9. PUSHING WOMEN ASIDE IN LONDON GOVERNMENT

Friday, 01 May 2009 13:49

Boris Johnson’s only significant pledge to women in his election campaign was to fund four new rape crisis centres. He has not done so. In fact Johnson has downgraded women in his administration, his policies and his delivery of services. He has:

* reneged on his manifesto pledge to fund four rape crisis centres

* Suspended the Safer Travel at Night board

* Slashed funds and cut staff from the GLA’s team against domestic violence

* Abolished the post of Women’s Adviser to the Mayor

* Eliminated women from the most senior positions in the GLA group

* Cancelled the annual conference to consult London women which had been attended by thousands of women each year

 

Rape Crisis Centres

Boris Johnson made a manifesto pledge to fund four new rape crisis centres in London. In the run up to the election he said:

“a reduction of the Mayor’s personal publicity team of 20% would yield the £744,000 a year with which to fund my commitment to dramatically increase access to support services for rape victims. Quite simply, I believe it is more important to fund Rape Crisis Centres than press officers.”

And

“The next Mayor of London must show leadership if we are to end this crime… It is absolutely evident that we must be doing more to help, support, and promote the assistance that is given to women… If I am fortunate to be elected on 1 may, this matter will be a priority under my Mayoralty.”

 

In December 2008 Green Party member, Jenny Jones, questioned him on the implications of his budget at the London Assembly meeting. Johnson stated he would not improve on the current £233,000 a year budget, a cut of over £500,000 what was promised and not even enough to keep open one rape crisis centre. He now says he is assessing rape crisis need and will ask Government or councils to find the cash.

 

Safer Travel at Night

In October 2008 Boris Johnson made the decision to suspend the Safer Travel At Night board.

Safer Travel at Night was initiated by Ken Livingstone in 2002 with Transport for London (TfL) and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), to make people aware of the options of getting home safely at night on public transport, black cabs and licensed taxi cabs. It made the safe options easier and particularly positively affected women. Its work contributed to a reduction in cab-related sexual offences of 46% between November 2002 and November 2007. See: http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/safer_travel/

 

Domestic Violence

* In 2001 Ken Livingstone launched the first pan-London Domestic Violence Strategy

* Boris Johnson has slashed funding of domestic violence by £90,000 and axed five posts from the GLA domestic violence team.

* Johnson’s cuts come despite the fact that in the year since Boris Johnson took office domestic violence is up by 4.4%.

* Joanne McCartney AM said “The GLA domestic violence programme has achieved impressive results including a 57% reduction in domestic violence murders for the last two years. That’s 24 lives saved. To think that our new Mayor plans to throw this all out of the window is simply devastating.” (26 November 2008

 

Women’s Adviser

* One of Boris Johnson’s first actions when he took office was to abolish the post of Women’s Adviser to the Mayor. The Evening Standard reported that an “insider said Mr Johnson felt that the post of "women's adviser" was a "throwback to the Eighties GLC" (Evening Standard, 18/6/09)

 

Elimination of women from senior positions

* The elimination of women from the senior management levels in the Greater London Authority has been greater even than that for ethnic minorities.

* None of Boris Johnson’s appointments to the most senior positions in the GLA Group, that is those one level down from the Mayor – the Chairs or Chief Executives of functional bodies (TfL, LDA, LFEPA), the statutory Deputy Mayor, or Deputy Mayors – has been a woman. (Director under the previous Livingstone administration was equivalent, including in salary, to Deputy Mayor under Boris Johnson).  It may be argued by Johnson’s team that the exception is Isabel Dedring, Director of Environmental Policy, but she has not been given Deputy Mayor status.

 

* Five women occupied positions at the most senior level in the GLA group at the end of Ken Livingstone’s term – Nicky Gavron, the Deputy Mayor; Val Shawcross, Chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA); Mary Reilly, Chair of the London Development Agency (LDA); Murziline Parchment, GLA Director of Strategic Projects and Performance, and Joy Johnson, GLA Director of Media and Marketing. All were replaced by Boris Johnson with men or, in the case of the Director of Strategic Projects and Performance, their post was simply abolished – five senior women were dismissed and every single replacement was a man.

 

* It should be noted that only 1 out of 11 in Tory group on the London Assembly is a woman.

 

* Johnson points to the fact that his adviser on culture who is a woman – but she was appointed three salary levels down in the GLA.

 

Capitalwoman

* Johnson has cancelled the massive annual conference to consult women in London, Capitalwoman. 

* Capitalwoman conference was started in 2001 by Mayor Ken Livingstone. The 2008 conference was attended by over 3,000 women.