Does Labour have a different view on gender rights?

From the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s speech at Labour’s conference to the packed rallies, feminism and women’s rights feel important to this newly elected government. It was telling that Rachel Reeves, as the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer in history, opened her historic speech by talking about the importance of female role models, paying tribute to the “trailblazing women” who came before her.

“I am here because of thousands of women… who broke down barriers and overcame low expectations to pave the way for the rest of us,” Reeves said, clearly emotional as she reflected on her achievement (after 800 years of male chancellors). While so much had been achieved by women in terms of equality, Reeves also acknowledged that there was more to do: it was up to her “generation of Labour women… to write the work of all women back into our economic story; to show our daughters and granddaughters that they need put no limits on their ambitions.” There can be no doubting the sincerity of the chancellor’s words, which were emotional for some to hear.

Speaking to women at the Liverpool conference, I sensed a sense of hope. The government has committed to halving violence against women and girls over the next decade, and seems to be shifting on gender-based rights.

The latter can be seen in the fortunes of the Labour Women’s Declaration (LWD), a movement that began in autumn 2019 to raise the profile of gender-based women’s rights within the Labour Party and the wider socialist left. It held two well-attended events in Liverpool this year and also gained a presence at the conference, with a stall in the exhibition hall. Similar applications for 2022 and 2023 were rejected. Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour MP for Gower, said “our party has come a very, very long way since 2021” at the first standing-room-only event. At the 2021 party conference in Brighton, the group was met with a noisy and intimidating protest outside. (The third clause of the LWD’s declaration is that “women have the right to discuss policies that affect them without being abused, harassed or intimidated”.)

Perhaps most significantly for the LWD’s second event, it was attended by a minister – Jess Phillips, who holds the portfolio for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls. The expectation that Phillips will provide for women was evident at several events, including one hosted by the charities UK Feminista and CEASE (Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation), which launched their campaign to make paying for sex illegal, while decriminalising victims of sexual exploitation and providing support and exit services. Mia de Faoite, an activist who had been involved in bringing about similar legal changes in Ireland, told her own story of surviving prostitution. In six years, she had been “bought by a buyer to be sexually abused” 4,000 times, she said. She had been raped a dozen times, she added.

De Faoite told the crowd: “Be a liberal, but never be a liberal at the expense of human dignity.” And she expressed her dismay at the labelling of “sex work” as traditional “work”. Meanwhile, Phillips described how she had crossed out every reference to “sex work” in a letter presented to her ahead of a parliamentary debate on commercial sexual exploitation in July 2024, replacing it with “prostituted women and men”. The minister had single-handedly tabled 77 amendments to the last Conservative government’s Domestic Abuse Bill of 2021.

Phillips’ commitment to halving violence against women and girls is unquestionable. But she was clear that legislation would not solve everything. “I don’t want to be able to stand up and say, ‘I’m the best feminist for passing this law’ when on the ground it’s all bullshit,” she said. Government, she argued, had to work with police, health and civil society to make the system work along the way. Those in prostitution had to have their housing and health needs met to enable them to exit prostitution. And, she asked, even if victims of sexual exploitation were given priority for housing, what good would that do if it meant waiting three years instead of five?

Another event looking at how Labour can achieve its ambitious target of halving violence against women and girls made the scale of the problem clear: 14-year-old girls are now more likely to report rape than any other age group. That should make everyone take notice. “We’re in government, we’re going to change things,” Antoniazzi promised the room full of (mostly) women. “I’m going to be Jess Phillips’ pain in the arse,” she joked.

That all these events were full is telling. If there was any doubt that Labour members cared about women’s rights, there can be little doubt now. It seems that for the first time in years the party is listening.