99 and counting...
Hooray for International Women's Day.
Next year, will surely be the main celebration with 100 years since the first one in 1911. Some people ask, "Do we still need one, hasn't it all been achieved?" But I have to tell you that yes, we do.
There is still so much further to go. There is the gender pay gap, which is being addressed but is still wide. But there is also the health gap. Here I would like to particularly draw attention to the continued problem of teenage pregnancies. Young mothers have worse outcomes than those in their 20s plus – worse personal outcomes (both in terms of health and poverty) and worse outcomes for their babies, starting with lower birth weight and moving onto likelihood of being in poverty. Children having children is a problem for women and for society, and one we need to address.
Recent statistics for England demonstrated that they were marginally in decline – 4 per cent down on the previous year (2008 to 2007). But in East Sussex, the numbers buck the trend – we are 6 per cent up. And Hastings, has the highest proportion of all the E Sussex districts.
What can be done? More education, certainly. And by that I don't mean sex education – I mean girls understanding they can and should say no and take control over their bodies. They need to understand that they have choices, and develop the personal skills to exercise that choice. And that means working at school so that they can make choices other than having a baby and so often flopping onto a life of welfare.
Girls need to make their own positive choices. We need to help them do that. They need to raise their sights. Look at the alternatives and not take what looks like the easy route, but certainly doesn't turn out to be. Being a mother is a hard job – and being a young single mother is incredibly hard. One of the changes a Conservative Government would introduce is a careers adviser for every school. This person would help to show our young girls what the alternatives are – what they can achieve.
We need to instill our young women with a sense of the possible and their own potential. They need a better shot at school qualifications, and then more opportunities locally to work. And all community leaders locally need to focus on making that happen.
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Weather for St Leonards-on-Sea
Sunday 12 February 2012
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