Can I say that I’m absolutely delighted to be able to speak in this debate as part of the celebration of International Women’s Day? It’s celebrate that I actually want to do. Today, we have heard, and we will hear, about a number of inspirational women—the famous and the not so famous—all of whom have made their mark, not just in Wales but across the world. For my contribution I want to mention just a few.

In sport, the shining example of Tanni Grey-Thompson, who probably did more than any other person to advance the cause of disabled sport in this country. During her career, she won a total of 16 Paralympic medals, including 11 golds, held over 30 world records and won the London marathon six times. She later became a TV presenter and is now an active member of the House of Lords.

In politics, women had to fight for the right to vote. A leading Welsh suffragette was Margaret Haig Mackworth, who blew up a post box in Risca Road, Newport to show how strongly she felt about votes for women. The general election of 1929 was, of course, the first in which all women above the age of 21 were able to vote. Not only could women now vote, they could also stand for election to Parliament, and out of the three who stood in Wales, the one who succeeded in being elected, of course, was Megan Lloyd George, daughter of the former Prime Minister, David. She was elected as the Liberal MP for Anglesey, later seeing the light, of course, and becoming the Labour MP for Carmarthen. Of course, we shouldn’t forget Julia Gillard, a former Australian Prime Minister born in Barry, who came back to Wales to address the Assembly in 2015, the event being so popular that it had to be shifted from the Pierhead to the Senedd and was broadcast on senedd.tv for those who were unable to get tickets.

In industry, not surprisingly, given the rich industrial heritage of Merthyr Tydfil, there were women pioneers in industry from the town. One was Lady Charlotte Guest, wife of John Josiah Guest, owner of the world’s largest ironworks in Dowlais, and Merthyr’s first MP. When he died in 1852, Charlotte took control of the business, and although she is best remembered for her philanthropic concerns for the workers in the area, she continued to run the works until she remarried in 1855. Another was Lucy Thomas, known as the mother of the coal industry, who took over the running of her husband’s business when he died in 1833, leaving her with an estate of under £1,000. He’d discovered a rich coal seam in Merthyr, and it became one of the most successful mines in Wales. By the time of her death in 1847, she’d increased the worth of that business to over £11,000. And more recently, there was the fashion designer Laura Ashley, born in a modest terraced house in Dowlais in Merthyr Tydfil, and who went on to become one of the world’s leading clothing and furnishing designers and manufacturers.

There are so many other inspirational Welsh women I could talk about, but it’s not just about individuals. In the time that I’ve got left to me, I want to also pay tribute to women who have acted collectively in their trade unions, making a difference to the lives of so many. The record of women acting collectively is a proud one: from the match girls’ strike in 1888, which led to the banning of dangerous white phosphorus matches and improvements in their working conditions, to the general strike of 1926, when women first took to the streets to defend men’s right to a decent wage. In 1934, when the Government took action against the rising cost of paying dole and benefits to the unemployed—does that sound familiar—a hunger march left Tonypandy and among the hundreds of Welsh miners were a dozen women wearing rucksacks and red berets. They’d been coached in public speaking to be able to address meetings on their overnight stops on the way to Cardiff. Of course, during the miners’ strike of 1984, women protested alongside their husbands, fathers and brothers to oppose the closure of 28 south Wales pits. As well as protesting about the loss of jobs, they were fighting to protect their communities. Women joined the picket lines, they marched at rallies and they provided food parcels. Women Against Pit Closures politicised women like never before in these coal-mining communities, and one of them, Siân James, went on to become the Labour MP for Swansea East.

Women in trade unions have relentlessly campaigned on issues that affect them disproportionately, pursuing equal pay claims, equal rights for part-time, fixed-term, agency and low-paid workers, and, as we debated last week, fighting the exploitation of the use of zero-hours contracts, which also affects women more than men, and of course campaigning for equality and affordable childcare, which this Government is seeking to address. Llywydd, I feel extremely privileged to have been elected to the Welsh Assembly, and I owe an immense debt of gratitude to those women who went before me and blazed a trail in politics and in the trade union movement, making it possible for me and other women like me to be here today. Our responsibility now is to pave the way for the next generation of women who will make their mark in Welsh life.