UK has got ‘fat’ on decades of women’s unpaid labour – Jess Phillips
Jess Phillips slams UK’s reliance on women’s charity as ‘sexist’
- Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Jess Phillips has said that the UK has grown "fat" on the unpaid labour of women, deeming it "fundamentally sexist".
- She argued that the nation's dependence on women's charitable contributions for decades has led to a reluctance from the government to provide these services itself.
- Ms Phillips expressed her disdain for her job title, suggesting that safeguarding against gender-based violence should be a mainstream responsibility across all government departments, not just the Home Office.
- She said that women historically set up vital services like refuges and counselling for free, filling gaps where government provision was absent.
- Ms Phillips said that undoing this reliance on free female labour and elevating the issue to a mainstream concern will be a difficult and lengthy process.