Brown appoints first dedicated Women's officer

To coincide with International Women's Day, Gordon Brown has announced the appointment of the first ever dedicated Women's officer...

To coincide with International Women's Day today, The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has just announced that he has employed Glenys Kinnock as the first ever dedicated Women's officer in the Foreign Office.

The news comes as research shows that over 100 million women and girls are 'missing' from the world's population because of increased mortality from inequality and neglect.

Speaking exclusively to marie claire, which has a long reputation of championing women's rights across the globe, the PM said: ‘I have asked Glenys Kinnock to take on a new ministerial role, working with the UN and developing countries to crack down on forced marriage, rape, genital mutilation, human trafficking, female infanticide and maternal mortality.

‘If we do not act now, future generations will ask how we could allow the systematic violence against women which so disfigures our world today in the way they did about slavery.

‘The appointment is not expected to change the horrific statistics overnight. But it shows how seriously we as a government take the movement for women's empowerment and that we will not rest until global gender justice is achieved.'

In a move welcomed by women's groups, Baroness Kinnock will now hold the official title of ‘Minister responsible for tackling international violence against women'.

She said: 'I'm honoured to be given this role. It is ultimately the job of governments to take responsibility and ensure that they deal with gender inequality and the all too frequent low status and low value accorded to women.'

International Women's Day is held annually on 8 March, when thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements. For more information go to www.internationalwomensday.com.

Find the Prime Minister's podcast for International Women's Day here.

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