Minister for Women and Equalities

Minister for Women and Equalities
Arms of Her Majesty's Government Government Equalities Office
Incumbent Theresa May since 12 May 2010
Style	The Right Honourable
Appointer	David Cameron as Prime Minister
Inaugural holder	Harriet Harman
Formation	28 June 2007
Website	Equalities Office

United Kingdom

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The post of Minister for Women and Equalities is a ministerial position in the United Kingdom with responsibility for addressing all forms of discrimination, with particular emphasis on gender inequality.

History

The position of Minister of Women was created by Tony Blair when he became prime minister as a means of prioritising women's issues across government. Prior to that, there had been an equality unit in the Cabinet Office and a Cabinet committee, which were continued under the leadership under the new minister.^[1] When Gordon Brown succeeded Blair, he created the post of Minister for Women and Equality to handle a wider range of equalities issues. The first Minister for Women and, ten years later, the first Minister for Women and Equality was Harriet Harman. On 12 October 2007^[2] a new department, the Government Equalities Office was created to support the minister. When David Cameron became prime minister, he gave the position its current name without a change in its responsibilities. Since its creation, the position has always been held by a minister sitting in Cabinet by virtue of another office (i.e., a secretary of state or leader of one of the Houses of Parliament).

Despite calls from people such as Lord Northbourne for a minister to concentrate on issues specific to men, there is no Minister for Men or similar office.^[3]

List of Ministers

For Women

Term	Cabinet Minister	Junior Minister
1997–98	Harriet Harman	Joan Ruddock
1998–01	Baroness Jay	Tessa Jowell
2001	Patricia Hewitt	Baroness Morgan of Huyton
2001–03		Barbara Roche
2003–05		Jacqui Smith
2005–06	Tessa Jowell	Meg Munn
2006–07	Ruth Kelly

for Women and Equality

Term	Cabinet Minister	Minister of State	Parliamentary Secretary
2007–08	Harriet Harman	Barbara Follett
2008–10		Maria Eagle	Michael Foster

For Women and Equalities

Term	Cabinet Minister	Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
2010–	Theresa May	Lynne Featherstone

References

1. ^ Abrams, Fran (4 June 1997). "Harman heads team to put women's issues first". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/harman-heads-team-to-put-womens-issues-first-1254053.html. Retrieved 18 January 2011. 
2. ^ Legal document creating the new department
3. ^ Report from March 2004 on calls for a 'minister for men'