Being part of the change you want to see in the world.

My mother is 93 and I thought of her life when planning my first ever International Women’s day coffee morning in Bridgend this Saturday.   We take changes in women’s lives for granted in this country and forget how recent many changes have been.  This is important when we look at our responsibilities to help and support women around the world to access opportunities we in the UK have gained only within my mothers life time. 

I invited seven local women who were ground breakers within their fields to join me as speakers for the event held in Nolton Church Hall, to talk about their work and to share their life experiences. A number of local organisations also provided stalls. 

My mother was born in 1914. When she was four, women were given the vote in the 1918 Representation of the Peoples Act; they had the right to vote at thirty. It was only eighty years ago in 1928 that the Equal Franchise Act gave men and women the right to vote at twenty-one.     

Other miles stones followed slowly. Mum had to wait until 1970 when she was 56, for the Equal Pay Act.  She waited until she was 61 for the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act which removed the barriers to many jobs that women were excluded from. The National Minimum Wage introduced in 1997 when mum was 83 lifted many women out of poverty wages. A long road with many changes still needed and one the  pioneering local women spoke of movingly.   

Heidi Bennett, our first speaker is the Interim director of BAVO, the Bridgend Association of Voluntary Organisations.  Think about the voluntary organisations you meet in your daily life and consider how many are run by women.  I work with the voluntary sector every day and know how life would grind to a halt locally if it were not for the voluntary organisations. 

The second speaker was Janet Walsgrove the Director of Parc prison.  Janet joined the prison service in 1983 (mum was 69) as a new history graduate, women prison officers then worked only in women’s prisons.  In fifteen years Janet has moved from defying her father’s opposition to her joining the prison service (too dangerous a job for a woman) to directing one of the most successful privately run prisons in the UK.   

In 1993 the General Synod of the Church of England passed the Priests (Ordination of Women) measures 1993 and for the first time, when my mother was 79 women could become priests in England.  In Wales women had to wait until my mother was 83 when in 1997 the first women were ordained.  The Reverend Christine Trenththmor was the third women to be ordained locally.  Much of the opposition to her taking up the priesthood has now gone but there are still those who fail to accept women in this role.

Before going to Westminster one of the first organisations I met with locally was Women into Business. Two women, Ruth Rowe and Louise Trowbridge have helped numerous women to develop the skills to launch their own business. One women they supported was , Louise Barnes, nominated as Welsh business woman of the year for the success of her company Cuisine Hygiene.  Louise spoke of boredom at home, her ill health and determination to use her skills to make a life for herself.  Courses at Bridgend College laid the foundation followed by courses offered by Women into Business and her company was launched.  Now this one woman business is setting an example for other women entrepreneurs.

As an MP I know the values of Trades Union membership.  When people come through my door with a problem one of the first questions I ask, is about trades union membership, because of the range of services, including legal services for members.  Pam Stanton is a member of  USDAW the shop workers union where the majority of members are women.  Pam is one of that rare breed, a woman shop steward, able to stand up and defend the rights of her colleagues in the workplace. 

Our final speaker represented a profession to which women had some entry before my mother was born in 1914.  Elizabeth Garret Anderson became the first woman to gain a medical qualification in Britain in1865.  Between 1873-1892 she was the only woman member of the British Medical Association until  Dr Louisa Evans from Pencoed surgery represented this pioneering profession and spoke movingly of the role of women in the home and health service as carers, health promoters and educators. 

This first International Women’s Day coffee morning will not be the last. So ladies put 7^th March 2009 10 15am in your diary now and come to Nolton Church hall for the second international Women’s Day coffee morning.