The Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities (previously Shadow Minister for Women, Shadow Minister for Women and Equality, Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities) is a position in the United Kingdom's
Official Opposition
Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...
, and sits in the Shadow Cabinet. The Shadow Secretary of State is responsible for holding the
Minister for Women and Equalities
The minister for women and equalities is a ministerial position in the United Kingdom which leads the Government Equalities Office. This is an independent department within the wider Cabinet Office that has responsibility for addressing all for ...
, responsible for the
Government Equalities Office
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) is the unit of the British government with responsibility for social equality. The office has lead responsibility for gender equality within the UK government, together with a responsibility to provide advic ...
, to account and is responsible for Opposition policy on women's and equality issues.
The post was upgraded to the Shadow
Cabinet rank
The ministerial ranking, Cabinet ranking, order of precedence in Cabinet or order of precedence of ministers is the "pecking order" or relative importance of senior ministers in the UK government.
Use
The ministerial ranking is said by Pete ...
of
Shadow Secretary of State following the
snap general election of 2017, with
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the pol ...
indicating that if Labour win office at the next election, Women and Equalities will be upgraded to the full status of a
government department
Ministry or department (also less commonly used secretariat, office, or directorate) are designations used by first-level executive bodies in the machinery of governments that manage a specific sector of public administration." Энцикло ...
. Previously, the post was often held together with a
Shadow Cabinet post, but sometimes as a Shadow Cabinet post in its own right.
The position, since its creation in 1983, has always been held by a female
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...
. The position has been held by
Anneliese Dodds
Anneliese Jane Dodds (born 16 March 1978) is a British Labour and Co-operative politician and public policy analyst serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, and Chair of the Labour Party since 2021. She was Shadow Chancel ...
since 21 September 2021, after having been vacant since the resignation of
Marsha de Cordova
Marsha Chantal de Cordova (born 23 January 1976) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Battersea since 2017. She was Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities from 6 April 2020 until her resig ...
on 14 September 2021.
Shadow ministers
See also
*
Official Opposition frontbench
The frontbench of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom consists of the Shadow Cabinet and other official shadow ministers of the political party currently serving as the Official Opposition. The Opposition fron ...
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shadow Minister For Women And Equalities
Official Opposition (United Kingdom)
Government Equalities Office