thank you for coming in thank you data
for the chart
[Music]
fantastic range of speakers and topics
we put together I’m going to use my slot
to talk to you about gender I’m going to
talk about the barriers that exist
between men and women I don’t you out
because ultimately this is all about
power and the role in government and
individuals can play in equalizing that
power salvages now I’m sure some of you
are wondering why I as a man I’ve chosen
to talk to you today about gender and of
course when when I was approached and
asked to talk about breaking barriers
there are any number of topics and
themes that I’ve talked about as a
diplomat
my role is all about overcoming from the
barriers that can exist between
countries and about people so I thought
about talking to you about the
Commonwealth which is coming its next
types of government meeting in London in
April I’m talking about the way that
that institution uses values like
democracy rule of law good governance
both to break down the barriers of
government but break down the barriers
of geography and overcome them
I thought about talking to you as well
about my previous role of in London
where I was helping the government
prepare the brexit ensuring that the
UK’s exit from the European Union does
not create unnecessary barriers for us
there but I chose to talk to you about
gender for two reasons really first it’s
a subject that matters to me enormous
Lee I’m the father of three daughters
secondly more importantly I believe it’s
an issue that’s critical to society all
societies at large and I’m going to do
this I hope without falling into the
trap of appearing to mansplain an issue
of set of issues but I’m sure many of
you particular women in the audience I’m
much more aware of than me and have been
affected by for a lot longer than I feel
okay
so case you’re not fully on board let me
brief recap briefly about why gender
empowerment and gender equality matters
and why it matters critically to men as
well as for women first off and I hope
no one with his deepest it’s simply
right just and fair
it’s just wrong belief half the country
half the population behind but for those
men who are worried the gender equality
might see them set back a little bit
have a little bit less of the cake and
make their lives that little bit harder
let me reassure you it also helps us as
men to live their lives but we want to
wipe that well it’s good for the planet
giving the girls a good education is the
most critical factor in reducing birth
rates which will be internally crucial
impacting climate change with the
countries and nations research
consistently shows that those countries
that are most gender equal score highest
on measures of happiness and if women
were playing the same role in the labor
market as men we’d be adding an
estimated twenty two trillion pounds the
global GDP it’s good for business and
companies – again the evidence shows the
more gender each full of company the
highest retention rate the greater
employee satisfaction bhp Hilton the
mining company even found that their
sites with more women in the staff will
run more safely so for those of you in
the audience you end up running
companies are making hiring decisions
please remember it’s not the cost of
pursuing gender equality that you need
to worry about is the cost of not
pursuing it the matter face up to home
it’s good for our families children are
happier when men play an active role in
the household so are their lives on a
personal basis is good to most men I
know what female friends female
colleagues benefit wives there are high
quality jobs and fulfilled lives and
increasingly we don’t just want to be
seen as men as breadwinners we want of a
mother richer more very drawn households
and with our children too
so gender equality is not a zero-sum
game it’s not win lose it is genuinely
win-win so then if it’s such a
no-brainer that female empowerment and
gender equality is a good thing – we
need to keep talking about it while
having the events of the last year
highlighted again the Gulf that remains
between men
women and the way in which they’re
treated across the world you’ve seen the
me to campaign started in the wake of
the exposure of a decent Hollywood and
showed vividly and visibly quite how
many women around the world have
suffered have continued to suffer abuse
at the hands of men and then of course
there’s the enduring gender pay gap men
remain consistently better paced than
women across the world and it’s
estimated it would take over a hundred
years without gap to close our proud
year there’s an area whether you pay
civil service has taken an active
leadership role it publishes the pay gap
every year that exists between men and
women and it’s taking active steps to
reduce it and those gaps that exist
between men and women aren’t typically
limited to pay in the UK research
recently published over men also have
open phone email with more letter twice
a week than women so we don’t just get
better paid we get more time off as well
it’s truly that can’t be right so why
didn’t these gaps exist and and what can
we do to address them what dates are
drawn from across the OECD first the
median wage of a woman working full time
is around eighty five percent of that of
a man now that’s not as many people
stood because employers tend to pay them
better for the same type of work instead
the real reason is twofold first women
outnumber men in positions with lower
salaries and fewer chances of promotion
and secondly men and women remain badly
largely segregated between occupations
and industries and those where women
tend to predominate hey that’s well what
this means then is that the pay gap
would shrink if many lives in female
dominated shops and industries and vice
versa
but that’s in the OECD least
schools around the decade ago there are
quite a lot of reasons to explain this
lots of ideas but I have a theory and I
have a confession
so first the confession it wasn’t until
I became a father just a little over
five years ago that I realize quite how
early Dender stereotyping
and how powerful and how many Victor’s
horses are that tell our children from a
really early age that their gender
informs the type of roles this is Bill
and about their place in the world some
of you I’m sure we’ve seen Michael
Kimmel and that’s big TED talk on this
subject where he talks says the
privilege is invisible to those we have
it and I wasn’t aware certainly until I
start seeing the world through my
daughter’s eyes or rather seeing the
world as it’s being presented to my
quarters what an overwhelmingly male
orientated male dominated world indeed
so this is my theory it’s not
groundbreaking but something I think we
all know at some level but I believe
very strongly but the many ways right
from infancy we tell our children that
their gender shapes the way in which
they should see their work the world and
shapes what their roles in the world
should be helps to explain over the
divisions in the workplace and at home
and how entrenched they are let me give
you just a couple of examples my wife
and I read to our children our daughters
every night and they love being read to
their love stories but I find it sad
that it’s so many of their folks girls
essentially spend background what they
wait open to find hoping a handsome
prince finds them and considers them
pretty enough Eastburn enough to marry
and that’s not just the personal view
analysis published last week showed that
the hundred most popular books in the UK
twice as many twice as made the
characters with a speaking part or a
main role in the story were men or male
because this doesn’t even just apply to
the human characters this applies to
animals too and will male characters
were typically powerful strong bold
animals like dragons bears and tigers
the female characters tend to be smaller
more vulnerable by Birds
hats or insects so what are we telling
our children what are we telling girls
and boys if it’s poised to get the
starring roles and stories and girls
through the meat subservient psychics
when you have a point when you have the
clothes is the same story you might
think and I did
children the toys will be gender-neutral
but that’s certainly not the way they
marketed amongst the most common words
used in TV adverts for girls toys in the
UK a beautiful sparkle and glitter are
they the same for boys no of course
they’re not for boys it’s lateral power
advent trappers control and less clothes
but with some pajamas that were sold
recently in the UK the boys version
across the chest character slogan be
your own superhero pretty inspiring the
girls version the slogan integrant fatty
to my superhero so essentially our
storage our clothes our toys they’re
preparing our children to female
dominance as normal and I at least don’t
think that would be right though girls
deserve adventure to that they deserve
it told their superheroes and of course
it doesn’t only them it options the
girls it also short changes voice there
have been federal programs and campaigns
to encourage girls into science in
engineering with some success but
suddenly campaign from the other side to
encourage boys and for nurturing
professions by teaching and nursing
cured both reading and it’s striking to
me by the age of seven voice and fewer
words than girls to describe all
emotions except for one anger so
involving my men and boys and doing it
from a young age I think is critical if
we’re going to address the temper of
qualities and achieve it and that’s
something we could all do everyone in
this room by telling children the
children in your lives that they’re not
defined by their gender but it’s also an
area that government can and does make a
real difference by passing laws creating
regulations and setting norms let me
give you an example this year marked an
important anniversary for me a painless
journey in 1918 we introduced partial
women’s suffrage and also is the year in
which women who first founded candidates
be members of parliament it took another
10 years until 1928 for him to be given
the vote on the same basis as men but
now a hundred years later we have a
woman as our prime minister our second
a third of her cabinet women women hold
half the so-called breakups to the state
of the UK for the first time in our
history and all those women are part of
the most diverse calm and ever for 208
female MPs in our House of Commons as
our equipment the Lok Sabha so let’s
fill a huge way to go but there’s also
been great progress give you another
example I’m going to turn back for the
paper-based from the new Paley’s suggest
that the age for which women’s pay tends
to start falling behind lens it’s the
age of which they tend to have children
so that happens for various reasons but
we often see the women reduce their
hours or change jobs after having
children and the result it means that
nearly a third of women say they’re
overqualified and underpaid the jobs
they do here again government policies
are making a real difference and that’s
an area where I do most of proponent and
the beneficiary in a previous program
five UK government ministers on how best
to recruit training retain and reward
bureaucrats in that role I argued
strongly but those fathers who took time
out to look after their children the
part of said parental leave should be
paid the occupational rates rather than
the statutory rate secretary well that
means that that men wouldn’t be
financially penalized for taking time
away from work and the natural group I
was convinced for doing that because I
myself I think that parental leave
previously I think the benefits have had
for me and my family but I was also
aware that a pup in the UK was
incredibly low with their really cater
staff degree in the civil service so
previously when all of my children born
my wife and my kids to share the
maternity leave that until recently
would have been house alone and then she
went back to work three months earlier
than she might otherwise have done and I
spend those three months at home looking
after the children full-time it was the
impact of that for me in the family or
for me I got to spend that time bonding
with my daughters spending time with
them that I would
and I throw our relationships stronger
Brett and also benefited my wife and us
as a couple I got to understand what
she’d been experiencing that their life
but also the frustration and the
isolation becomes mustaine at home
everyday for the baby
I will understand finalist work is
involved in planning and running a
household work the most of the time in
most societies for Stallman’s spending
those months at home has I hope and I’ve
paid more equal role in our household
else’s and also benefited my wife and
not just because I started pulling my
weight more I think she got to go back
to work confidence or everybody’s
relatively confident but our daughters
were being well looked after and
crucially that meant that she could
focus and reestablishing yourself at
work without worrying about rushing back
to the u.s. we picked up or about taking
time off every time other lives were
sick and then my daughter’s have no
conscious memory of it I’m sure I think
that some level is instilled in them the
view that child care for men as well as
for women so work for me it works my
wife I hope they helped my children and
I hope it gave them a an outlook on life
and about child care responsibilities
being for both men and women increased
it works at a societal level to the
countries and companies that offer clear
parental leave as the civil service new
Patos
that’s discrimination and smaller pay
differentials between men and women the
policies like this combined with
offering families left primary friendly
flexible working
seems to be helping at least where I
work in the Foreign Office
that’s the UK to program the NBA to
ensure that our people are more
representative of the UK as a whole and
it hasn’t always been that way to
shockingly shocking to me it wasn’t
until 1946 the women were even allowed
to be British diplomats it wasn’t until
1955 the equal pay for women was
introduced and until 1972 women had to
resign when they got married but I’m
pleased to say that things are changing
now almost half past partner
women in 2008 we have 22 female heads
emission by 2016
that’d risen to 50 and it now includes
my commissioners to Australia New
Zealand and the previous life mission to
South Africa we’ve just appointed our
first female permanent representative to
the UN peroneus and last year the
foreign secretary appointed drama Roper
as the UK’s first special envoy for
gender equality
she’s leading our work to deliver a
prominent policy that delivers
consciously and consistently for women
and girls of course we still have a long
way to go and a lot to do but I’m proud
to work for an organization that’s
making gender equality central how it
works and as I say my commitment to
gender equality gender Parliament
because beyond their own offices it goes
beyond their own working practices and
I’m proud that my teams are working in
close partnership with the government of
India and with Indian partners right
across the country supporting the work
that they’re needing to support female
empowerment promote gender equality
across this country I’ll give you just a
couple of examples last summer I had the
pleasure spending an afternoon playing
football with young women tomatoes in
Mumbai they were there with members of
kick like a girl program developed and
run by Oscar Foundation so fantastic in
there and funded by us to keep in India
Oscar uses football to build confidence
amongst young young people from
marginalized communities and last year I
picked Mike a girl program did 51 girls
from the American aghast love the
transit access sports and education that
they wouldn’t have otherwise had the
chance to do and we’re expanding that
program for 90 this year they were
spending off the name with those young
women we’ve one of the most inspiring
things I’ve done in my time in India
hearing their stories about the
challenges they faced in their life and
how the program was building their
confidence or giving them the tools to
overcome them we’re also working with
employers so we’re working with
companies like Martha Spencer’s and
Superdry from the UK as well as with
Indian firms across the government in
the spirit
the country working with them to help
empower their female employees over
raising their awareness of their own
rights last year that program benefit of
2,000 women and to become and to
factories this year life with a kick
like a girl program were expanding it
and it will now cover twelve factories
and benefits 12,000 women with funding
microfinance initiatives woman I’m also
working with the police to support them
to respond better to women at the
violence against women and girls and
we’re also working with and supporting
many of the hugely impressive indian
women who are working in this field to
build networks and share best practices
for the last two years responsibility to
the UK for eminent female politicians
civil servant activists lawyers
journalists and more giving them the
chance to share their experiences and
learn from each other and from others
working the same issues in the UK and
around the world all of these projects
we’re working a partnership with Indian
organizations supporting women build
confidence build networks and share best
practice and more widely and just as
importantly to help bring about a
culture shift in the way in which women
and girls are see and see themselves and
that’s really the message that I want to
leave you with today success here
bringing about gender equality requires
a culture shift I will take action by
governments and I mean after my
individuals on the UK side the
government has committed at home for
eliminating all forms of gender equality
and here in India we will continue to
work collaboratively with the Government
of India and with partners across the
country to support women empowerment and
gender equality but on the individual
side we need your help
so I leave with a request to you all
please please remember this is an issue
that supports the sort of ex us all
regardless of our own death
challenge it wherever you see it make
sure that the children in your lives
know that gender shouldn’t define them
doesn’t define them who they are or the
lives that they can lead I hope that’s a
message that we could all agree on and a
change that we all want to see so
luckily ET today
appropriately here in the Gandhi Pavan
and the famous words Mahatma Gandhi is
please be the change that you wish to see in the world thank you very much
for the chart
[Music]
fantastic range of speakers and topics
we put together I’m going to use my slot
to talk to you about gender I’m going to
talk about the barriers that exist
between men and women I don’t you out
because ultimately this is all about
power and the role in government and
individuals can play in equalizing that
power salvages now I’m sure some of you
are wondering why I as a man I’ve chosen
to talk to you today about gender and of
course when when I was approached and
asked to talk about breaking barriers
there are any number of topics and
themes that I’ve talked about as a
diplomat
my role is all about overcoming from the
barriers that can exist between
countries and about people so I thought
about talking to you about the
Commonwealth which is coming its next
types of government meeting in London in
April I’m talking about the way that
that institution uses values like
democracy rule of law good governance
both to break down the barriers of
government but break down the barriers
of geography and overcome them
I thought about talking to you as well
about my previous role of in London
where I was helping the government
prepare the brexit ensuring that the
UK’s exit from the European Union does
not create unnecessary barriers for us
there but I chose to talk to you about
gender for two reasons really first it’s
a subject that matters to me enormous
Lee I’m the father of three daughters
secondly more importantly I believe it’s
an issue that’s critical to society all
societies at large and I’m going to do
this I hope without falling into the
trap of appearing to mansplain an issue
of set of issues but I’m sure many of
you particular women in the audience I’m
much more aware of than me and have been
affected by for a lot longer than I feel
okay
so case you’re not fully on board let me
brief recap briefly about why gender
empowerment and gender equality matters
and why it matters critically to men as
well as for women first off and I hope
no one with his deepest it’s simply
right just and fair
it’s just wrong belief half the country
half the population behind but for those
men who are worried the gender equality
might see them set back a little bit
have a little bit less of the cake and
make their lives that little bit harder
let me reassure you it also helps us as
men to live their lives but we want to
wipe that well it’s good for the planet
giving the girls a good education is the
most critical factor in reducing birth
rates which will be internally crucial
impacting climate change with the
countries and nations research
consistently shows that those countries
that are most gender equal score highest
on measures of happiness and if women
were playing the same role in the labor
market as men we’d be adding an
estimated twenty two trillion pounds the
global GDP it’s good for business and
companies – again the evidence shows the
more gender each full of company the
highest retention rate the greater
employee satisfaction bhp Hilton the
mining company even found that their
sites with more women in the staff will
run more safely so for those of you in
the audience you end up running
companies are making hiring decisions
please remember it’s not the cost of
pursuing gender equality that you need
to worry about is the cost of not
pursuing it the matter face up to home
it’s good for our families children are
happier when men play an active role in
the household so are their lives on a
personal basis is good to most men I
know what female friends female
colleagues benefit wives there are high
quality jobs and fulfilled lives and
increasingly we don’t just want to be
seen as men as breadwinners we want of a
mother richer more very drawn households
and with our children too
so gender equality is not a zero-sum
game it’s not win lose it is genuinely
win-win so then if it’s such a
no-brainer that female empowerment and
gender equality is a good thing – we
need to keep talking about it while
having the events of the last year
highlighted again the Gulf that remains
between men
women and the way in which they’re
treated across the world you’ve seen the
me to campaign started in the wake of
the exposure of a decent Hollywood and
showed vividly and visibly quite how
many women around the world have
suffered have continued to suffer abuse
at the hands of men and then of course
there’s the enduring gender pay gap men
remain consistently better paced than
women across the world and it’s
estimated it would take over a hundred
years without gap to close our proud
year there’s an area whether you pay
civil service has taken an active
leadership role it publishes the pay gap
every year that exists between men and
women and it’s taking active steps to
reduce it and those gaps that exist
between men and women aren’t typically
limited to pay in the UK research
recently published over men also have
open phone email with more letter twice
a week than women so we don’t just get
better paid we get more time off as well
it’s truly that can’t be right so why
didn’t these gaps exist and and what can
we do to address them what dates are
drawn from across the OECD first the
median wage of a woman working full time
is around eighty five percent of that of
a man now that’s not as many people
stood because employers tend to pay them
better for the same type of work instead
the real reason is twofold first women
outnumber men in positions with lower
salaries and fewer chances of promotion
and secondly men and women remain badly
largely segregated between occupations
and industries and those where women
tend to predominate hey that’s well what
this means then is that the pay gap
would shrink if many lives in female
dominated shops and industries and vice
versa
but that’s in the OECD least
schools around the decade ago there are
quite a lot of reasons to explain this
lots of ideas but I have a theory and I
have a confession
so first the confession it wasn’t until
I became a father just a little over
five years ago that I realize quite how
early Dender stereotyping
and how powerful and how many Victor’s
horses are that tell our children from a
really early age that their gender
informs the type of roles this is Bill
and about their place in the world some
of you I’m sure we’ve seen Michael
Kimmel and that’s big TED talk on this
subject where he talks says the
privilege is invisible to those we have
it and I wasn’t aware certainly until I
start seeing the world through my
daughter’s eyes or rather seeing the
world as it’s being presented to my
quarters what an overwhelmingly male
orientated male dominated world indeed
so this is my theory it’s not
groundbreaking but something I think we
all know at some level but I believe
very strongly but the many ways right
from infancy we tell our children that
their gender shapes the way in which
they should see their work the world and
shapes what their roles in the world
should be helps to explain over the
divisions in the workplace and at home
and how entrenched they are let me give
you just a couple of examples my wife
and I read to our children our daughters
every night and they love being read to
their love stories but I find it sad
that it’s so many of their folks girls
essentially spend background what they
wait open to find hoping a handsome
prince finds them and considers them
pretty enough Eastburn enough to marry
and that’s not just the personal view
analysis published last week showed that
the hundred most popular books in the UK
twice as many twice as made the
characters with a speaking part or a
main role in the story were men or male
because this doesn’t even just apply to
the human characters this applies to
animals too and will male characters
were typically powerful strong bold
animals like dragons bears and tigers
the female characters tend to be smaller
more vulnerable by Birds
hats or insects so what are we telling
our children what are we telling girls
and boys if it’s poised to get the
starring roles and stories and girls
through the meat subservient psychics
when you have a point when you have the
clothes is the same story you might
think and I did
children the toys will be gender-neutral
but that’s certainly not the way they
marketed amongst the most common words
used in TV adverts for girls toys in the
UK a beautiful sparkle and glitter are
they the same for boys no of course
they’re not for boys it’s lateral power
advent trappers control and less clothes
but with some pajamas that were sold
recently in the UK the boys version
across the chest character slogan be
your own superhero pretty inspiring the
girls version the slogan integrant fatty
to my superhero so essentially our
storage our clothes our toys they’re
preparing our children to female
dominance as normal and I at least don’t
think that would be right though girls
deserve adventure to that they deserve
it told their superheroes and of course
it doesn’t only them it options the
girls it also short changes voice there
have been federal programs and campaigns
to encourage girls into science in
engineering with some success but
suddenly campaign from the other side to
encourage boys and for nurturing
professions by teaching and nursing
cured both reading and it’s striking to
me by the age of seven voice and fewer
words than girls to describe all
emotions except for one anger so
involving my men and boys and doing it
from a young age I think is critical if
we’re going to address the temper of
qualities and achieve it and that’s
something we could all do everyone in
this room by telling children the
children in your lives that they’re not
defined by their gender but it’s also an
area that government can and does make a
real difference by passing laws creating
regulations and setting norms let me
give you an example this year marked an
important anniversary for me a painless
journey in 1918 we introduced partial
women’s suffrage and also is the year in
which women who first founded candidates
be members of parliament it took another
10 years until 1928 for him to be given
the vote on the same basis as men but
now a hundred years later we have a
woman as our prime minister our second
a third of her cabinet women women hold
half the so-called breakups to the state
of the UK for the first time in our
history and all those women are part of
the most diverse calm and ever for 208
female MPs in our House of Commons as
our equipment the Lok Sabha so let’s
fill a huge way to go but there’s also
been great progress give you another
example I’m going to turn back for the
paper-based from the new Paley’s suggest
that the age for which women’s pay tends
to start falling behind lens it’s the
age of which they tend to have children
so that happens for various reasons but
we often see the women reduce their
hours or change jobs after having
children and the result it means that
nearly a third of women say they’re
overqualified and underpaid the jobs
they do here again government policies
are making a real difference and that’s
an area where I do most of proponent and
the beneficiary in a previous program
five UK government ministers on how best
to recruit training retain and reward
bureaucrats in that role I argued
strongly but those fathers who took time
out to look after their children the
part of said parental leave should be
paid the occupational rates rather than
the statutory rate secretary well that
means that that men wouldn’t be
financially penalized for taking time
away from work and the natural group I
was convinced for doing that because I
myself I think that parental leave
previously I think the benefits have had
for me and my family but I was also
aware that a pup in the UK was
incredibly low with their really cater
staff degree in the civil service so
previously when all of my children born
my wife and my kids to share the
maternity leave that until recently
would have been house alone and then she
went back to work three months earlier
than she might otherwise have done and I
spend those three months at home looking
after the children full-time it was the
impact of that for me in the family or
for me I got to spend that time bonding
with my daughters spending time with
them that I would
and I throw our relationships stronger
Brett and also benefited my wife and us
as a couple I got to understand what
she’d been experiencing that their life
but also the frustration and the
isolation becomes mustaine at home
everyday for the baby
I will understand finalist work is
involved in planning and running a
household work the most of the time in
most societies for Stallman’s spending
those months at home has I hope and I’ve
paid more equal role in our household
else’s and also benefited my wife and
not just because I started pulling my
weight more I think she got to go back
to work confidence or everybody’s
relatively confident but our daughters
were being well looked after and
crucially that meant that she could
focus and reestablishing yourself at
work without worrying about rushing back
to the u.s. we picked up or about taking
time off every time other lives were
sick and then my daughter’s have no
conscious memory of it I’m sure I think
that some level is instilled in them the
view that child care for men as well as
for women so work for me it works my
wife I hope they helped my children and
I hope it gave them a an outlook on life
and about child care responsibilities
being for both men and women increased
it works at a societal level to the
countries and companies that offer clear
parental leave as the civil service new
Patos
that’s discrimination and smaller pay
differentials between men and women the
policies like this combined with
offering families left primary friendly
flexible working
seems to be helping at least where I
work in the Foreign Office
that’s the UK to program the NBA to
ensure that our people are more
representative of the UK as a whole and
it hasn’t always been that way to
shockingly shocking to me it wasn’t
until 1946 the women were even allowed
to be British diplomats it wasn’t until
1955 the equal pay for women was
introduced and until 1972 women had to
resign when they got married but I’m
pleased to say that things are changing
now almost half past partner
women in 2008 we have 22 female heads
emission by 2016
that’d risen to 50 and it now includes
my commissioners to Australia New
Zealand and the previous life mission to
South Africa we’ve just appointed our
first female permanent representative to
the UN peroneus and last year the
foreign secretary appointed drama Roper
as the UK’s first special envoy for
gender equality
she’s leading our work to deliver a
prominent policy that delivers
consciously and consistently for women
and girls of course we still have a long
way to go and a lot to do but I’m proud
to work for an organization that’s
making gender equality central how it
works and as I say my commitment to
gender equality gender Parliament
because beyond their own offices it goes
beyond their own working practices and
I’m proud that my teams are working in
close partnership with the government of
India and with Indian partners right
across the country supporting the work
that they’re needing to support female
empowerment promote gender equality
across this country I’ll give you just a
couple of examples last summer I had the
pleasure spending an afternoon playing
football with young women tomatoes in
Mumbai they were there with members of
kick like a girl program developed and
run by Oscar Foundation so fantastic in
there and funded by us to keep in India
Oscar uses football to build confidence
amongst young young people from
marginalized communities and last year I
picked Mike a girl program did 51 girls
from the American aghast love the
transit access sports and education that
they wouldn’t have otherwise had the
chance to do and we’re expanding that
program for 90 this year they were
spending off the name with those young
women we’ve one of the most inspiring
things I’ve done in my time in India
hearing their stories about the
challenges they faced in their life and
how the program was building their
confidence or giving them the tools to
overcome them we’re also working with
employers so we’re working with
companies like Martha Spencer’s and
Superdry from the UK as well as with
Indian firms across the government in
the spirit
the country working with them to help
empower their female employees over
raising their awareness of their own
rights last year that program benefit of
2,000 women and to become and to
factories this year life with a kick
like a girl program were expanding it
and it will now cover twelve factories
and benefits 12,000 women with funding
microfinance initiatives woman I’m also
working with the police to support them
to respond better to women at the
violence against women and girls and
we’re also working with and supporting
many of the hugely impressive indian
women who are working in this field to
build networks and share best practices
for the last two years responsibility to
the UK for eminent female politicians
civil servant activists lawyers
journalists and more giving them the
chance to share their experiences and
learn from each other and from others
working the same issues in the UK and
around the world all of these projects
we’re working a partnership with Indian
organizations supporting women build
confidence build networks and share best
practice and more widely and just as
importantly to help bring about a
culture shift in the way in which women
and girls are see and see themselves and
that’s really the message that I want to
leave you with today success here
bringing about gender equality requires
a culture shift I will take action by
governments and I mean after my
individuals on the UK side the
government has committed at home for
eliminating all forms of gender equality
and here in India we will continue to
work collaboratively with the Government
of India and with partners across the
country to support women empowerment and
gender equality but on the individual
side we need your help
so I leave with a request to you all
please please remember this is an issue
that supports the sort of ex us all
regardless of our own death
challenge it wherever you see it make
sure that the children in your lives
know that gender shouldn’t define them
doesn’t define them who they are or the
lives that they can lead I hope that’s a
message that we could all agree on and a
change that we all want to see so
luckily ET today
appropriately here in the Gandhi Pavan
and the famous words Mahatma Gandhi is
please be the change that you wish to see in the world thank you very much
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