Join the International Policy Group (IPG) and Young Fabians for a crucial discussion with the new Shadow Minister of Women and Equalities considering the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on women globally and nationally, and how Labour can hold the government to account by ensuring it is mitigating this.

More broadly, we will also be covering Labour’s role in the international fight for equality and the implementation of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5; eradicating discrimination against women and girls.

Register here to gain access: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkc-ippj4sE9PsXfPGmv5HH8yyQL9rVaw5

The Pandemic Impact Gap:

BBC Anchor Emily Maitlis recently won praise for deconstructing the government narrative that the pandemic is a ‘great leveler’.
COVID-19 has both exposed and exacerbated the stark inequalities that tear apart the fabric of our society, and the spotlights are now on why the impact on women, now the comparative precariat, is incommensurate with that of men. Karen Ingala Smith, who founded the pioneering project Counting Dead Women, found that femicide has tripled, at 16 women murdered over a three week period compared to 5 in the same period last year. Media reporting of the murders has largely attributed the killing to the circumstances rather than the perpetrators. The domestic abuse bill is in fact now making its way back through Parliament, passing it's second reading on the 28th April, so this could not come at a more relevant time.

Domestic violence isn’t the only issue on the rise, as reports of street harassment both in numbers and threat level has also increased exponentially. Women are also three times more likely to be impacted worse financially as they are radically overrepresented in low-paid insecure sectors such as care, retail and hospitality.

Speaker: Gill Furniss MP is a Minister for Women and Equalities in the new Shadow Cabinet. She served in the Women and Equalities Select Committee, a cross-party committee of MPs appointed to scrutinise the Government. The Committee runs inquiries into directly and indirectly discriminatory policies, for example the Unequal Impact COVID-19 Inquiry, https://committees.parliament.uk/work/227/coronavirus-and-the-impact-on-people-with-protected-characteristics/, everyday sexism, workplace harassment and the implementation of SDG 5 in the UK. Gill recently wrote to the Secretary of State for the Home Department to inquire about plans to empower local authorities by providing extra funding to support those at an increased risk of domestic violence.

Interlocutor: Cecilia Eve is a committee member of the International Policy Group and Environment Network. She works in public policy, previously as a parliamentary researcher, and leader of two international NGO outreach programs. She writes on feminism, artificial intelligence, humanitarian law and campaigns on climate change issues, recently speaking alongside Executive Director of the War on Want at a climate forum.

There will be a Q and A afterwards opening up to the virtual floor.

Timing:
7:00-7:40 Opening remarks
7:40-8:15 Q & A, discussion and policy

Register here to gain access: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkc-ippj4sE9PsXfPGmv5HH8yyQL9rVaw5