percentage points, and that's been matched point-by-point with a drop in support for Labour among women. So I think what that signals to me is that everything's up for grabs at the moment. Politicians really need to push themselves boldly with things that will appeal to women voters, because certainly those votes aren't lost forever to Labour."

So how could the forthcoming leadership election in the Labour Party improve the situation?

"Well, I think it's important that all the candidates look at their agenda very seriously and think about what they're going to deliver," she says. "On a couple of issues, I think that while there has been immense progress, I think people have been disappointed about the lack of progress on pay equality. It's a symbolic issue, but it affects the living standards of women and children across the country."

So with all these challenges in mind, are Katherine Rake and the Fawcett Society optimistic about the future?

"It's our 140th birthday this year, so we've been in this business for a hood while and I think we've had a very long journey — but there's still a very long way to go," she says. "Feminism and that agenda is really our route towards social justice and a good society, and it has to be a part of that. And so that I think gives you optimism.

"Our challenge is to really galvanise that concern into a movement. Hopefully after the next 140 years we'll be able to close our doors. But I suspect there will always be a need for an organisation like Fawcett."

This article appears in this week's House Magazine, the in-house journal of the Houses of Parliament.

MP calls for new approach to women in prison

Julie is calling for a new approach to women prisoners from Wales.

In an answer to a Parliamentary Question, Julie has learned that there are 183 women in prison in the UK who have Welsh addresses. The largest number is in Eastwood Park (81). There are 20 in Styal in Cheshire, serving North Wales, 19 at Send in Surrey, 19 at Drake Hall in Staffordshire and 15 at Foston Hall in Derby. The others are scattered about the UK, with under ten women from Wales in each other prison. There is no women's prison in Wales.

Julie said: "It is well known that the consequences for children when their mothers go to prison are dire. Only 5% of children stay in the home when their mothers are imprisoned and about 8% are taken into local authority care, whereas the majority of children of male prisoners remain at home.

"I believe that there should be a facility for women offenders in Wales, but I do not think it should be a conventional prison. I think it should be somewhere where women not only serve a sentence, but begin to rebuild their lives — somewhere that takes a holistic approach to women's offending, like the 218 service in Glasgow. This addresses the root causes of women's offending and offers medical, therapeutic and support services. The programme daws on all disciplines to provide a tailor-made treatment for each woman and is designed to break the cycle of offending and re-offending. I think we need to consider such an option in Wales for Welsh women prisoners."

Julie has previously given oral evidence to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons on the subject of women in the Welsh prison estate. You can read her evidence here.