Theresa May appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality

Theresa May has been appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality in the new Conservative/Liberal Democrat Government.

Theresa May has been appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality in the new Conservative/Liberal Democrat Government.
May, previously the Conservatives’ shadow minister for women during the previous Labour administration, has previously spoken on WM magazine about the Conservatives’ views on flexible working. She said: "We strongly support flexible working and we are committed to extending the right to request flexible working to all parents of children under the age of 18. Eventually, our ambition is to make flexible working available to as many people as possible.
"We will put forward the strong case for increased flexible working to business to encourage more opportunities. In addition, we will ensure that the public sector – Britain’s biggest employer – becomes a world leader in providing flexible working opportunities."
Meanwhile, The Fawcett Society has expressed concerns about the lack of women in the Cabinet, which also includes Lady Warsi as Conservative Party Chairman, Cheryl Gillan as the first Welsh Secretary and Caroline Spelman as Defra Secretary.
Ceri Goddard, Chief Executive of the campaign organisation, said women could get marginalised in key talks on budget cuts and other areas due to the lack of representation in the Cabinet. She said: “The near absence of women that characterised the election campaign continued as a defining feature of the negotiations. 
“It’s as though feminism never happened. It seems the default response of politics in political crisis is to revert to type – a men-only zone. This is not only bad for women,  it’s bad for everyone as we all lose out and our democracy is just plain flawed without women’s vital contribution.
“Our concern is that this is not just a blip or a one-off example of expediency, but a tone setting development that will see women continue to be marginalised.
“It would seem that while many of our politicians have managed to overcome party tribalism and age-old loyalties to form a coalition, this new approach to politics has not seen them cast off the sexist attitudes that mean women, as a rule, are excluded from the top tier of British government."
  
 

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