Racism Towards Diane Abbott MP Highlights that Gender Equality Cannot be Achieved Unless Approached Through an Intersectional Lens

There are many events and celebrations taking place to mark International Women’s Day throughout the month of March. At a time when we should be recognising worldwide improvements to gender equality and highlighting what more needs to be done, it is with great disappointment to see the events unfold this week concerning racism and sexism towards Diane Abbott, MP.

The reported comments made by Frank Hester, the UK’s Conservative party’s biggest donor, amount to misogynoir. Misogynoir is defined by the Oxford Language Dictionary as ‘dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against black women.’

The comments are alleged to have been made in a private meeting in 2019, something which Frank Hester does not deny, but is reported as saying that he is not racist. Whether he sees himself as racist or not, the comment he made is racist.

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If you have not seen the news headlines about it yet, I am not wanting to repeat his words, and you can read about what he said here.

UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has spoken and acknowledged that the comment is racist. Why did it take him so long to speak up about it? Is it because in doing so, he is acknowledging that the actions of his party’s biggest financial contributor were racist? And is he worried about having to return the ￡10million donation made by Hester, in the run-up to a general election, a time when the party needs all the money it can get?

That the CEO of such a prominent company can make remarks like this is deplorable. It is reported that Diane Abbott has reported him to the police and rightly so. There should be an investigation into whether a hate crime has been committed.

What concerns me is that, if the comment was made in a meeting in 2019, why has it taken 5 years to come to light? What of the other people in attendance at the meeting? Did they ignore the comment at the time, and as such become complicit? Or did they speak up and challenge the racism and sexism that took place at the time? This is something that I haven’t yet been able to shed light on and something I suspect will be revealed in time.

The comment Frank Hester made about Diane Abbot, got me thinking about the inequalities that continue to exist for Black women and women of (what is termed) other minority ethnic groups. At a time when we reflect on progress toward gender equality, although we have seen significant strides over the years, gender equality cannot be achieved unless it is approached through an intersectional lens.

I recently attended a women’s leadership conference in central London and was one of very few Black women in attendance. There were also only a few of Asian ethnicity and mixed Black ethnicity appearance too. Given that London is made up of 13.5% of people who identify as Black, 20% who identify as Asian, and 5.7% of mixed ethnicity, this was not reflected in the diversity of the women attending the conference.

The organisers had ensured that there was diversity amongst the speakers, but was the lack of women from the global majority indicative of the low number of these women in leadership roles here in the UK?

The recent FTSE Women’s Leader Review shows that at 42%, the representation of women on FTSE 350 Boards has increased beyond the 40% target, ahead of the 2025 target deadline. This is a significant improvement from the 9.5% in 2011. But it is not enough. Achieving a split of 40% women and 40% men on boards is not gender equality if the data shows inequalities exist at the intersections of gender.

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The Parker Review seeks to address a lack of ethnic diversity at senior levels. The latest report shows that 96% of FTSE100 companies have at least one ethnic minority director on the Board.

However, FTSE 350 companies are to set their own targets for the percentage of their senior management group who self-identify as being from an ethnic minority. A voluntary approach like this might not be sufficient to drive meaningful change and could result in slow progress.

Whilst there are regional variations in the numbers of minority ethnic groups, which, will be reflected at senior leadership levels, could they have been more prescriptive and set targets, that allow for regional variations?

These reviews do not account for other intersecting identities that impact gender inequality. Looking at the gender pay gap here in the UK significant disparities exist between employees aged 40 and over and those under 40 and there is a notable difference between higher and lower earners.

The Office for National Statistics data on ethnicity pay gaps reports that Black, African, Caribbean, or Black British employees earned less (￡13.53) median gross hourly pay than White employees (￡14.35), which has been consistent since 2012.

When it comes to unemployment, the Institute for Fiscal Studies reports that Pakistani women have unemployment rates three times more than White women.

The 2022 Fawcett Society, Sex and Power Index revealed that ‘women of colour are vastly under-represented at the highest levels of many sectors and alarmingly, they are missing altogether from senior roles such as Supreme Court Justices, Metro Mayors, Police and Crime Commissioners and FTSE 100 CEOs.’

Research by McKinsey in 2023 found that Black, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani groups in the UK were the furthest behind on pay and labour force participation.

As for disabled women, analysis by the TUC shows that disabled women face the biggest pay gap. Non-disabled men are paid on average 30% (￡3.73 an hour, ￡130.55 a week, or ￡6,780 a year) more than disabled women.?Not to mention other disparities that exist for this group of women.

I applaud the progress made to increase the representation of women on UK boards, but it does not amount to gender equality. There is still a lot that needs to be done both in and outside the boardroom. And gender equality cannot be achieved without being approached through an intersectional lens.

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