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.