Minister for Women and Equalities

History

The position of Minister for 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 of the new minister. 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. When David Cameron became prime minister, he renamed the position to Minister for Women and Equalities 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).

In April 2014 (after the resignation of Maria Miller), Nicky Morgan was initially appointed to the role of Minister for Women in conjunction with being Financial Secretary to the Treasury, attending Cabinet. Sajid Javid who had replaced Miller as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport was appointed to the separate role of Minister for Equalities. While the Women and Equalities briefs were recombined in July 2014, the responsibility for marriage equality was assigned to Nick Boles, who held the title of Minister of State for Skills, Enterprise and Equalities and had a base in both the Education and Business departments. Both splits in responsibilities were due to Nicky Morgan having voted against the legalisation of equal marriage.

The two most recent female Prime Ministers, Theresa May and Liz Truss, served in this position.

Since April 2019, the Government Equalities Office has been permanently based within the Cabinet Office. In October 2024, the Office was renamed the Office for Equality and Opportunity.

The Minister for Women and Equalities and predecessor cabinet ministers since 1997 have been supported by one or more parliamentary under-secretaries of state or ministers of state. These ministers are typically appointed to the department that the Minister for Women and Equalities leads by virtue of their other Cabinet appointment. Since July 2024, under Bridget Phillipson (Minister for Women and Equalities and Secretary of State for Education), all women and equalities ministers have been appointed to the Department for Education.

Women and equalities ministers are typically concurrently appointed to another ministerial role, often in another department. For example, in February 2020, Kemi Badenoch was appointed jointly Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury in HM Treasury and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Equalities) in the Department for International Trade (under Liz Truss as Minister for Women and Equalities and Secretary of State for International Trade).

List of ministers

Timeline

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DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1997 till:31/12/ TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal

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bar:Harman from: 03/05/1997 till: 27/07/1998 color:Labour from: 28/06/2007 till: 11/05/2010 color:Labour text:"Harriet Harman" bar:Jay from: 27/07/1998 till: 08/06/2001 color:Labour text:"Margaret Jay" bar:Hewitt from: 08/06/2001 till: 05/05/2005 color:Labour text:"Patricia Hewitt" bar:Jowell from: 05/05/2005 till: 05/05/2006 color:Labour text:"Tessa Jowell" bar:Kelly from: 05/05/2006 till: 28/06/2007 color:Labour text:"Ruth Kelly" bar:May from: 12/05/2010 till: 04/09/2012 color:Conservative text:"Theresa May" bar:Miller from: 04/09/2012 till: 09/04/2014 color:Conservative text:"Maria Miller" bar:Javid from: 09/04/2014 till: 15/07/2014 color:Conservative text:"Sajid Javid" bar:Morgan from: 09/04/2014 till: 14/07/2016 color:Conservative text:"Nicky Morgan" bar:Greening from: 14/07/2016 till: 08/01/2018 color:Conservative text:"Justine Greening" bar:Rudd from: 09/01/2018 till: 30/04/2018 color:Conservative from: 24/07/2019 till: 07/09/2019 color:Conservative text:"Amber Rudd" bar:Mordaunt from: 30/04/2018 till: 24/07/2019 color:Conservative text:"Penny Mordaunt" bar:Truss from: 10/09/2019 till: 06/09/2022 color:Conservative text:"Liz Truss" bar:Zahawi from: 06/09/2022 till: 25/10/2022 color:Conservative text:"Nadhim Zahawi" bar:Badenoch from: 25/10/2022 till: 05/07/2024 color:Conservative text:"Kemi Badenoch" bar:Phillipson from: 08/07/2024 till: $today color:Labour text:"Bridget Phillipson"

References

References

1. "Minister for Women and Equalities".
2. Abrams, Fran. (4 June 1997). "Harman heads team to put women's issues first". The Independent.
3. Mason, Rowena. (15 July 2014). "Nicky Morgan's gay-marriage stance causes equalities role confusion... again". The Guardian.
4. (16 November 2018). "Government Equalities Office to join Cabinet Office". GOV.UK.
5. (9 October 2024). "Office for Equality and Opportunity to break down barriers to opportunity". [[gov.uk]].
6. (8 October 2024). "Ministerial Appointments: 8 October 2024".
7. (13 February 2020). "Ministerial appointments: February 2020".