Wales’ First Feminist Scorecard 2019

Saturday April 13th, 2019

Wales’ first feminist scorecard is to be launched today Saturday 13 April 2019 at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno.

Published by the Women’s Equality Network (WEN) Wales and Oxfam Cymru, Feminist Scorecard 2019 covers 6 key policy areas and charts Welsh Government’s progress towards achieving equality for women and girls.

The scorecard uses a traffic light system and scores Welsh Government progress on:

  • Women and caring responsibilities
  • Ending violence against women and girls
  • Women and equal representation and leadership
  • Global responsibility and women
  • Jobs and pay equality for women
  • Taxation and budgets’ impact on women

The report follows the announcement in 2018 of the Welsh Labour Party’s intention of leading a feminist government in Wales.

The Welsh Government’s Gender Review is addressing a diverse range of policy areas and is a welcome step towards advancing equality for women and girls in Wales.

Catherine Fookes, Director of WEN Wales said, ‘We are pleased to launch our Feminist Scorecard which shows that Welsh Government has made some strides to becoming a feminist government and nation.For example, we are pleased to see that Wales now has as a gender balanced cabinet, and we have strong equalities legislation in place.

However, despite robust legislation and good intentions, we have found that there has been a lack of strategy, a lack of funding and a lack
of urgency to putting those good intentions into practice. ‘We would like to see legally binding quotas put in place ahead of the next local government elections and assembly elections so that we have a 50:50 Assembly and 50:50 Councils. We would also like to see strong targets on halving the gender pay gap. This coupled with our other recommendations for action will ensure we become a truly feminist nation.’

Rachel Cable, Head of Oxfam Cymru, gave room for cautious optimism, ‘Welsh Government has shown excellent intention, but now we need action. The scorecard is a snapshot in time, and a marker in the sand to move forward from. Women are disproportionately affected by poverty and consistently over-represented in low- paid, part-time, insecure and temporary work.

We need to ensure that these issues are at the top of the Welsh Government’s agenda. We look forward to working with the Welsh Government to advance women’s rights in Wales and across the globe.’

Download here: Feminist Scorecard Report 2019 – English  and Feminist Scorecard Report 2019 – Cymraeg