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Scarlet Harris

Scarlet Harris

Scarlet is the TUC’s Women’s Equality Officer based in the Equality and Employment Rights Department. She joined the organisation in 2009 and works on policy issues such as maternity rights; representation of women in unions; occupational segregation; women in the labour market; equal pay; sex discrimination and family policy.

  • Equality

    CAHVIO: UK shouldn’t be missing from key convention on violence against women

    25th November 2011 — Filed under: Equality

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    Unite to end violence against women

    25 Nov: UN Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

    Today, 25th November, is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and it seems a fitting moment to ask the government to reaffirm its commitment to eradicating violence against women with a very tangible, and rather overdue, step. We’ve chosen today to start a petition urging the government to sign up to the Council of Europe convention on combating and preventing violence against women and domestic violence (the convention is known as CAHVIO).

    Now, the UK has a comparatively good track record on initiatives to end violence against women and girls (VAWG) – leaving aside recent retrograde steps such as cuts to local authority funding of refuges and other VAWG services and the disastrous Legal Aid reforms which will leave women fleeing domestic violence with no access to justice unless they can afford to pay. Compared to many parts of the world where violence against women is tolerated or even sanctioned by the state, the UK has taken many steps over the years to attempt to eradicate violence against women and girls.

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  • Equality

    The Equality Deficit

    15th November 2011 — Filed under: Equality

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    Tomorrow (Wednesday 16th November) the TUC will be holding a one day conference called The Equality Deficit. The conference, which is free and open to all, provides an opportunity for trade unionists, voluntary sector workers, campaigners and community organisers to explore the equality impact of the cuts.

    Importantly, the conference aims to build alliances between the voluntary sector and trade unions. This isn’t about listing the many (and they really are many) ways in which the government’s swingeing cuts programme has disproportionately affected different equality groups. It’s about sharing knowledge, expertise, and experience and identifying campaigning and organising strategies.

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  • Labour market

    Women’s unemployment continues to rise

    12th October 2011 — Filed under: Labour market

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    Another month, another horrendous set of labour market statistics.

    While men’s unemployment has risen more sharply than women’s this month, it’s still worth taking a quick look at what’s happening to women’s unemployment.

    (spoiler: the answer is “nothing good”)

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  • Equality

    What women want

    14th September 2011 — Filed under: Equality

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    Leaked government documents this week exposed the coalition’s fear that they are losing the support of women voters. They’re right to be concerned. Gavin Kelly’s excellent analysis in the New Statesman shows that government policy is indeed alienating women voters, particularly working class women.

    So far, so good. Acknowledging that government policies may not be going down well with women is a good starting point. Where the author of the leaked memo starts to go wrong though is when possible remedies are suggested.

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  • Labour market

    Where did all the women go?

    14th September 2011 — Filed under: Labour market

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    If today’s labour market statistics are anything to go by, the answer is the dole queue.

    The number of unemployed women and women claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance continues to rise to the highest levels in decades. The long predicted impact of public sector job cuts on women’s employment, is now plain to see.

    The number of women made redundant increased 72.3% on the previous quarter. A statistic so shocking I did a double take and had to call a colleague to check I hadn’t misread it. 

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  • Labour market

    Women’s unemployment at 23 year high

    17th August 2011 — Filed under: Labour market

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    Contrary to city economists’ optimistic predictions that today’s labour market figures would show a drop in unemployment, it seems that unemployment is stubbornly refusing to fall.

    Women’s unemployment in particular saw a dramatic rise (21,000 on the quarter) taking the women’s ILO unemployment count to 1.05million – its highest level in 23 years.

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  • Equality

    Violence Against Women services are “not a luxury”

    2nd August 2011 — Filed under: Equality, Society & Welfare

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    Trawling through the 2,200 charities and voluntary organisations facing Local Authority funding cuts listed on the False Economy website and widely reported in the press today, makes for extremely bleak reading.

    After school clubs for kids, Christmas lunches for old people, wheelchair loan services, sexual health advisory services, meals on wheels, support services for disabled children, all axed. Welcome to the Big Society.

    I was particularly taken aback by the number of women’s sector organisations and violence against women and girls (VAWG) services that have faced cuts.

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  • Pensions & Investment

    State Pension Age – The next Coalition U-turn?

    20th June 2011 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    Sarah Veale and I have blogged here previously on how government proposals to speed up the equalisation of the State Pension Age will affect hundreds of thousands of women approaching retirement.

    In addition to the Rachel Reeves MP campaign mentioned in previous blogs, Age UK have also been campaigning hard on this issue and have now published a report called Not Enough Time which confirms that the proposed changes do not allow women sufficient time to plan. One of the respondents to the Age UK survey said:

    “I have had my pensionable age moved twice now and the financial plans I have made to enable me to retire at 64 are now in tatters. There is simply not enough time for me to make up the shortfall.”

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  • Equality

    The Justice Secretary’s views on “serious rape”

    18th May 2011 — Filed under: Equality

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    I want to say a few words about Ken Clarke’s views on rape and rape law but I’m struggling to know where to begin.

    So what did he say that was wrong? In case you missed the furore today, I’ll briefly recap. Kenneth Clarke was asked about plea bargaining plans on Radio 5 Live this morning. In the course of the interview, in a discussion about sentencing and tariffs, the Justice Secretary shared his rather troubling views on rape. He said:

    “[Rape] includes date rape and 17 year-olds having intercourse. Serious rape, I don’t think many judges give five years for a forcible rape, frankly, the tariff is longer for that and a serious rape where there’s violence and an unwilling woman, the tariff’s much longer than that.”

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  • Pensions & Investment

    More broken promises – women and the State Pension Age

    18th May 2011 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    Earlier this year Sarah Veale, Head of Equality and Employment Rights at the TUC, blogged on this site about the impact of changes to the State Pension Age on women.

    Since then campaigns by Rachel Reeves MP, Age UK, Unions Together, and individual unions have all gathered momentum. Even some coalition partners have got in on the act with some Lib Dems expressing concern over the departure from the coalition agreement that these changes represent.

    Just to recap, the Coalition Agreement said that the state pension age (SPA) would rise to 66 but this would “not be sooner than 2016 for men and 2020 for women.” Since then the Government performed a dramatic U-turn and published draft legislation to accelerate the equalisation for women by 2018, and then increase both men and women’s state pension ages to 66 by 2020.  Women aged around 56 and 57 are set to lose the most from this shift in the goalposts, with very little time to prepare or amend existing plans.

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