International Women’s Day

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Con)]

My Lords, I wholeheartedly welcome this debate and thank the noble Baroness, Lady Lloyd, for her excellent introduction. I declare my interests as co-chair of the APPG on Women, Peace and Security, a steering board member of the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative and founding chair of the Afghan Women’s Support Forum. I congratulate all those who have made such excellent maiden speeches today. It is an honour to follow the remarkable and moving speech of the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, and I thank all the men who have come here on a Friday to support us women.

The UN International Women’s Day theme this year, as we have already heard, is “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls”, but sadly, we have to acknowledge the rolling back of hard-won rights for women across the world today, a situation that I am afraid is exacerbated by this Government’s approach to international development. Not only is aid being slashed but there is an abandonment of funding for education for women and girls and a pivot to working with African leaders, nearly all men, with a poor track record on female issues, be it FGM or child marriage, who now wish to be seen as partners. This means that many of the grass-roots projects that have helped empower women will be abandoned. At a time when the US has abandoned the world’s poorest, the UK should be stepping up, and it is proven that small amounts of money on the ground can be transformative.

Time is short, so I shall focus on the plight of women in conflict countries, which is worse than ever. Last weekend’s events have been truly shocking and, for sure, women will be disproportionately affected. I cannot overlook the school that was bombed and can only imagine the agony of the mothers of all those children killed in Iran. In 2000, UN Security Council Resolution 1325 recognised the disproportionate effect of conflict on women and girls. It was Major General Cammaert who said:

“It is perhaps more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier”


in modern wars. The Red Cross reports that there are over 130 active conflicts in the world today—more than double the number 15 years ago—with civilians bearing the brunt of attacks. How many of these conflicts were started by women? I hazard a guess: none.

From Sudan to Syria, from Ukraine to Gaza, it will be women’s organisations on the ground struggling to help communities. Empirical evidence shows that including women in peace processes makes peace more durable, legitimate and effective. Agreements with women’s participation are 35% more likely to last 15 years. Yet look at the situation today, with so many peace negotiations centred around the Middle East. These countries do not have any women leaders, and we never hear from a woman spokesman about the situation there.

On Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, none of the executive members is a woman, and of the 19 members at the Davos launch there was only one woman. After last weekend, do we really think that President Trump has credibility as a peacemaker? If we are serious about establishing peace, protecting rights and seeking justice for women, we need to have women involved.

Sexual violence continues in every theatre of war. I can never forget hearing Dr Mukwege telling us that 83,000 women in the DRC have been brutally raped and that he and his team repaired women and girls at Panzi Hospital with ages ranging from five into their 80s, as my noble friend Lord Ahmad talked about. However, the UN has highlighted that sexual violence in conflict rose sharply in 2024, with impunity for perpetrators remaining the norm.

The Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative was inspiring, so can the Minister tell us why the Government have not appointed a special representative? Last year was the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, and at the event at the FCDO the Foreign Secretary talked about her support for the agenda, but where is the action? Why will the Government not accept the Women, Peace and Security Bill? This would ensure that even if we have Ministers who do not consider this agenda important, it will be embedded in the DNA of UK foreign policy.

Before I end, I have to raise the situation in Afghanistan, which the noble Baronesses, Lady D’Souza and Lady Goudie, have already talked about. It really is the worst country in the world to be a woman. The Taliban has implemented a systematic and comprehensive erasure of women’s rights, with over 100 edicts severely curtailing the ability of women and girls to live, work and move freely in public. It recently introduced a new penal code permitting husbands to physically punish their wives and children—providing no bones are broken, of course. We should not forget that many people there are starving. It is really a shame on the world that this is happening in this day and age.

Rights for women are rolling backwards around the world. We cannot wait to reverse this trend, for, as Gloria Steinem said:

“Don’t think about making women fit the world—think about making the world fit women”.