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Women

My Lords, I too add my warm congratulations to my noble friend Lady Gould on initiating today’s debate, which allows us to take stock of women’s role in society. It is also a pleasure to follow my noble friend Lord Giddens and his extremely thoughtful, as ever, contribution. But I feel that I should share with the House that when my noble friend Lord Giddens and I play tennis together, as we frequently do, he still insists on trying to pinch my volleys. However, I am confident that other speakers will look at areas where women play their part—family, business, politics and indeed all facets of our society—and I shall listen with great interest to their contributions. I will concentrate on just one area today—sport. I hope to assess the part that women play in that aspect of our lives. It is, I believe, an area where much has been achieved but where much more has to be done for women to take their rightful place in the complex arena that embraces sport. But why do I think that women should concern themselves with sport? Quite simply, because sport plays such a major role in our society, and because women become second-class citizens by allowing themselves to become marginalised—indeed, patronised. A glance at any TV schedule or newspaper confirms the view that sport is the hottest topic. So can women afford to shrug their shoulders and be left behind? I certainly do not think so, for a variety of reasons. We have never had a more sport-conscious time: we have the 2012 Olympics, the scourge of obesity, and the value of social inclusion—all reasons to take sport extremely seriously. I could devote my entire speech to the plethora of virtuous government initiatives, all targeted at improving the active participation of women and girls in sport. Let me say briefly that the Government are alert, sensitive and proactive, and that things are getting better. But when I take stock of current statistics, I must say, in the words of the old Virginia Slim slogan, ““We’ve sure come a long way, baby, but we’ve sure got a long way to go””. So why do I take a rather pessimistic view of the current situation? First, I have considered a wide range of statistics and analysis from a variety of sources, and they do not make good reading. Here is a sample. By the age of 18, 40 per cent of girls have dropped out of sport. Women occupy only 26 per cent of the membership of all sports boards and committees, and make up only 15 per cent of the board membership of all national governing sports bodies. Only 10 per cent of all British coaches who went to the 2004 Athens Olympics were women, and there are currently no female sports editors in national or regional print media. There are many more statistics to give, but I think the point is made. It is against that background that the Government have to perform and show that the resources and initiatives that they have channelled into sport are paying dividends. At present, women and girls barely feature on our screens, except for a very few national heroines such as Paula Radcliffe and Kelly Holmes. It is a bit like coming into a tennis match where you are already a set and four love down before a ball is struck. But I am not totally despondent. The tide is slowing turning. Public opinion is with us, and people are waking up to the fact that the obesity crisis can be solved only by a balance of a better diet and more exercise. Frankly, it matters little what form the exercise takes. Formal sports, swimming, cycling, walking or dancing—all can play their part—but the secret is to get into the sporting habit. Some sports, such as women’s soccer, are a steep upward curve. Excellent; let’s encourage more. From junior to secondary school, the Government are making two hours of PE per week compulsory. There will be more sport in after-school sports clubs. Excellent, but more is needed. But what happens at the end of formal education? Why is there is a huge decline in girls’ participation? Here is more analysis. Girls and women have less disposable income than men, and taking part in sport is expensive. They also have less disposable time because of family responsibilities, which take up more of their time than that of their male counterparts. I must say that sport in general is still run by men for men. Female participation is closely linked to social class. The longer a woman is in education, the more likely she is to take part in lifelong sport. As for ethnic minorities, the details are even worse; only 19 per cent of Bangladeshi women participate in any sport, against the national average of more than 30 per cent. How can these very depressing statistics be improved? The Government are determined to improve the situation. All grants, whether from Sport England, from the Government directly or from governing bodies, must now have equal expenditure for men and women.The pledge to provide multi-sports complexes in every area will certainly make inroads. These complexes have swimming pools, badminton courts, five-a-side football pitches, gymnastics facilities and so on. They are ideal for families to share their sporting experiences. It is on the equality factor that I believe we can learn something from the USA. Two weeks ago, in Florida, I switched on my TV. Among all the weird programmes on endless channels I found no fewer than four channels showing women’s sport, and to a professional standard. These were tennis—no surprise there—women’s soccer, women’s basketball and women’s baseball. That would be unthinkable on British television, where the coverage of women’s sport makes up less than 5 per cent of sporting programmes. So why is the USA so different? I do not have to tell many of your Lordships that the answer is Title IX. In the mid-1970s, a highly controversial piece of legislation was passed in the United States which guaranteed equal funding for all sports for boys and girls in the high school and college system. More than that, it demanded equal coverage in reporting. I know that we do not have a similar system of sporting scholarships in our schools and colleges—although perhaps specialist sports colleges will be a forerunner—but I believe that public service broadcasting has an obligation to give more balanced programming. Yes, in the first instance there may well be viewer objections—but familiarity breeds appreciation. I hope that I have not painted too gloomy a picture of the status quo of women in sport, especially to my noble friend Lady Gould—I hope that I have not rained on her parade—but perhaps I may finish on a positive note. Some 10 days ago a tiny bit of history was made: the Lords and Commons Tennis Club voted for a new chairman/captain—and, for the first time in its history, that new chairman/captain was a woman. If we can do that, then anything is possible.