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Prime Minister

Good morning and welcome everybody, please come on down.聽 A very warm welcome to Number 10 Downing Street.聽 It鈥檚 great to have the International Women鈥檚 Day reception here again this year and you are all extraordinarily welcome.聽 We鈥檝e got people who have come in from all over the world; I want to say a special welcome to Mary Robinson who has flown in this morning.聽 Mary, it is great to have you here.聽 To have Jan Eliasson, the Deputy UN Secretary, great to have you here too.聽 And ministers from countries right across Africa and other parts of the
world: a huge, huge welcome.聽

I think it is worth asking ourselves why is it we still need to hold International Women鈥檚 Day and receptions like this.聽 And it seems to me that it鈥檚 absolutely clear that we do, because there is still massive inequality to be overcome both here and around the world; there is violence here and around the world that we need to overcome.聽 And also, there is a very positive side to this agenda, which speaks exactly to all the people in the room, which is that the power you have as women who are huge successes and role models to others, actually speaks volumes to people all over the world.聽 So there is a positive agenda to what we are talking about today.聽

But I just specifically wanted to address the issues about violence, because I think this is, if you like, a giant hidden iceberg in all our societies and we really need to do better to deal with it.聽 We need to do better at home.聽 We need to do better overseas.聽 Now, I鈥檓 not saying the government has all of the answers, but I think we are taking some important and concrete steps this week.聽 I think by announcing today that we are going to have a separate offence for stalking - that is a criminal offence - I think is a very important step forward.聽 On its own it doesn鈥檛 solve the problem, but we鈥檝e got to make sure that as a separate criminal offence, it鈥檚 combined with: better training for the police; better training for the probation service; better training for our courts; better action by technology, telephone and digital companies, so we stamp out this evil.聽

I鈥檝e met some really heroic people today who鈥檝e come forward and are prepared to tell their own stories about how they have suffered and about how they have lost children to stalkers.聽 And it鈥檚 so important you tell those stories.聽 Because until you meet the victim of a stalker, no one - perhaps particularly men - but no one really understands just what a dreadful crime it is, and just how appallingly persistent these people are.聽 So that is an important step.聽

We are also taking the step this week of piloting Clare鈥檚 Law.聽 I think that is an important step forward, so that women can have access to information about their partners.聽 We are going to continue with the funding of the rape crisis centres, I think that is important.聽 And I want to make sure that right across the board - whether it is domestic violence, whether it is stalking, whether it is rape - that this government does everything it can to deal with the problems of violence against women in our society.聽

But even if we stamped out that problem at home, there is a massive problem around the world.聽 And whether it is appalling levels of violence against women in some sub-Saharan African countries - in South Africa for instance, a woman is killed by their partner every six hours, think about that.聽 Whether it is that level of violence in sub-Saharan Africa; whether it is the oppression of women in Northern Africa - where we still see horrific levels of female genital mutilation: an absolutely horrendous crime - or whether we see people in Ethiopia and other countries who are married off at an unbelievably young age; or whether we look across South East Asia where we see - in a world where we think we鈥檝e abolished slavery - we see such immense levels of people trafficking and modern day slavery; it鈥檚 quite clear we have got a massive task on our hands to help stamp this out.聽

Now, I think Britain can say that we can hold our head up high, because we have made a very difficult decision as a country, and that is to reach the target of 0.7% of our GDP going into overseas aid by 2013. This is not something that the Italians are doing, it鈥檚 not something the French are doing, it鈥檚 not something the Germans are doing, but we are keeping the promises we made at Gleneagles.聽 We are delivering on the pledge that we made as a civilised, compassionate country that stands for something in the world.聽 And I think we can all be very proud of that because that money, that we are going to be spending, is going to be making sure that women are not facing violence and abuse in some of the poorest countries in the world.聽 Our money can make a real difference: whether it is teaching programmes in Tanzania; whether it is anti slavery programmes in South East Asia; whether it is education programmes in South Africa; we can really make a difference.

So, I hope today, that as well as drawing attention to the appalling levels of violence against women in our society and in other societies around the world, I hope we can celebrate two things which is this country is taking action at home and abroad and today gathered here in Number 10 are some fantastic role models for what women can achieve and fantastic campaigners.聽 And it would be wrong to single people out but I look around the room and I see people who run fantastic campaigns.聽 I see colleagues from parliament who run great campaigns to put the stalking issue right up the agenda.

So, very big thank you for coming, but, above all, thank you for what you do to campaign for women鈥檚 rights, for women鈥檚 equality, and to make sure we end the appalling levels of violence against women at home and abroad.聽 Thank you very much indeed.

And you don鈥檛 just get one Prime Minister when you come to meetings like this; you鈥檝e got the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, as well.聽 Nick over to you.

Deputy Prime Minister

Well, happy International Women鈥檚 Day everybody.聽 When I said to Miriam this morning that I was so excited that we were holding this reception here, she rather unceremoniously said to me, 鈥楽o, what, two blokes in suits are going to talk to a room full of women who have to listen to you?鈥櫬� That鈥檚 not perhaps the best way to celebrate International Women鈥檚 Day.聽 So, notwithstanding that sort of blemish, I nonetheless am really delighted to be here. I just wanted to say three very quick things.聽

Firstly, women鈥檚 issues are men鈥檚 issues.聽 And I say that because I just think, you know - when I hear people say, 鈥榃omen care about flexible working鈥�, I care about flexible working.聽 I鈥檝e got three small children; I care about how Miriam and myself and how all of us have to juggle things as mums and dads.聽 When people say, 鈥楾his excellent work we鈥檙e doing to really bear down on the industrial scale violence against women, lifting the lid on that鈥�, that should be something which makes men just as angry and frankly as ashamed - more ashamed - than it does amongst women.聽 That鈥檚 the first point.聽 I think it鈥檚 a wonderful thing that we are celebrating International Women鈥檚 Day, but we will do women a disservice if we don鈥檛 all take responsibility for it.

The second thing is that there鈥檚 been a huge amount of progress made in the - whatever it is - 101 years since International Women鈥檚 Day started - when a million women were demonstrating on the streets of Europe for their own rights, for their own emancipation.聽 It would be naive to pretend that we don鈥檛 have a long, long, long, long way still to go.

And I鈥檓 acutely aware - I think we all are in politics - that politics is just as bad as any other vocation, if not worse.聽 I lead a party which has got far, far, far too few women in it.聽 There are four members of the cabinet.聽 There are far too few women who feel attracted to politics.聽 There are far too many women put off by the language of politics: by the vitriol; by the polemic; by the yah-boo machismo of politics.聽 We all have a long way to go but I am acutely aware - I鈥檓 sure all the politicians here are - that we in politics have a particular duty to show that we are prepared to change as well.

And the third point was really what David said was that you play such a magnificent role in showing young girls that they should live out their dreams, they should pursue their ambitions.聽 And, by the way, also I think it is very important that the young boys of today don鈥檛 grow into men who fear women鈥檚 success.聽 So, you鈥檙e not only providing an inspiration to girls who want their horizons broadened, who want their sights lifted, you also, by showing that you are successful at what you do, being as passionate and committed to the causes that you champion, I think you also change the culture for young boys as well.

So, women鈥檚 issues are men鈥檚 issues - at least they should be.聽 We鈥檝e got a long way to go and keep inspiring people.聽 Thank you very much.