Minister for Women and Equalities

"Minister for Equalities" redirects here. For the Scottish junior ministerial post, see Minister for Equalities (Scotland).

Minister for Women and Equalities is a ministerial position in the United Kingdom in the Department for Education. Prior to July 2024, the position led the Government Equalities Office. Its counterpart in the shadow cabinet is the shadow minister for women and equalities.

United Kingdom Minister for Women and Equalities
Royal Arms as used by His Majesty's Government
Incumbent Bridget Phillipson since 8 July 2024
Department for Education
Style	The Right Honourable
Appointer	The Monarch (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Inaugural holder	Harriet Harman
Formation	3 May 1997; 27 years ago (1997-05-03) (as Minister for Women)
Website	www.equalities.gov.uk/

Currently the position is deputised by the role of Minister of State for Women and Equalities, held by Anneliese Dodds.

The position was formerly known as; Minister for Women, Minister for Women and Equality, and Minister for 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.^[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 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).

Justine Greening replaced Nicky Morgan as both Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities when Theresa May was appointed prime minister on 13 July 2016. Morgan initially held the title of Minister for Women after the resignation of Maria Miller in April 2014, in conjunction with being Financial Secretary to the Treasury, whilst the Equalities brief was given to Sajid Javid who had replaced Miller as Secretary of State for Culture. 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 gay marriage.^[3]

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

Prior to April 2019, the minister was based at the Home Office, DFID and DfE, however, between 2019 and 2024, the position led the Government Equalities Office, an independent department within the wider Cabinet Office that had the responsibility for addressing all forms of discrimination, with particular emphasis on gender inequality. During the Conservative Government from 2017 to 2024, the minister was deputised by two parliamentary under-secretaries of state in the roles of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities.

List of ministers

Minister for Women
Cabinet minister			Junior ministers		Term of office		Political party	Ministry
		Harriet Harman MP for Camberwell and Peckham Social Security Secretary		Joan Ruddock	3 May 1997	27 July 1998	Labour		Blair (I)
		Margaret Jay Baroness Jay of Paddington Leader of the House of Lords		Tessa Jowell	27 July 1998	8 June 2001
		Patricia Hewitt MP for Leicester West Trade and Industry Secretary		Baroness Morgan of Huyton (2001) Barbara Roche (2001–2003) Jacqui Smith (2003–2005)	8 June 2001	5 May 2005			Blair (II)
		Tessa Jowell MP for Dulwich and West Norwood Minister for the Olympics		Meg Munn	5 May 2005	5 May 2006			Blair (III)
		Ruth Kelly MP for Bolton West Communities and Local Govt. Secretary			5 May 2006	28 June 2007
Minister for Women and Equality
Cabinet Minister			Junior ministers		Term of office		Political party	Ministry
		Harriet Harman MP for Camberwell and Peckham Leader of the House of Commons		Minister of State: Maria Eagle (2009–2010) (jointly with the Ministry of Justice) Parliamentary Secretary: Barbara Follett (2007–2008) Maria Eagle (2008–2009) Michael Foster (2009–2010)	28 June 2007	11 May 2010	Labour		Brown
Minister for Women and Equalities
Cabinet Minister			Parliamentary Secretary		Term of office		Political party	Ministry
		Theresa May MP for Maidenhead Home Secretary		Lynne Featherstone (LD)	12 May 2010	4 September 2012	Coalition (Cons–LD)		Cameron-Clegg)
		Maria Miller MP for Basingstoke Culture Secretary		Jo Swinson (LD) Helen Grant (Cons)	4 September 2012	9 April 2014
Ministers for Women and Minister for Equalities
Cabinet Ministers			Junior ministers		Term of office		Political party	Ministry
		Women Nicky Morgan MP for Loughborough Financial Secretary to the Treasury		Jo Swinson (LD) Helen Grant (Cons)	9 April 2014	15 July 2014	Coalition (Cons–LD)		Cameron-Clegg
		Equalities Sajid Javid MP for Bromsgrove Culture Secretary
Minister for Women and Equalities
Cabinet Minister			Junior ministers		Term of office		Political party	Ministry
		Nicky Morgan MP for Loughborough Secretary of State for Education		Jo Swinson (LD) Helen Grant (Cons)	15 July 2014	8 May 2015	Coalition (Cons–LD)		Cameron-Clegg
				Caroline Dinenage	8 May 2015	14 July 2016	Conservative		Cameron (II)
		Justine Greening MP for Putney Secretary of State for Education			14 July 2016	14 June 2017			May (I)
				Nick Gibb (Equalities) Anne Milton (Women)	14 June 2017	8 January 2018			May (II)
		Amber Rudd MP for Hastings and Rye Home Secretary		Baroness Williams of Trafford (Equalities) Victoria Atkins (Women)	9 January 2018	30 April 2018
		Penny Mordaunt MP for Portsmouth North International Development Secretary Defence Secretary			30 April 2018	24 July 2019
		Amber Rudd MP for Hastings and Rye Work and Pensions Secretary			24 July 2019	7 September 2019			Johnson (I)
		Liz Truss MP for South West Norfolk Foreign Secretary			10 September 2019	14 February 2020
				Kemi Badenoch (Equalities) (until 6 July 2022) Mike Freer (Equalities) (16 September 2021 – 6 July 2022) Amanda Solloway (Equalities) (8 July 2022 – 20 September 2022) Baroness Berridge (Women) (until 17 September 2021) Baroness Stedman-Scott (Women) (17 September 2021 – 22 September 2022)	14 February 2020	6 September 2022			Johnson (II)
Minister for Equalities
Cabinet Minister			Junior ministers		Term of office		Political party	Ministry
		Nadhim Zahawi MP for Stratford-on-Avon Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Minister for Intergovernmental Relations		Katherine Fletcher (Women) Baroness Stedman-Scott (Equalities)	6 September 2022	25 October 2022	Conservative		Truss
Minister for Women and Equalities
Cabinet Minister			Junior ministers		Term of office		Political party	Ministry
		Kemi Badenoch MP for Saffron Walden Secretary of State for International Trade		Stuart Andrew (Equalities) Maria Caulfield (Women)	25 October 2022	5 July 2024	Conservative		Sunak
		Bridget Phillipson MP for Houghton and Sunderland South Secretary of State for Education		Anneliese Dodds (Minister of state for Equalities) Seema Malhotra (PUSS for Equalities from 8 October 2024) Dame Nia Griffith (PUSS for Equalities from 8 October 2024)	8 July 2024	Incumbent	Labour		Starmer

Timeline

See also

• Government Equalities Office
• Women and Equalities Committee
• Minister for Gender Equality (Sweden)

External links

• Ministers in the Labour Governments: 1997–2010

References

1. Abrams, Fran (4 June 1997). "Harman heads team to put women's issues first". The Independent. Archived from the original on 15 May 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
2. "The Transfer of Functions (Equality) Order 2007". legislation.gov.uk. 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
3. Mason, Rowena (15 July 2014). "Nicky Morgan's gay-marriage stance causes equalities role confusion... again". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2014.