Women slipping thru’ the gaps

Page 13
Q-News, Issue 361
March 2005

The Fawcett Society reports evidence of triple prejudice working against Bangladeshi and Pakistani women. Samira Ahmed looks at the path ahead.

Like many other women I don’t spend much time thinking of myself as a statistic; or an ethnic category. But starting out as a young reporter a decade ago, I realised that some people did. Out on assignments from the BSE scandal to the coal mine closures,  I started to notice that some Tory MPs who caught sight of me in a crowd of reporters would give me a  wink; regarding me, I think, instinctively, as a bit of dusky exotica. While Labour MPs and Trades Unionists would pick me out of the hack pack and look so pleased to  see an Asian woman who was doing so terribly well, and wasn’t oppressed. It usually meant I’d get the first interview as well!

The problem is that while many of us are getting on well, very many other women are not. A new report from the Fawcett Society has looked at the very issue of how racism and sexism has a double impact on the lives of black and minority ethnic (BME) women in the United Kingdom. Because of the way campaigners have tackled racism and sexism as separate evils, I think the enduring wrongs still suffered by BME women have slipped through that gap. And crucially, it enabled a generation of self-styled (usually male) “community leaders” to promote themselves and their own interests, often supressing discussion of cultural taboo subjects, such as forced marriage, female genital mutilationm and domestic violence.

The study is one of the first attempts to tackle race and gender together. It has confirmed statistically what many BME women know from personal experience - that they are almost absent from the rank of decision makers and that this exclusion tells at every level of society. It highlights massive inequalities in education, health, employment and pay, financial security, levels of political involvement and treatment by the criminal justice system. By looking at the different groups of women within the very wide category of black and minority ethnic, the report also shows that there are huge disparities between the experiences of women who fall into this rough grouping.

For instance, while 65 per cent of black Caribbean women work full-time, just 14 per cent of Pakistani and 27 per cent of Bangladeshi women do. In fact, the report uncovered a particular striking picture in relation to Pakistani and Bangladeshi women, showing them to be disadvantaged on almost every measure.

It is truly shocking that babies born to immigrant Pakistani mothers are more than twice as likely to die in their first week as the babies of British-born mothers. Women in this group are also the most likely to live in poverty or to suffer bad health. They are the least likely to do well in school and the worst paid - for every £1 earned by a white man, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women earn just 56 pence.

In employment, the report tells of evidence of triple prejudice working against this group. Pakistani and Bangladeshi women find it harder than white women with the same qualifications to get a job. An initial survey indicates that these women are experiencing prejudice on grounds of their sex, race and ethnic identity, with employers assuming that Muslim women are not able to work evenings, or with men, or will not “fit in”, or will present the wrong image to customers if they wear the hijab.

The report concludes that low rates of employment, low pay and the responsibility for large families combine to put Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in their particularly disadvantaged position. The Fawcett Society has called for the government to urgently look at improving life for women from these backgrounds and provide health services, education and criminal justice that will allow them to fully reach their potential.

While the research found that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are the most excluded, it found that all BME women find themselves disadvantaged in some way.

It also believes that the lack of BME women at the top means that their voices are unheard, making it even harder for the government to implement policies that will allow BME women to make the most of their talents. It is appalling that while BME women represent two per cent of the population, they make up only 0.3 per cent of MPs. There have only ever been two black female MPs (Diane Abbott and Oona King), there has never been an Asian female MP, there are no BME women police chief constables and there are no BME women judges in the House of Lords or Court of Appeal. The women who have managed to break through have done this in spite of the barriers in their way.

Whether immigrants themselves, or the children or grandchildren of immigrants, such women are driven by that same spirit of self-betterment and entitlement: to fight cultural prejudice at home as much as external prejudices with the goal of achieve full equality and their full potential.