Harriet Harman is the Marmite Cabinet minister — you either love her or loathe
her. But at least you know what she stands for.
When she was briefly running the country over the summer, she came out with a
flurry of initiatives to promote women. In Whitehall, her colleagues refer
to her, half admiringly, as the “killer driller” because of her ability to
force her equal opportunities ideas on to the statute book.
Now she aims to use that talent to force companies to include a quota of women
on their boards. The deputy leader of the Labour Party — whom a growing
number of ministers are convinced could end up leading the party if Labour
swings to the left after an election defeat — is an unusual combination.
Privately educated at St Paul’s Girls’ School and the niece of Lord Longford,
she is married to a trade unionist, Jack Dromey, whom she met on a picket
line. For years she was the party’s ambassador to the middle classes, who
offered up her recipe for “foolproof” asparagus tart to Good
Housekeeping magazine; now she is the darling of the Left who boasts she
would never buy a handbag for more than £50.
Labour’s traditionalists appreciate her commitment to equality, her desire to
narrow the gap between rich and poor and her feminist agenda, which goes
back more than 30 years. For more than a decade she has been arguing that
there should be a woman in one of the top jobs in the Labour Party. “A male
and female team working together is different from a male-only team and it’s
better.”
Ms Harman is particularly attracted by legislation in Norway that requires all
private sector boards to be at least 40 per cent female. “I am off to
Stockholm the week after next to discuss with other EU ministers what we can
do. How we diversify boardrooms is important.”
The Equalities Bill going through Parliament will allow companies to
discriminate in favour of women. Ms Harman would like to go farther and
force them to promote more women at the very top. “The number of all-male
boards has crept up, it’s still a man’s world. It’s about making sure you
don’t have any inner circles, old boy networks.” Although such a change
would be in breach of EU law, she believes other countries might support an
amendment.
It is not as far-fetched as it sounds — she helped to transform the House of
Commons by introducing all-women shortlists for Labour. Now she thinks the
principle should apply to the City. “All women shortlists were
controversial, but they helped Parliament be less male,” she says. “You have
to look at the team and take the action necessary to make the right balance.
“At a time when everything is changing, it is pointless to be king of the
status quo. We need to move forward. I think the question of what the
qualities are that lead to success is no longer accepted. [Men] haven’t
achieved success, but disaster.”
We meet Ms Harman — the Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal and
Minister for Women and Equality — in what must be the largest ministerial
office in Whitehall. “It was John Prescott’s, which explains why it’s so
big,” she says. As we sit down, an aide rushes in clutching a jacket. “I
can’t speak to you girls in a cardie,” the minister explains. “I need to be
structured.”
It is clear that she relished being in charge for a week in August while
Gordon Brown was on holiday. “I did enjoy it but it was a responsibility,”
she says. “If you have fought to do something you enjoy it . . . I did
manage to put more spotlight on the things I’ve been saying for many years.
I have always wanted to bring issues like balancing work and family life to
the bigger stage. I don’t have sleepless nights about making decisions.”
Equality is, Ms Harman believes, the key to Labour winning the next election.
“The whole question of rebuilding the economy brings forward a range of new
ideas. People want a fairer, more equal society. I don’t think anyone talks
about redistribution but [we should narrow] the gap between rich and poor.
The societies that prosper in the future are not going to be the ones who
believe that women shouldn’t go out to work or that the disabled can’t play
their part. Our values are what will make the economy strong.”
Ms Harman believes that men are more to blame for the recession than women —
and that women have had a tougher time over the past year. “The assumption
is that men find the recession worse, but women are worried not only about
their own job but about the family’s finances, they are worried about
whether their kids are going to get jobs.”
Ms Harman was the first politician to suggest that Lehman Sisters might have
fared better than Lehman Brothers. “There is research evidence that women
are more risk averse and more worried about household finances. These [men]
weren’t nearly as clever as they thought they were. They didn’t know what
was going on in their own organisations, and yet they were dealing with huge
amounts of money and taking huge risks.”
Women, she thinks, would have been more cautious. “It’s about challenging
assumptions. It’s not assuming you know everything and being prepared to ask
the question.”
As a woman, what would her plan for recovery be? She bats away questions about
Trident, public sector pay freezes and reductions to the Government car
service, but admits there will have to be both public spending cuts and tax
rises to bring down the deficit.
Margaret Thatcher always said that she ran the country like a housewife,
balancing the books at the end of each week. But the former Prime Minister
was recently airbrushed from a list of achievements by women in politics
produced by the Equalities Office, which Ms Harman runs. But she says: “It’s
not a very good list. Betty Boothroyd (the former Commons Speaker) wasn’t on
it either.”
So was the Iron Lady a good role model for women? “She showed that a woman can
do it,” she says. “But she didn’t say, ‘I can do it because I am a woman and
can bring something different to it’. She did it in a man’s way.”
You can be sure that if Ms Harman became leader she would do it in a woman’s
way. She admits some people — particularly men — are irritated by her style.
“People are threatened by change. There is a changing relationship between
men and women across the piece. Expectations are changing, things are
changing. It is a big time in change of roles and relationships.”
So does she want to break through her party’s glass ceiling and become leader?
“No, no.” Why not? “I’m deputy leader and am absolutely not thinking of
anything except Gordon being leader after the next election and me being his
deputy. There is no contest to be standing in. I am not ambitious.”
Life and times
Name Harriet Harman
Age 59
Position Leader of the Commons, Lord Privy Seal and Minister for Women
and Equality
Born July 30, 1950
Family Married to Jack Dromey; three children
Education St Paul’s Girls’ School; York University; Brent
Community Law Centre
Career 1992-1994 Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. 1995-1997
Opposition frontbench spokeswoman on employment, health and social security.
1997-98 Social Security Secretary. 2001-05 Solicitor-General. 2005 junior
Constitutional Affairs Minister. In 2007 elected deputy leader of Labour
Party
Hobbies Cooking and gardening
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