Item 4 on the agenda is a statement by the leader of the house on International Women's Day. I call on the leader of the house, Julie James.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. International Women’s Day, 8 March, is recognised around the world. It is a day to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of women and girls everywhere. This year’s theme is Press for Progress. I want to take this opportunity to highlight the progress we are making in Wales and the challenges we continue to face. 

Gender stereotyping is both a cause and consequence of gender inequality. All too often, women and girls are still not given the opportunities to fulfil their potential. We are working hard to change and challenge this on many fronts. Our work around STEM—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—is an example of how we are working across the Welsh Government to tackle gender stereotyping. We are training physics teachers across Wales in gender-inclusive teaching methods. We fund computer coding classes, including specific workshops to engage and motivate girls. Gender equity is now being addressed in all our STEM-related funding. It's also being raised through the national networks of excellence in science and technology and maths. Our STEM Cymru 2 programme aims to encourage more young women to progress into engineering careers. To date, over 3,000 young women have engaged with the programme.

We are committed to delivering 100,000 all-age apprenticeships. Tackling gender bias is at the forefront of our approach to apprenticeships, and we have employed an equality champion to take this work forward.

This year, International Women’s Day coincides with the National Apprenticeship Week. Our network of training providers have a number of events taking place to encourage women to consider non-traditional routes.

We need more women at all levels of management in our private sector businesses. The Agile Nation 2 project aims specifically to develop women to take on management roles. It is supported by £8 million of European funding. Through this project we have seen that the right combination of leadership training, one-to-one support and encouragement can really pay dividends and help women to obtain a better job, a promotion or a pay rise. We've also seen how women, when they reach the top levels of management, can help lead organisational change to promote equality for their whole workforce, such as introducing flexible working arrangements.

We also need more diversity in decision-making roles and in public life, but progress is being made. In 2016-17, 47.8 per cent of new public appointments and 50 per cent of reappointments were female. Following the May 2017 local elections, four councils are now being led by women. We confidently expect to see more in the future.

All the organisations funded through our equality and inclusion programme have committed to delivering a more diverse pool of decision makers. As a part of this work, the Women’s Equality Network Wales has launched a mentoring programme for women, which begins later this month. Like many of you, I have signed up to be a mentor and look forward to supporting the participants to become the leaders of the future.

The Welsh Government has pledged its commitment to the 50:50 by 2020 campaign. Signing up to the campaign shows employers’ public commitment to working towards equal gender representation in decision-making and influencing roles in Wales. We have also pledged our commitment to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Working Forward campaign. We are committed to ensuring women do not face discrimination in the workplace in relation to pregnancy or maternity. I believe the public sector in Wales can lead the way and be an exemplar in showcasing good practice and by promoting the benefits of discrimination-free workplaces.

We are also working hard to support the women who face barriers when trying to access training and employment. We recognise re-employment is the best route out of poverty, and our key focus is on maximising people’s employability. The Communities for Work programme provides bespoke support to those who face significant and often complex barriers that prevent them taking up training or employment. It will provide over £70 million in employment support services in the most deprived communities in Wales until 2020. As of January, 5,730 women had received support from the programme.

The Parents, Childcare and Employment programme aims to support parents become more employable and to move into work when childcare is their main barrier to accessing education, training or employment. Over 95 per cent of PaCE participants are female, and over 84 per cent of the participants are lone parents as well. We know that affordable, available and accessible childcare will give parents greater employment choices, enable parents to work, and support our drive to increase economic growth, tackle poverty and reduce inequalities. This is why we have committed to provide 30 hours of Government-funded early education and childcare to working parents of three and four-year-olds for up to 48 weeks a year. 

We must also ensure that children are taught about healthy relationships from a young age. The new curriculum for Wales includes, as one of its four purposes, that all young people should leave our education system as healthy, confident individuals who can form positive relationships based on trust and mutual respect. Learning about healthy relationships at a young age is an important step in tackling gender stereotyping now and for future generations.

And, finally, I want to highlight the very important work being undertaken to tackle violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence. Statistics show that women are more likely than men to have experienced all forms of domestic abuse and sexual violence. This includes forced marriage, crimes committed in the name of honour, and female genital mutilation. Following on from the landmark Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act in 2015, the national training framework was published in 2016. Over 70,000 professionals have been trained through the framework so far. That’s 70,000 more confident, more aware and more knowledgeable professionals working in our public services.

In January, the This is Me campaign was launched to tackle gender stereotyping and to encourage people to live fear free from gender constraints and gender norms. In the four weeks following its launch, it has been viewed over 200,000 times and use of the Live Fear Free website has increased by nearly 2,000 per cent. I will be making an announcement on Thursday, on International Women’s Day itself, highlighting the next step in our work to tackle violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence. It is important that those for whom this policy is made are able to influence and guide that policy and share what works for them. The next step will be to make proposals about how we do this. Ultimately, we intend to build a society that does not tolerate violence against women, domestic abuse or sexual violence.

But to come back to the focus of today, it is about celebrating the women of Wales and their contribution to all areas of Welsh life. Our role as a Government is to press for progress and to ensure that women and girls have the same opportunities to fulfil their potential. We are pressing for progress, and we are making that progress, but we are not complacent. There is much more to be done. We all have a duty to tackle gender stereotyping, in all its forms, to ensure that current and future generations are not subjected to it, limited by it or harmed by it, to create a Wales where everyone can aspire and achieve and be the person they were intended to be. Diolch.

Thank you very, very much, leader of the house, for your statement today. It's very difficult to criticise anything in there, and I don't intend to do so. And I certainly welcome the list of activities that the Welsh Government has been involved in, and the number of women that have been encouraged to take part in those activities. I've no doubt that they will feel the benefits of that and progress well with those ambitions in their lives. But I'm wondering if there's any way—or even whether it's appropriate, actually—that we could monitor the progress of the women, and particularly the younger women, who have been involved in those programmes. I certainly don't want to spy on them, and of course their choices are their choices, but if we can come up with strong evidence—I don't know, even in 10 years' time—to prove that these have been really, really worthwhile and repeatable activities, then I think that that's good for all of us.

I'm really pleased to see that there's a focus on apprenticeships in the statement you've made today. I'd like to do a quick shout-out for Bridgend College, which has just won the apprenticeship provider of the year award—I've done my duty to my constituents there.

But there's still some very concerning information out there about gender stereotyping, and I refer in particular to a piece of work done by the Careers and Enterprise Company very recently, which found that young people have more, not less, gender-conservative views of the world than their parents did. Fifty-six per cent of young women aged between 17 and 19 believe that their gender limits their career options—only 37 per cent of young men felt that. And the research went on to confirm that career aspirations showed particular gender disparity, with 18 per cent more young men than women wanting to be engineers and IT professionals—perhaps not something we're surprised to hear here. But it showed that those biases are projected onto others by young people themselves, so that it's peers, in one way, who are encouraging young women in particular to go into careers that perhaps they went into. And the fact that gender equality, if you like, isn't a given, I think, is demonstrated in these brand-new figures, and a good reason why these debates, and these statements that you make, Minister, are still essential. I'd love to say that the job is done, but we're miles away from it, judging by these new figures.

As well as apprenticeships, I wonder if the Welsh Government has given some consideration to returnships as well—I don't know if that's a word I can use. The UK Government's just announced some money to support people back into the private sector after time off for caring. Of those people, 90 per cent are women—perhaps again no huge surprise. And I find this interesting if we're asking women in particular to go back into careers, rather than jobs, as certainly when you consider the recent statistics we had from 'Who Runs Wales? 2017', despite the good work that we're doing here, only 6 per cent of chief executives in the top 100 per cent businesses are women—that's in the private sector. Surely, we can be doing better than that. So, if there is a particular work stream here that you think you might be interested in developing, we'd be certainly happy to support you in that.

On childcare, obviously we want this to work. And I'm wondering if I could just draw attention to the pilot on childcare in my area—which, of course, is yours as well—where it seems that nannies aren't included in the scheme, for reasons of registration; I completely get why they're not. But it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that nannies are just for families who can afford them, rather than, on occasion, it is the welfare of the child that demands it. And the reason I'm raising it is because, apart from potentially reducing the number of jobs available to nannies, who tend to be women, there's a risk that it's the women in those families who will choose to stay at home to look after the children, rather than going out into the workplace, because of the needs of that particular child. So, I'm hoping that's something—I believe that it's an unintended consequence of the policy—that could perhaps be looked at.

And then I just want to welcome your very important comments on violence generally. I'm very pleased to see the level of training taken up by professionals, which you referred to. But even that's only going to pay dividends if you get the healthy relationships part of this right. I appreciate what you say that the curriculum will now involve that, but we do have the sort of pre-Donaldson gap, which I think—you may not be able to give me information today—we need to have some information on, particularly at secondary school level, where both young men and young women will have missed the opportunity for this to be very normalised at primary school level. So, if you're able to share any information on that, that would be great. Thank you.

Well, going in reverse order, because that last one is very important indeed, I do think there's a real issue about teaching healthy relationships, in the context of gender stereotyping, and some of the cultural things that are going on in our society today. We are running several schemes across Wales, actually, pre-Donaldson, as you put it, and I went to see one run by Hafan Cymru only very recently. And the young woman running it was amazing, I have to say; I had the privilege of sitting through one of the sessions. But she told me, Deputy Presiding Officer, something that really cuts to every one of our hearts. Before the session—and this was for year 5 and year 6 students—she asked a mixed gender group whether boys or girls were better, and it will be no shock to anyone to know that the boys thought the boys were better and the girls thought the girls were better, because that's what you do. But then she asked the boys why they thought they were better, and they said that they thought that boys were better because they were stronger and better at sport. And then she asked the girls why they thought girls were better, and they couldn't come up with anything, which is really horrible, isn't it?

I had the privilege of being there, so I asked them if they'd heard of Jessica Ennis, and I happened to have a photograph of her on my phone, because I'd been at a different event. And they had heard of Jessica Ennis, and I asked them if they thought she was both strong and good at sport and they agreed that she was. So, we had quite an interesting discussion about what that gender stereotype was about. But it was quite shocking to me that those young women wanted themselves to be better—if 'better' is the right word—but they couldn't actually come up with anything, because already at that young age they'd been subjected to such gender stereotyping that they struggled to say a characteristic that is associated with femaledom that is 'better'. 

This is not about being better, this is about every single human being being able to be the best person that they can be regardless. It's nothing to do with your gender. I happen to like mucking about with cars. My son happens to like cooking. Apparently, that's against the gender stereotype. Well, that was news to me when I was growing up and it's news to him as well. And that's the point, isn't it? 

So, we support in the Government a large number of these schemes. We support the campaign Let Toys be Toys, for example, where we don't encourage people to gender stereotype their toys. If you want, in your shop, to segregate your toys for ease of shopping, then do it by age appropriateness. I'm sure you all know my anecdote about stopping in a local shop in Swansea, and having a go at the manager and asking him what was in the aisle of boys' toys and girls' toys and telling him that he and I were going to have to go outside if there were engineering toys in one aisle and domestic appliances in the other. And he cordially invited me to have a cup of tea, while he checked and sorted it out. So, he wasn't too sure himself, is the point. In fairness, when I went back to that shop the next week, they'd organised it back into age, so, he took the point straight away. I was very grateful for that. But it shows you how pervasive this stuff is and how destructive it is of relationships. We know that domestic violence is driven by some of this gender stereotyping as people try to live in to roles that actually don't suit them and they are stressed by trying to do that. It's a very important part of that. 

In terms of some of the specific things she said, I was delighted to see that Bridgend College had won the award, and it is very well deserved. We have worked very hard to put some equality gender stereotyping awareness into some of the apprenticeship things and we have initiatives that encourage both boys and girls to take part in experiential learning across the gender divide—so, programming a robot, plaiting hair, planning childcare activities—for both genders simultaneously regardless, because, why not? And that's been very well received and very well taken up.

Just in terms of returnships, it is worth mentioning the Sêr Cymru scheme at this point, which is now being copied by the UK Government—I'm always delighted when they do that for Wales. One very large part of the Sêr Cymru programme has been to encourage researchers who have gone out of research—usually because of a career break, but sometimes just because they've gone some place else—to come back in to science. And you'd be amazed to discover that about 95 per cent of those returnships are female, because they've taken career breaks and are coming back. So, we are on that, but I think there is undoubtedly a great deal more to do before we get anywhere near, unfortunately, gender equality. 

Every year, we do mark International Women’s Day. We recall the successes of our predecessors, and pledge to do everything within our ability to improve things for the women who will follow us. I do believe that this year feels different. In light of the scandals in film and television, in politics, journalism and many other areas of life, there is a new conversation that has started, and I do believe that the Me Too movement has created a new awareness of behaviours that have been seen in the past as being acceptable. Now, younger women and younger men are challenging these stereotypes and are calling for an end to sexual inequality, sexual harassment and violence based on gender. There is change in the wind, and we will no longer accept sexual harassment as an element of life that is unavoidable. I don’t believe that we can avoid having that conversation here in Wales, either.

We should be in the vanguard of taking forward the progress that has been hastened by the Me Too movement. So, I’d like to know, leader of the house, what work has been done to better understand the experiences of women in Wales of discrimination, and, specifically, of harassment. We need to learn more about the best way of changing inappropriate behaviours, as individuals and as a broader society. So, one idea that I am looking into this afternoon is whether the Government would be willing to carry out a national survey as a means of starting the national conversation that we need, and specifically around sexual harassment.

Unfortunately, violence against women and domestic abuse is still a part of the lives of too many people, and I know that you share the same aspiration as me to see this eradicated, but, unfortunately, it is increasing. More than one in four women in Wales and England suffer domestic abuse during their lifetimes—13 per cent of men. If we’re to change behaviour, we need to start from the early years, educating children and young people about healthy relationships, and provide comprehensive sex education. You’ve just described that problem, because there are deficiencies in terms of that sort of education, but I am seeking solutions here. So, will the Welsh Government cease flip-flopping on this and commit to introducing compulsory, comprehensive education on sex and healthy relationships in our schools as soon as possible?

We don’t have to wait for changes to the Welsh curriculum. We need to take action on this as a matter of urgency. We also need to tackle the barriers that prevent young women from taking full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them, and something as simple to put right as having problems in accessing sanitary products can have a huge impact on the confidence and well-being of women. So, will you join with me in thanking Councillor Elyn Stephens for her campaign in the Rhondda to introduce a policy of free sanitary products in schools? Her work will assist young women who suffer period poverty and will tackle the shame that occasionally still holds women back in this area. And will you, as a Government, assess this situation and also consider introducing a similar policy to what is being introduced in the Rhondda, and do so across Wales?

Finally, we need to take positive steps to create equal representation between men and women as elected representatives. How on earth can it be right that half the population is under-represented so appallingly in public life? Only 27 per cent of councillors are women, for example, and we should be setting an example of equality, which would then help in generating change in other areas of public life. So, would you agree with me that we do need positive discrimination if we are to do away with generations of imbalance between the genders?

Yes, I largely agree with everything you said, Siân Gwenllian. There are some nuances, but the nuance isn't awfully important. I'm going to jump about all over the place just because that happens to be the way my particular papers are, but, for example, in the diversity and democracy programme, we ran that programme and we have kept in touch with the mentees—I should have said that to Suzy Davies, actually—because they voluntarily want to keep in touch with us, and we know that a large number of those stood for election in 2017, and four of them were elected and they were all women. Those programmes work, so we're going to pursue those, and I hope that we all take part in the mentee programme, men as well as women, because actually the larger the number of young women who we can make understand what public office looks like, the more likely they are to put themselves forward.

I've also asked Chwarae Teg to refresh a piece of work it did under the previous Minister around equality and public life for me, and they should be bringing that forward very shortly so that we can accelerate the progress of equality in public life. We have done reasonably well, but reasonably well is not where I want to be. I want to be equal. So, I don't see any reason why, in this Assembly term, we shouldn't get to 50:50 on every public body sponsored by this Government, and Chwarae Teg is going to bring some proposals forward for me to consider to see how we might manage that, and that's very important indeed.

In terms of period poverty, I've got officials working very hard indeed on what we can do here, alongside education officials. We're closely looking at RCT; they have done something that is very interesting indeed, and we have been having long conversations with the Trussell Trust—that's hard to say, Trussell Trust—about where they are with work with homeless young women as well, but I'm determined to do something very soon in that regard. So, as soon as I've got some data together, we will be announcing some schemes that we can take forward to see what works best. Even if we provided free sanitary products to every woman who requires them in Wales, that's not that many people. This is a thing that I'm determined to take forward in one way or another. So, it's just about the best way of doing it, which is where we are at the moment.

In terms of sex education—absolutely right, we do need to do something. We've just had the sex and relationships education panel report, and it was a very good report in my view. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and I have been considering that for just a little while. She'll be responding formally to it shortly, but I don't think I'm pre-announcing too many things by saying that we both thought it was a very good report indeed. And, as I said, we are sponsoring some organisations already to take forward some of that work in healthy relationships. We will be considering what the best way of getting that into the education system is, and that may well be that we make a change to the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015 itself, or we include it in the curriculum reforms that we'll be taking through the Assembly shortly. There are a number of ways of doing it, but we will be doing that as fast as possible.

Then just to say at the end, because we know—all the research shows us this—it's this gender stereotyping thing that's actually at the bottom of all of this. People are taught, from the second they open their eyes, that their gender matters, and actually it doesn't matter—unless you're actually looking to form a family and have a sexual relationship with a person, why on earth does it matter? I just really don't understand that genderisation of five-day-old babies and so on. We've really got to work very hard as a society to stop that happening. We need to make sure that all of our processes in Government don't in any way assume that that's a good thing to do, and that they afford equal opportunities right across the piece. But I'm not in any way complacent; we have a long way to go yet.

Thank you to the Government for bringing forward this statement today. With permission, I'd just like to put on the record that, four months ago today, we lost a true advocate for women's rights and someone who stood up for women's suffering, domestic abuse and sexual violence. I don't think there's any one of my dad's suits that doesn't have a white ribbon pin badge on, and I'm very proud to be standing here today in the Chamber wearing mine. 

I have three questions for the leader of the house. Firstly, we know my dad supported the White Ribbon campaign, and that my colleague Joyce Watson has played a vital part in that, with her annual event. Will the Government join me in my campaign to ensure that all public service providers in Wales, like the police, like the fire service, follow south Wales police and fire service and Gwent's lead in having white ribbons on their vehicles all year around?

Secondly, I also want to pay tribute to RCT council and all the campaigners that made the announcement that free sanitary products could soon be available to all schoolgirls possible. I know that my colleague Jenny Rathbone just here has been a vital advocate in that as well and she was working closely with my dad on this issue. So, I also wanted to know if the Government will commit to ensuring this is replicated across Wales and help make that happen.

Just finally, I'd like to finish with: can I just urge the leader of the house and all Members and staff who work in the Assembly to read Rachel Williams's new book, The Devil at Home? Rachel's story as a survivor of domestic abuse is devastating but truly, truly inspiring. Her story of hope tells all of us how you can always find light, even in the very, very darkest of times. She's a true inspiration and I urge you all to read that book at your leisure. Thank you, leader of the house.

Absolutely. I hadn't actually realised it was an anniversary date, but we all very much remember your father's contributions here in the Senedd. He managed to be both amusing and forthright and also compassionate and committed on a subject that he clearly cared a lot about, and I'm very proud to have inherited some part of his portfolio and to be able to, in some small way, step into his shoes and take that forward. I do have a great photograph of him, actually—talking of gender stereotypes—wearing the worst red high heels you've ever seen in all of your life. I had to support his weight on my shoulders as we tried to walk a mile—it wasn't a mile, it was about five steps—in somebody else's shoes. [Laughter.] I'm not too sure whether I was worse at standing in high heels or he was, but we weren't—it wasn't a great sight, but it was funny. So, it's a fitting tribute, and I hadn't realised it.

In terms of the White Ribbon campaign, I know that the Cabinet Secretary for public services has been working very hard with first line responders and other public services on this, and I'm sure he will be taking it forward. We're very proud of the police for having done what they've done and the multi-agency work that they're undertaking and absolutely committed to taking that forward as fast as possible. It's a very important symbol, actually—it's not just about the campaign; it's a very important symbol of the commitment of public services to that kind of equality, and, of course, just to remind ourselves—Joyce has worked endlessly in this regard as well—of that pledge about never committing violence or condoning or being silent in the face of violence. The white ribbon is a very public reminder of that pledge, which is very important to have, especially for first responders, who are often going into situations where domestic violence is the issue.

In terms of period poverty, as I just said to Siân Gwenllian, we are looking at it very carefully. I'm absolutely committed to doing something. I'm not yet convinced that one scheme fits every single woman in Wales, so it's just a question of trying to tailor it so that we get it right and to persuade the Cabinet Secretary for Finance that we can afford some of it. I'm sure he—. Look—he's not demurring. [Laughter.] But we are committed to doing it—absolutely committed to doing it.

In terms of Rachel Williams's book, I haven't read the whole book, but I've read extracts from it. One of the things that's absolutely front and centre in our policy in terms of tackling all kinds of domestic violence and sexual violence is to have the survivor's voice right there in the centre of the policy so we can understand the effect that it has both during and after, and in the recovery phase, for all of the victims of that kind of domestic violence. So, I certainly am hoping to read it when I do have some leisure time—I'm not too sure when exactly that will be—but I have read extracts from it, and I've heard Rachel talk, actually, and she's a very powerful voice. We're very keen that our policy takes that survivor voice into account, and, in fact, Carl Sargeant, your father, was the first to put that right at the centre of our policy, and I certainly will be carrying on in his good footsteps.

Thank you very much for your statement, leader of the house. I certainly welcome the work being done to encourage girls to enter non-traditional professions, to study STEM subjects and to tackle gender inequality and stereotyping. I note the STEM Cymru 2 scheme and would like to ask: out of the 3,000 young women who have engaged with the scheme, how many of those have gone on to a career in engineering? I really do welcome these efforts, but girls need to have the confidence in maths before they can excel at subjects such as physics, and it's essential that we get the basics right.

The more girls who leave primary school and enter secondary school confident in their ability to do maths, and the more who are encouraged to think about studying for STEM subjects and to go on to study STEM subjects, the more women we'll find in engineering and the scientific professions. So, I would be really, really interested to know how you're monitoring the effectiveness of the programmes that you've introduced. I think, potentially, they're very good programmes, but we need to know how effective they're being and, hopefully, there'll be some very good news there.

What worries me, and I'm sure you're also concerned about this, is that it's been more than 40 years since the advent of the Equal Pay Act 1970, and women are still earning 80 per cent of men's pay. Roughly about 20 years ago, women were earning 75 per cent of male earnings, which means that the narrowing of the gap by 5 per cent over 20 years is progress of sorts, but at this rate it's going to take another 80 years to eliminate the gender pay gap. The Welsh public sector could lead the way here and empower working women in the public sector by introducing pay transparency, so I'd be interested to know what your thoughts are about that.

I welcome the programmes that the Welsh Government have set in place to tackle gender stereotyping, but I'd suggest that gender stereotyping needs to be tackled much, much earlier, and I think you probably agree with me there. Girls and boys absorb gender norms along with all of the other norms and values that they learn from the people around them, and this process begins at birth. So, how are staff in nurseries and infant schools, as well as adults working with older children, being trained to spot gender stereotyping and how to avoid it?

I welcome the efforts made by the Welsh Government to tackle domestic violence, and the training of professionals is a very good move. Can the leader of the house give us an update on the progress of those schemes in due course? I realise that you wouldn't be able to give a detailed update now. 

But coming on to another big issue, no practice exemplifies the subordination and abuse of women more than female genital mutilation, and yet there have been no meaningful prosecutions. So, can the leader of the house please tell me what Welsh Government policy is regarding referring cases of FGM for investigation by the police? And can she also tell us what Welsh Government is doing to directly challenge the patriarchal cultures of the communities in which FGM occurs, and that result in FGM? Thank you.   

The Member makes a very important point—that last point, in particular, is a really important point. We have been working extremely hard in a range of areas to make sure that reporting and prosecution takes place. They tend to be very complex cases to prosecute and, actually, prevention is better than prosecution anyway. So, we've been rolling out our training across all professionals who have contact with young girls, particularly young girls who are in the at-risk category, so just before puberty, to spot the signs of a young girl that's at risk and start the protection programme as early as possible. But also, we've been working very carefully with the criminal justice authorities across the UK to make sure that we have the right training in place, so that the police and the first responders also pick up the right signs. And also that we work inside the communities so that communities themselves start to self-police. So, it's hugely complicated, but we will be seeing some more prosecutions shortly. I don't think it is just about the prosecution. It's much more about changing the culture—as you say, the patriarchal culture—in some of those, although, actually, in a large number of the cultures, it's the women themselves who are actually involved in it. So, there's a huge cultural issue here that we have to be very cognisant of and we have to work very hard to change. That's partly why we're having the whole-society approach to the gender stereotyping issue, because that's the fundamental basis of this. 

In terms of some of the specifics that you asked me about—in terms of physics, for example—one of the contributors to the Val Feld plaque unveiling that we had just outside the Senedd now said something that really resonated with me. She said she was looking forward to the day when somebody addressed a young woman about her figures, and what they meant was her contribution in maths or scientific advancement, and not what she looked like without her clothes on. I, too, would second that. I hope you've all seen the film Hidden Figures, which was a very good demonstration of the contribution that women have made throughout scientific history, which is then hidden over completely. I have to say that I was completely unaware of the contribution of black women on the space programme until I'd read the book and seen the film.

That's what the unveiling of that plaque was about. It's about making sure that young women across Wales understand the contribution that women have made in those fields, and therefore aspire to that contribution themselves. Because if you haven't seen it, how can you aspire to be it? So, I think the plaque was a very good first step. My next step, Deputy Presiding Officer, is to make sure that we have one of those QR codes on the bottom of it so that when you put your phone up to it, it gives you a biography of the woman being honoured in that way, so that young women across Wales can have the positive role models that will make them succeed. 

But in terms of how we'll know we're succeeding, when the number of women in Wales goes above 20 per cent taking A-level physics, that will be a very standard place. That hasn't moved for 40 years, so I'm very much hoping that, in the next five, the measures we're putting in place now will move that. 

Thank you. We have nine minutes left on this statement to run and we have five speakers, so I shall leave you all to do the maths on that. So, what I'm asking for is: can we have short contributions and short answers? Then we'll get you all in. Dawn Bowden. 

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I will try to keep it brief, but I do have a couple of points I want to make. Firstly, can I thank you for your statement and the positive actions that, clearly, the Welsh Government have been carrying out already? And can I say in particular that today was absolutely fantastic when we saw the unveiling of the purple plaque for Val Feld, and that campaign to deliver other purple plaques across Wales for remarkable women? I'd like to congratulate Chwarae Teg for taking that campaign forward. 

It's in that same spirit of recognising remarkable women across Wales that I'd like to ask you, leader of the house, to join me in making that call for action towards women across Wales, for me particularly in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, obviously, but across the whole of Wales, to celebrate the contribution of women to all our local communities. In my constituency, for example, we could look at perhaps women from the past like Rose Mary Crawshay, who was a suffragette, or women who served civic life as councillors, mayors and leaders. It could be the contribution of women, again in my constituency, like Laura Ashley, in design and fashion, Marion Jones, leading the fight for equal pay at Hoover, Winifred Agnes who was the international president for the confederation of midwives, the amazing Aberfan wives, and, of course, those incredible women that supported the miners through the strike through Women Against Pit Closures. In truth, we have very little public recognition of many of the incredible women who have made a mark in my constituency throughout the years.

On International Women's Day 2018, can I ask you to join me in making that call to the whole country to work together to celebrate the contribution of women in our local communities so that we see purple plaques and other forms of recognition in all our communities right the way across Wales?  

Indeed. Very swiftly, Deputy Presiding Officer, I would say that absolutely, I agree with that. There's an enormous list in every constituency of women who've been absolutely instrumental in moving every walk of life in Wales on. I'm looking forward to the 100 notable women campaign that WEN Wales will be putting forward and we've already said that we will put Government money behind the purple plaque campaign to get as many of those purple plaques as we possibly can, and there'll be a public appeal to do that as well. I'm determined to get those QR codes on as well, not just the name and the fact that they lived there. I want somebody to actually be able to understand what that woman actually did and what you, therefore, can aspire to in each of our communities across Wales. 

I think the thing about the plaque unveiling today, for me, was the enthusiasm with which Val Feld's granddaughters were taking part in the ceremony—that's absolutely wonderful.

Anyway, just moving back to period poverty, there's no doubt in my mind that there are people who are amongst the most disadvantaged in society who are having to use socks and rags and other materials in order to deal with their period. In the sixth largest economy in the world, that is completely out of order. I'm delighted to hear that you're working on that with the Trussell Trust. I read with great interest the RCT report, which included the input from retired teacher Jayne Brencher, who's obviously very experienced in the matter of period poverty and schools. I think there were several things to take away from the report. One is that I'm not convinced that it's period poverty that is keeping some pupils away from school during their period; I think it's much more to do with dignity and people feeling good about themselves and confident. So, I know that RCT has allocated £50,000 for the trial period in their schools and up to £98,000, but most of it is to do with making sure that there are bins for disposal of sanitary pads and towels in schools, which one would expect to see as a matter of course.

I think that it's very interesting to hear from the girls themselves. Nearly 800 pupils took part and I was really interested to see that 15 per cent of them said they would like Mooncups to be made available, which is obviously the most sustainable solution because otherwise we're simply adding to the refuse mountain, which we've got to put to landfill or incineration. So, I'd hope that you might look at that as a sustainable solution for ensuring everybody has a method for dealing with their period. But, obviously, if you're going to have Mooncups in schools, you're going to have to have hand washing facilities in the toilet. So, it is a complicated issue. I was very surprised, however, to see that whilst most schools do provide sanitary towels or tampons in a few cases, and most of them for free, they didn't have any sort of budget for this beyond, in some cases, £100. Either staff were buying them themselves to ensure that girls who were caught out were not embarrassed or they were getting it reimbursed from petty cash. And 17 per cent of headteachers reported that they did not provide sanitary bins for disposing of towels and tampons, which is just a recipe for a blocked drain, frankly.

I think this is a really interesting issue. I think it's fantastic that we are able to talk about it today in light of International Women's Day, because we have to remember that, around the world, girls are not able to take part in prayer, they're not able to take part in school. In some cultures, they're actually thrown out of their house during the time of their period because they are considered unclean. Instead, we must be celebrating periods as a demonstration of women's fertility, which is what it is. Therefore, it's really important that everybody understands the importance of periods and that it is a natural process. Girls don't need to be missing school because of it. They need to be provided with the wherewithal to ensure that they're able to do it with dignity.

I completely agree with absolutely everything you've said. There is an issue about dignity and embarrassment, and that's very much part of the sex and healthy relationships agenda. Actually, there's a real issue in primary schools as well, because many girls start menstruating before they're 11 and move on to secondary schools, and that's a real issue for them. So, it is about making sure our entire education system is geared up to make sure that people have dignity and respect and privacy and the right equipment of whatever sort.

We are investigating the whole sustainability agenda as well, which is a huge issue, and the issue about sanitary protection, both for the individual and for the disposal and washing facilities and all the rest of it. That's why I'm saying that we want to be sure that when we bring a scheme forward it actually works for everybody in Wales, because we have various women in different stages of their menstrual and reproductive cycles, obviously.

So, it's a very important point. We are working very hard on it. We will be looking very closely at some of the trials that are going on in RCT and elsewhere, and we are talking to various homelessness charities and so on, and I've been working with the Minister for housing on some of this as well. We will be bringing forward a scheme; I just want to make sure that that scheme works for everyone and fits in with our sex and healthy relationships agenda in general.

Minister, I'd like to ask about automation, which, as far as we can tell, is likely to have a hugely gendered impact. There is no reliable study or prediction about what is going to happen, but the World Economic Forum estimates that, for every new job created, three male jobs will be lost but that, for every new job created, five female jobs will be lost, because many of the jobs with a high chance of automation are back-office administrative functions, and many of the new jobs are in STEM professions, where women remain vastly under-represented. So, will the Welsh Government commit to undertaking a wholescale gender impact assessment of automation in Wales? As Annalise Moser reminded us,

'what gets measured is more likely to get addressed', and undertaking a gender impact assessment won't just reveal the extent of the challenge we face but will spur action to ensure simply that women aren't left to feel the brunt of automation.

Yes, indeed, that's a very important point. I've actually been discussing with the First Minister and a number of other colleagues various gender impact assessments that we should be making—budget gender impact assessments not least—and we will be bringing forward some proposals in that regard. I had not thought of automation, but I'm more than happy to include that in it. The real issue there, of course, is just making sure that we have the largest number of people with the flexible number of skills necessary to be able to ride that wave rather than be pushed under by it. That's very much part of our STEM agenda in general. We need more engineers in general, not just women engineers, but clearly we need everyone with every kind of protected characteristic to have the best chance available to make sure that we actually stay on top of that curve. So, I'm more than happy to say that we'll do that.

I thank the leader of the house for her statement. This year, we are celebrating the centenary of women getting the vote, but of course it wasn't every woman, was it? Let's be clear. It was those with property and older than 30. So, immediately, we see the Representation of the People Act 1918 deliberately excluding working-class women from voting, and that, in my opinion, set immediately the difference and the fight that women would have to have thereafter. Feminism has always been aligned to social justice because they are two sides of the same coin. International Women's Day is rooted in a fight for workers' rights, and it did begin in a garment workers' factory in New York City, protesting pay and conditions. In 1917 in Russia, women protesters started a workers' revolution. So, we must remember where those fights started. I don't suppose many of you here—if any of you here—have heard of Rachel Parsons. She was the first woman to read mechanical science at the University of Cambridge in 1910. So, if you take that then, I don't suppose she actually had her degree because she would have been denied it, and I think that we need to clearly understand where the fight has come from.

The fight has come here, because we are all aware of the unveiling, and rightly, of the Val Feld plaque today, where it was immediately embedded that we would have equality within our system. And it is always a process when we're talking about equality, and women's equality is no different. One of the issues I believe that requires legislative attention right now is something that is called 'upskirting', whereby intimate pictures are taken underneath the victim's clothes. At the moment, it is not a criminal offence, but it is extremely offensive, and it is extremely disturbing for all those individuals who are affected. So, whilst we seem to think that we travel a road and we reach equality, somebody, somewhere, thinks about the next way of offending another person by the new tools that they have in their hand. So, could you please have some discussions with the UK Government about bringing forward some legislation to make upskirting a criminal offence? The report in The Guardian either today or yesterday clearly states that this isn't only women, but these are girls as young as 10 who are being subjected to this. Thank you.

I think that's appalling, and I most certainly will do exactly that. I'm very happy to do that. Deputy Presiding Officer, I will just say this, because the clichés sometimes make the point: we've all heard of the congresswoman's sign on her desk in America—'To do this job, you have to be twice as good as any man. Fortunately that's not difficult.' But, actually, I was taught while I was at university by a feminist woman called Cora Kaplan, and I know that the Cabinet Secretary for Finance knows this quote, but she said, tellingly, and you have to really think about the phrase:

'We'll know that we have true equality when there are as many mediocre women in power as there are mediocre men.'

Deputy Presiding Officer, we have a long way to go before we get to there. [Laughter.]

And finally, Jane Hutt. 

How do I follow that, leader of the house? I just want to thank everyone who attended the purple plaque ceremony today; it provides now a lasting memory of former Swansea East AM, Val Feld, a champion for equality. Now, Cerys Furlong, chief executive of Chwarae Teg, was at the event. She spoke about her commitment to progressing women's equality, very much in line with your statement today. Do you welcome the Chwarae Teg LeadHerShip initiative, which brought 16 to 25-year-old young women into the Assembly last week, shadowing many of us as Assembly Members—young women like Nia Watkins and Chloe Pierce from Barry and Llantwit Major in my constituency—inspired by what they saw and how they could take this forward? And secondly, will the Welsh Government sign up to the Chwarae Teg fair play employer benchmark? It was launched last November, and obviously, the Welsh Government needs to be at the forefront as an exemplar employer, and I think the commissioner's already signed up, so Welsh Government must follow suit.

Yes, on that second one, I'm in advanced negotiations with the various parts of the Government in order to make sure that we do sign up to that initiative. I was very proud to be able to speak, if only briefly, to the LeadHerShip event last week. I did say to the protagonist there that I was about to do FMQs and I was completely and utterly terrified and that I was going to do it anyway. The same feminist who taught me at the University of Sussex all those years ago introduced me to a book called Fear of Flying, which I could recommend to people even now, which is 'feel the fear and do it anyway' expressed in modern-day parlance. 

One of the reasons I was delighted to be at the Val Feld plaque unveiling was because Val was just such a person—she was an incredible human being, she was really funny. When she related back some of the tales that she'd—you know, when she'd taken her current campaign to those on high and she'd come back and tell you the story afterwards, you'd be in stitches—literally in stitches—but it never took away from the seriousness with which she pursued equality. I thought her children and grandchildren were a real inspiration to us all. And we are indeed standing on the shoulders of the women who went before us, Deputy Presiding Officer, and, as I said earlier, we have a long way to go before we get that equality.

Thank you, leader of the house.