International Women’s Day

This Friday, 8 March, is International Women’s Day. The Embassy will be closed for the holiday, so we are celebrating today, on Thursday 7 March. The men in the Embassy are bringing flowers and cake for the women. I’ve been out negotiating the purchase of eighteen bouquets (as with St Valentine’s Day, it seems the price of flowers rises as the holiday approaches). I’ll make a speech to celebrate the contribution made by the women in the Embassy, from security guards and the Residence housekeeper to our Deputy Head of Mission. There are talented women among our locally engaged – Uzbek national – staff, who are quite as effective in their jobs as the men.

The Foreign Office aims to treat men and women absolutely equally. We still don’t have enough women at the highest levels of the FCO. 38 of our Ambassadors and High Commissioners are women – about 20% of the total. That represents a big advance over the last few years – five years ago there were only 18 female British Heads of Mission: Britain’s first female Ambassador was appointed only in 1976. But things will continue to change, and the kind of overt or covert discrimination that used to exist is now unthinkable.

Senior women in the Foreign Office include our Ambassadors to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, our representative to NATO in Brussels, and our Ambassador to the UN in Geneva – who a week and a half ago was one of the organisers of an event celebrating women role models under the title “the Power of Empowered Women”. Prominent and successful women from around the world shared their experiences about how women could inspire and help each other and contribute to the empowerment of other women, highlighting the impact women can make in society when they are able to fully exercise their rights.

The British Government is working internationally to promote women’s rights. The priority now is work to prevent violence against women and girls. The British Government’s “Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative” – which aims to prevent the use of sexual violence in conflict – will be one of the priorities for our current presidency of the G8. At home, the Government Equalities Office, which promotes gender equality and other forms of equality, is focussing on women and economic growth – making sure that women’s skills and experience are fully used in the economy and that women are able to achieve economic independence. Here in Uzbekistan, we’ve been glad to support initiatives encouraging women entrepreneurs setting up small businesses, and projects bringing together women’s organisations in Uzbekistan and the UK. As our Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Karen Pierce, put it “women are the powerhouses of the world. They are key to success in development, in education and in health, and hence their empowerment is the key to national prosperity”.