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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

    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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  • Labour market

    A mixed picture for women’s employment

    18th May 2011 — Filed under: Labour market

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    Today’s labour market statistics present a mixed picture of women’s unemployment. On the one hand the news is good. The number of unemployed women (ILO measure) fell by 5,000 on the quarter to just over 1 million. Although this is welcome it’s still a notably smaller fall than men have experienced (31,000 on the quarter) although male unemployment levels remain far higher than female levels. Correspondingly, the employment rate for women aged 16-64 was up 0.3% on the previous quarter.

    Yet the claimant count measure of unemployment paints a less rosy picture. According to the government’s figures, the number of women claiming Jobseekers Allowance increased by 9,300 to reach 474,400 – the highest it’s been for 15 years. Worryingly, this appears to be a trend: this is the tenth consecutive rise in the number of women claimants.

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  • Labour market

    A good week for employment – as long as no one mentions women

    15th April 2011 — Filed under: Labour market

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    This week’s unemployment figures came as a welcome surprise to many people as Richard Exell points out in his Left Foot Forward blog.

    As Richard explains, the rise in employment and the drop in unemployment seem to be genuinely good news and not masking a boom in “atypical” work such as temporary or self-employed jobs.

    So, good news all round then? Alas, not for women.

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  • Society & Welfare

    Child Maintenance charges mean single mothers lose out (again)

    7th April 2011 — Filed under: Society & Welfare

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    It’s not the first time – and sadly it is unlikely to be the last – that contributors to this website have commented on government budgets, cuts, plans and initiatives which seem to mete out particularly harsh treatment to single parents. Richard Exell recently explained why the cap on benefits will hit single parents particularly hard.

    Nicola Smith has explained how single mothers are caught between a rock and a hard place with increased childcare costs.

    We also know from modelling by Howard Reed for the Women’s Budget Group that the 2010 CSR would leave lone mothers 18.5% worse off, making them the biggest losers of the government’s cuts.

    Now the government is introducing charges to lone parents seeking maintenance payments from non-resident parents through the Child Support Agency (CSA).

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  • Equality

    The CBI’s “small thinking” is bad news for women returning to work

    18th March 2011 — Filed under: Equality, Working Life

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    Today we heard from Vince Cable that a central plank to the government’s long awaited growth strategy is to scrap the planned extension of the right to request flexible working to parents of 17 year olds and to give small businesses a three-year exemption from the new additional paternity leave scheme which allows mothers and fathers to share the mother’s right to maternity leave and pay if they wish.
    This is bad news for parents who need that flexibility, particularly at a time when the Government has been making cuts to many of the childcare services, benefits and tax credits that support working parents. The decision to scrap the extension of the right to request seems particularly petty, given that the proposal in question would only have served to correct an anomaly which affects a small number of parents. Parents of children aged 16 or under and carers of adults (aged 18 and over) are entitled to make a request so the proposal would have just given an extra year in which a request could be made.

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  • Equality

    International Women’s Day

    8th March 2011 — Filed under: Equality, International

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    There seems to be a buzz of excitement and activity around International Women’s Day this year. From Daniel Craig in drag to a new Women of the World (WOW) festival at the Southbank, to the TUC’s own International Women’s Day event at Congress House last night, to the TUC’s International Women’s Day publication, to the many other union events happening the length and breadth of the country.

    It may be just the fact that it’s a centenary celebration that has generated the extra interest in International Women’s Day this year. Or maybe it’s because this is not panning out to be a very good year for women, at home or overseas, and today seems like an opportune moment to do something about it and make our voices heard.

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  • Cuts Watch

    Cuts Watch #390: 100% funding cut to Liverpool Rape Crisis

    21st February 2011 — Filed under: Cuts Watch: Health, Cuts Watch: Social care, Equality, Public services, Working Life

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    Liverpool Council has announced 100% funding cuts to Rape Crisis. Liverpool Rape Crisis helped 522 women last year with a meagre £60,000 funding from Liverpool City Council.

    To put this in perspective, the public funding received by Liverpool Rape Crisis in 2010 was less than the cost to the state of just one single rape. According to the Women’s Resource Centre, the estimated cost to the state of one rape is £73,487 – £13,487 more than the annual funding for the Liverpool Rape Crisis centre.

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  • Equality

    Cuts to women’s domestic violence and rape services – A “disaster waiting to happen”?

    16th February 2011 — Filed under: Equality, Society & Welfare

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    I was struck by today’s news that Denise Marshall, Chief Executive of Eaves women’s charity and campaign group, has handed back her OBE on principle. While some may well ask what the point is of an OBE in the first place – and therefore, what the significance of giving it back is – Denise Marshall has undoubtedly achieved something important with this symbolic action. She’s made cuts to women’s services front page news. That’s no mean feat.

    She has successfully drawn the media’s attention to the fact that, in spite of much vaunted government pledges to invest £10m in Rape Crisis centres, the charity sector, and the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector is facing a very bleak future as funding – central, local, and grant based – evaporates into thin air.

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  • Cuts Watch: Families

    Save our Sure Start services

    10th February 2011 — Filed under: Cuts Watch: Families, Public services, Society & Welfare

    Scarlet Harris Scarlet Harris

    You may have missed the news from the Daycare Trust that 250 Sure Start children’s centres face closure – after the seemingly relentless tirade of bad news stories about cuts to services, from libraries to the Citizen Advice Bureau, from after school clubs to women’s refuges, yet another cuts story rarely grabs headlines.

    It seemed too good to be true when the Coalition Government promised that Sure Start services would be protected in cash terms. It was. We already knew “cash terms” meant a 9% cut in real terms. We also knew that the ringfencing of Sure Start budgets was to end. In a context of Local Authorities facing budget cuts of 28%, it didn’t take a great leap of the imagination to envisage Sure Start budgets being raided as soon as the ringfencing was removed.

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