The next item is the short debate, and I call on Siân Gwenllian to speak on the short debate put forward in her name. Siân Gwenllian.

Thank you very much, Llywydd. It’s a pleasure to bring this debate forward today. I will be inviting Jane Hutt, Joyce Watson, Suzy Davies and Julie Morgan to participate in this debate. I’d like to thank them for their contributions.

A century since women were given the vote, is Wales a truly equal nation? I will be presenting evidence to demonstrate that Wales is a long way short of being equal in terms of gender. I will argue that we need to give priority to the efforts to reach equality, and I will also be proposing one practical step that our Parliament can take to lead the way.

In 1918, women got the vote for the first time, but bear in mind that it was only women over 30 years of age who owned land who were allowed to vote. However, all men over the age of 21 in 1918 were allowed to vote. It’s difficult to believe why one would want one set of rules for men and another for women, belittling half the population. Therefore, bearing in mind the centenary, it’s worth noting that equality in terms of voting wasn’t achieved until 1928.

In celebrating the work of the suffragettes, it’s clear that we are a very long way from being an equal nation in terms of gender. Women only need look at the gender pay gap, the statistic in terms of domestic violence and abuse, the culture of sexual harassment, and the small percentage of women in senior posts in public life. Let’s start by looking at the gender pay gap.

The gap between men and women in Wales is around 15 per cent, increasing to 25 per cent in certain parts of the country. Noting the average salaries of men and women shows the disparity between the jobs done by men, mainly on top of the pyramid, and the jobs done by women, which tend to be lower down the employment pyramid. One significant step forward is that major employers in the private sector and the voluntary sector do have to publish information about salaries on a gender basis. Only 6 per cent have done so to date, and by the closing date in April, perhaps we will have a more comprehensive picture. But, already, companies such as the BBC, EasyJet and Virgin have demonstrated that there are large gaps in existence. That is one sign that we are a long way off achieving equality.

We will turn now to violence against women and domestic abuse. According to the official figures, one in four women in England and Wales—27 per cent—will suffer domestic abuse during their lifetimes—a figure that is twice as much as the figure for men—13 per cent—and the figure represents some 350,000 women in Wales.

A study by the National Union of Students demonstrates that 68 per cent of women on a university or college campus have experienced sexual harassment, and one in seven has suffered a violent sexual assault. The continuum of violence and harassment relates to broader cultural patterns of inequality, and maintaining and reproducing an unequal power relationship is at the heart of all of this. Solving this requires a wider cultural and social solution. The recent coverage of sexual harassment in light of the Weinstein scandal has opened the floodgates, with women at last starting to discuss their experiences publicly. My generation has been guilty of sweeping certain types of abuse under the carpet. We need a national conversation about these issues as a matter of urgency in order to explain what harassment is and why it's not acceptable. 

In arguing that there is a lack of equality in Wales today, we will now turn to equality in public life. Twenty eight per cent of councillors in Wales are women. The same figure, 28 per cent, of MPs from Wales are women. And here at the Assembly, 42 per cent of AMs are women—where there was equality back in 2003, and where the Assembly was in the vanguard at a global level. And unfortunately, my party has contributed to this decline, but I am pleased that we have agreed a new policy at our conference in the autumn that will put in place new mechanisms to have equal numbers of candidates. 

Research demonstrates that women in the Assembly raise issues such as childcare, domestic violence, the pay gap and end equal pay, and inequality more generally. And women do that far more often than their male counterparts. For the sake of natural fairness, but also in order to remove the barriers facing women generally, we must have 50:50 representation among those making decisions here in Wales. And that is why I agree entirely with the recent proposals made by the expert panel on Assembly reform, which suggest making it a requirement through law for political parties to choose candidates on an equal basis in terms of gender. 

The exact mechanism required to deliver that is a matter for us to focus on over the next months, perhaps years. But in starting here at our feet in this Assembly, there is an opportunity for us to make a difference. Having more women in this place would lead to better policies to create equality across Wales. It would also demonstrate the necessary leadership in order to create true equality across our nation. Evidence from across the world shows that quotas and gender legislation do make a real difference, but it does have to go hand in hand with a huge cultural shift too, and that's why including education on healthy relationships in the new curriculum is so crucial. 

My intention in bringing this debate forward today is to provide a focus once again on lack of equality, but proposing how we in this Assembly can contribute to the work of eradicating inequality, first of all by introducing a 50:50 quota through legislation, and not relying on the parties alone to lead in this regard. Since 1918, many steps have been taken towards equality, including the efforts of the suffragettes, and there is a great deal left to be done. There isn't enough emphasis on this work, and there isn't enough of a sense of urgency. Many of us in the Assembly have been battling for equality for women for many, many years—far too long perhaps—but now is the time. The women of Wales need to take the reins. Women have done that in the past. It is time for us to insist on equality and it's time for us to show the leadership required to achieve it. This is our opportunity and we must grasp it.

I look forward to hearing the contributions from other Assembly Members and, more than that, perhaps, I look forward to discussing this in terms of how we can move this forward together over the next few weeks. Thank you very much. 

Thank you very much, Siân Gwenllian. I'm very pleased to speak in today's debate. 

This week, as I said earlier on, marks the fortieth anniversary of Welsh Women's Aid. When we started work in Welsh Women's Aid, we were determined both to support those affected by domestic violence, but also to campaign for change. We have made progress since 1978, with Wales leading the way in the UK with the landmark violence against women Act and the appointment of national advisers; but as always, it is one step forward and one step back. A shocking new report from the Fawcett Society claims that abuse and harassment against women is endemic in the UK and justice for women has been set back by cuts to legal aid and the introduction of universal credit.

As Siân has highlighted, progress appears to be stalling on closing the gender pay gap. We've got Davos this week—the World Economic Forum has predicted that women will have to wait 217 years before they earn as much as men. Moving forward, Harriet Harman successfully introduced the Equality Act 2010 in the last Labour Government, resulting in a clause, which will come into force in April, requiring every company of 250 or more employees to publish its gender pay gap. I welcome that step forward, but I back your call, Siân, for gender equality in our Senedd, and I will work with you and women across the Chamber to achieve it.  

Thank you very much. I'd like to congratulate Siân Gwenllian on having this debate. Equality is very close to my heart and I thoroughly support you in all the things that you've said.

When I was in Westminster, we did discuss the possibility then—the women in Westminster—of trying to get the law to decide that there should be quotas, but the mood wasn't with us. So, instead we passed the legislation that enabled political parties to use positive action to help women become MPs and AMs. That meant that in the Labour Party we were able to use all-women shortlists and we were able to use twinning at the start of this Assembly, which meant that we came into the Assembly with equal numbers of men and women.

That was a painful process. It was a very successful process, but I think we've reached the stage now where we have to have legislation. I think that the proposals by the group that has looked at the future arrangements for the Assembly has come forward with what I see as an absolutely crucial move forward to have 50:50 for all political parties to put equal numbers of candidates up. I don't think it's straightforward because obviously you've got all the issues of which seats are winnable and all those sorts of issues that you look at, but I think there has been such a long history and such a long struggle that we do owe it to everybody in Wales—to women and men—to make sure that we have equal representation here. I just think we must never forget that what we do here in this Assembly is working for the good of the people of Wales, and we're trying to improve people in Wales's lives, and, for that, we need equal representation. We need women to be represented here, and we need all people to be a really good, representative Chamber. So, I'm totally behind you. 

Diolch, Siân. Thanks very much for bringing this debate. This figure for local government, the representation of women, is 28 per cent if I remember the figure right. At a time when austerity is hitting really hard, right down to local government budgets, the lack of women around the table in the first place and the serious lack of women driving the economic agendas forward in cabinets is of even greater concern, because the result is that it's not even as if women have got a voice—it's absolutely silent. So, when you come to cutting the budgets for the services that women rely on the most, it is fairly easy to do that—or not even to think about it—if women aren't sitting around the table. 

Can I thank you? Diolch, hefyd, Siân. You made very powerful points today, particularly regarding violence against women and obviously the attitude towards unwanted attention.

Sometimes, things like this really do come to the boil, and what I would like to see come to the boil now is how society values strengths that are traditionally—and I mean, stereotypically, almost—attributed to women. I certainly respect your argument, but I'm not convinced yet that statute is the way to do that, I'd much rather that we row in behind organisations like Women2Win and Chwarae Teg, which help society understand that women's strengths are what we need in politics, not least women themselves. That would be my preferred route, not least because I'm just slightly worried that if we have a statutory quota, that actually limits the opportunity for more than 50 per cent of women to come into this place. And I think the strengths that women generally have are a very good argument for having more than 50 per cent. Thank you.

I call on the leader of the house to reply to the debate. Julie James.

Diolch, Llywydd. Thank you so much to Siân Gwenllian for bringing forward this extremely important debate. I am absolutely delighted to be here to witness it. I'm going to start by saying that I was, myself, elected off an all-women shortlist—something my party battled for for years, and many of the women who battled for it are here with us in the Chamber. It's something that I was immensely proud that my constituency party supported wholeheartedly, because they could see themselves the difficulty for women coming forward in the competitive world of selection, and so on. 

The very process of selection can mitigate against the strengths that women have for collaboration and so on. Every time we go through one of those selection processes in our own party, we struggle again with the problem of choosing between colleagues and friends and so on. I think collaboration and all of its spirit is something we need to drive into our political parties to get some of this agenda to go forward, as well. But I absolutely stand here as somebody elected off an all-women shortlist and I'm very proud of having been so.

Siân did a canter through a large number of the issues that we still need to take forward, and I think most of us are angry and sad in equal measure about some of the things we've discussed here today. So, I'll do a canter through them as well. Equal pay: of course we should have equal pay. It's been years since the Equal Pay Act 1970 and the Equal Pay Act was a great thing, but it isn't implemented. The Equality Act 2010 was necessary in order to force the implementation of the Equal Pay Act. It's shameful, actually. The transparency thing—you have to force people to be transparent, something I've done in my own life several times when I've been negotiating my own salary in private sector legal firms and I've been told what my bonus or whatever is going to be and I've said, 'What are the men getting?' In firms where it's not a problem, they tell you instantly and where they won't tell you, it's never because they're not getting as much as you.

So, I have to say that one of the things I've also liked since I've been here is Chwarae Teg's Agile Nation project. That's teaching young women to do what I've just said. And, the average pay rise as a result of that project has been £3,000 a year for those women, because what they're doing is teaching them how to stand for their own rights, and that's a really important thing, as well. It's something we really need to do.

There's the sexual harassment agenda, all the stuff that we see on social media, the everyday sexism that I'm sure some of you follow, #ThisIsMe and so on. I've had a number of really interesting conversations around Wales about #ThisIsMe, with people saying, 'Not all women experience that' and I've never once been in a room where there has been a woman who has said, 'Well, I haven't.' Not once. That may be just me, but not once. And that's because women were taught to stay silent about such things, and now there are young women coming forward who are not taught to stay silent, and I absolutely applaud them in doing so and we need to support them every step of that way.

Llywydd, if you haven't seen it—I don't know if you have or if you ever watch such programmes—there's a programme called Have I Got News For You and watching Jo Brand, the comedian, tell Ian Hislop why his trivial remarks about sexual harassment are not acceptable is something I recommend to the entire Chamber. It's well worth a revisit. She said it very powerfully and it was simply this: a pattern of behaviour might seem trivial at first, but it can accumulate until it's really undermining of the person experiencing that behaviour. And until we understand that the series of trivial things are leading up to that point of undermining them, then we have not got any sense of what that might be to experience. Siân Gwenllian and all the women who spoke, actually, highlighted this: without women's voices to make that plain, then those things are not understood, and that's why we're important. It's important that we're here.

There is a whole pile of other agendas that are also important and that matter. There are lots of 'women's issues' in inverted commas and it has irritated me my whole life that they are 'women's issues'. My children belong to my partner as much as they belong to me. Childcare is as much his issue as it is mine. That's the same for all of those rights: they are issues for all human beings. The fact that women bear the burden of them is not right and we need to do something about it. That's why our voices are important in getting those rules in place and the legislation in place that enables people to take their rightful place in our society.

So, I am absolutely determined that, in this Assembly term, we will see every public board sponsored by the Welsh Government having 50:50 representation. My colleague Lesley, here, began the fight for that, and many other colleagues—Jane herself did it when she was in Government, and I'm sure other colleagues will as well. But I am saying that we will do that in this Assembly term. There is no reason why not. We can do it. I've got Chwarae Teg working on it right now.

Bethan Jenkins rose—

Certainly.

I was just wondering whether you could do some work to look at how women who have had children and have come back to work are discriminated against. Before Siân had this debate, one of our party members said that she'd faced discrimination where she couldn't get elevated in her workplace because of that sort of—sometimes from women who don't have children or don't understand those challenges. So, what further work can you do as a Government, either with Chwarae Teg or other organisations, to try and encourage women who have had children to be able to progress in their careers?

Absolutely. That's very much a part of the fair work agenda, and Chwarae Teg are running a programme at the moment that gives accreditation to employers who have a fair work ethos, and that's very much a part of that ethos: making sure that you have no discrimination against anybody who takes parental leave—obviously, it is mostly women who do, but no discrimination against people who take parental leave—and that, actually, men are encouraged to take their parental leave so that they experience the same career breaks as women do, and then you do get some equality, because there are huge issues around that. But, absolutely, Bethan Jenkins—you're completely right about that. We do need to do that. 

So, I'm going to make a couple of announcements before I finish, Llywydd, if you will indulge me. I'm very proud that we're going to spend around £300,000 celebrating the centenary of the suffragettes. Siân pointed out that it was only a partial suffrage. I've just had it pointed out to me that, apparently, Welsh women got the vote at 18 from 1865 in Patagonia—courtesy of my friend Jeremy Miles, who just pointed that out to me. So, that's something to be celebrated. But we also know that women in Saudi Arabia have only just got a partial vote now, so there's a long way to go around the world with that. 

We are going to be celebrating key anniversaries right through this year for the suffrage. We're going to have a 100 notable Welsh women programme led by Women's Equality Network Wales, which we are sponsoring. I hope you will all participate in that, and then we'll have a public vote for those who should be recognised. We're going to have some new statues of actual historical women in Wales, which I'm determined to do. We're going to be donating towards the purple plaque campaign, and we're going to have a grant for innovative community activity to follow that up.

So, there are going to be a number of things, and the reason we're going to do all of those things is this, and I'll finish with this, Llywydd: women's history is invisible. You go around the country and you talk to young women, and they do not know that women did the maths behind the munitions, they do not know that women did the maths behind the internet. Do you know that the only person who ever passed the test to go into the—I can't remember what it's called now—spy network in the world war was a woman? The only person who passed all the tests—all the others partially failed them—and that woman isn't even named. When you go to Bletchley Park—there you are; it came to me—it just says 'a woman', whereas we know who all the men are. So, those silent histories must be spoken of. The purple plaque campaign, which will have the little gizmo where you hold your phone up and it will tell you a lot about that woman and her place in history, is absolutely essential so that our young women understand, in Wales, the contribution women have already made, the contribution they can make and the contribution they will make in the future to make Wales the equal society we want it to be. Diolch, Llywydd.

Thank you. That brings today's proceedings to a close.

The meeting ended at 19:14.