Summer 2016 feels like a long time ago doesn’t it? Prince had just died, the Olympics were unfolding in Rio and… the United Kingdom had just voted to leave the European Union.
Fast forward three years and the promises made by the Leave campaign are in tatters. Theresa May has spent three years negotiating a Withdrawal Agreement that has nothing at all to say about our future relationship with the EU, and which she can’t pass through Parliament anyway. With less than thirty days to go, we have no idea how, when and under what terms we will leave the EU.
The uncertainty over Brexit is already hitting hard: the price of butter has gone up 32% since 2016 and yet wages have remained stagnant. With women - particularly those on low incomes - often responsible for managing household budgets, these costs hit them first, especially since history shows that we tend to try to shield our families from the worst by going without ourselves.
And women have already been going without for long enough. The House of Commons library estimates that women shouldered 86% of austerity cuts: it is women who are more likely to leave paid work to fill the care gap; it is women who are overrepresented in precarious and low-paid employment. 900,000 of our jobs are at risk from a no deal Brexit, while the medicines and fresh foods we rely on could be hit by shortages.
As for May’s so-called deal, within the paltry 26 pages the government has dedicated to the hand-waving Political Declaration there is no mention of women’s rights at all. These will be left entirely at the whim of future governments.
And that’s a worry, because the UK has a track record of fighting the EU all the way as it drags us kicking and screaming (sometimes through the courts) towards implementing anti-discrimination laws on equal pay, part-time workers’ rights and maternity leave. And these EU-driven rights have been incredibly important for women. They have been used to improve employment standards, propel gender equality and redistribute the amount of unpaid care work women often do.
For parents in particular, Brexit represents a crossroads.
If we leave the EU the problems begin from birth: 7,000 nurses and midwives have already left since 2016 while 7% of care workers are EEA nationals. Without Freedom of Movement or sufficient citizens’ rights guarantees, why would our midwives and nursery workers stay? As our children grow up their universities could receive less funding and they will have less freedom to travel, work, live - and love - around Europe.
Meanwhile, the EU will be busy implementing new laws - agreed on in January 2019 - that give parents more rights to work in a flexible way that reflects the reality of the 21st century family.
There are those who claim we don’t need the EU to ensure workers’ rights - after all, what is to stop us from instituting these laws on our own? These people are living in the past. In this increasingly globalised world, individual countries find it much harder to stand up to huge multinational corporations in defence of workers’ rights. Witness Amazon simply backing out of opening an HQ in New York when it started to be quizzed on allowing its workers to unionise. It will instead open an HQ in Washington where no such awkward questions were raised. And bear in mind that with a GDP of $1.5 trillion, New York is one of the world’s twenty largest economies. It is only working as part of a bloc that we have any chance at all against such enormous corporations.
The reality is that women, particularly mothers, ethnic minority women and economically disadvantaged women will be disproportionately impacted by a Brexit of any kind. And we haven’t had a proper say. Women are overwhelmingly underrepresented in the Brexit debate: only one woman was sent to Brussels as part of the senior negotiating team and while in Parliament male MPs hogged a staggering 90% of debate time on Brexit. This Brexit, however it manifests, does not represent us.
Luckily, there is another option.
We have the opportunity to stand up for a different future for women, for children and for Britain. A People’s Vote would allow women to have their say on what we want our future to look like. You wouldn’t buy a house without checking the contract first - and you wouldn’t be forced to buy a house you’d made an offer on if the survey came back and told you it was about to fall down. That’s all a People’s Vote is: the opportunity to have our voices heard on the biggest political decision of a generation, now that we know what Brexit actually means.
The truth is that we will not get a better deal for women than we already have in the EU. And now that we know what the true impact of Brexit will be, we deserve a final say. If you agree, join our campaign to fight for our future.
Register here to join us on the Put It To The People March on 23/03/19.
Caroline Criado Perez will be back at 1pm on 01/03/2019 to answer your questions