Minister for Women and Equalities

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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 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 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

Colour key (for political parties):
Politicians:       Conservative       Labour       Labour Co-operative       Liberal Democrats
Governments:       Single party government       Coalition government

Minister for Women
Cabinet Minister			Junior Minister		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Harriet Harman (also Sec. of State for Social Security)			Joan Ruddock	3 May 1997	27 July 1998	Labour		•		Tony Blair
	The Lady Jay (also Leader of the House of Lords)			Tessa Jowell	27 July 1998	8 June 2001	Labour
	Patricia Hewitt (also Sec. of State for Trade and Industry)			The Lady Morgan (2001) Barbara Roche (2001–03) Jacqui Smith (2003–05)	8 June 2001	5 May 2005	Labour
	Tessa Jowell			Meg Munn	5 May 2005	5 May 2006	Labour (Jowell) Labour Co-op (Munn)
	Ruth Kelly (also Sec. of State for Communities and Local Government)				5 May 2006	27 June 2007	Labour (Kelly) Labour Co-op (Munn)
Minister for Women and Equality
Cabinet Minister			Juniors		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Harriet Harman (also Leader of the House of Commons)			Minister of State: Barbara Follett (2007–08) Maria Eagle (2008–10) Parliamentary Secretary: Michael Foster	28 June 2007	11 May 2010	Labour		•		Gordon Brown
Minister for Women and Equalities
Cabinet Minister			Parliamentary Secretary		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Theresa May (also Home Secretary)			Lynne Featherstone	12 May 2010	Incumbent	Conservative (May) Lib. Dem. (Featherstone)		•		David Cameron

References

v t e Ministers for Women and Equality of the United Kingdom Minister for Women 1997-2007 Harriet Harman · Baroness Jay · Patricia Hewitt · Tessa Jowell · Ruth Kelly Minister for Women and Equality 2007-2010 Harriet Harman Minister for Women and Equalities since 2010 Theresa May