Liberal Democrats back plans to ban airbrushed adverts

3.11.53pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 21st Sep 2009

Liberal Democrat Autumn conference today backed plans to ban airbrushing in adverts targeted at children in the policy paper Real Women.

These measures are part of a wide range of proposals to protect women and girls against body image pressure, encourage healthier lifestyles and tackle pay discrimination. Other proposals include:

· Protecting children from body image pressure by banning airbrushing in advertising aimed at under 16s

· Provide twenty hours of free, good quality childcare per week, for all children from 18 months to when they start school

· Requiring companies to publish data on the pay scales within their organisations and conduct pay audits

· Introducing a 'name blanking' policy so that job applicants apply with National Insurance numbers

· Modules on body image, health and well-being, and media literacy to be taught in schools.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat MP, Jo Swinson said:

"Women face pressure from all directions these days. Hit hard by the recession, trying to juggle family commitments with work and home life, and bombarded with adverts that contain completely unattainable images that no-one can live up to in real life.

"Despite great strides forward in equality, women still get paid less than men, and generally still end up taking more responsibility for childcare and looking after elderly relatives. This can be hugely rewarding, but combining this with a job can seem almost impossible.

"There's a lot the Government could do to give a helping hand. Making employers check for pay discrimination would help women get the money they deserve. Providing 20 hours per week free childcare would allow parents to make real choices about returning to work. And it would be nice to inject some realism into the media's portrayal of women, instead of the suggestion that nothing less than perfection will do."

The motion passed by conference states:

Conference welcomes the equality gains women have made over the last few decades but regrets that the rate of change is slowing and actually going into reverse in some areas; for example, the gender pay gap widened last year.

Conference regrets that women still do a disproportionate amount of the care-giving and unpaid work in society and that they are increasingly encouraged to 'live up to' unrealistic ideals of beauty and imagery, which often trivialises their position within society.

Conference believes that all people should have equal opportunities in life and not be held back because of the circumstances of their birth, including their gender. Conference is committed to addressing the particular needs of women through national policy and believes that this policy should be guided by the following principles:

A. Expanding opportunities so that:

i) Women have a real choice about how to balance caring responsibilities and work.

ii) Men can play a fuller role in the lives of their children.

iii) Women (and men) can achieve a better work-life balance.

B. Empowering women to:

i) Improve their financial situation.

ii) Make them feel safer.

iii) Increase their access to information.

iv) Challenge trends which overly sexualise and trivialise the position of women.

v) Play a full part in politics as voters and elected representatives.

C. Challenging conformity by:

i) Encouraging diversity in the media and popular culture.

ii) Allowing young girls the space to develop their own ideals.

Conference therefore endorses policy paper 91, Real Women, as a statement of the party's key policies for eradicating gender inequalities and creating a better society. Conference particularly welcomes:

1. Plans to create a safer society and help the victims of crime by:

a) Providing up to 10 new Sexual Assault Referral Centres and 15 new Rape Crisis Centres.

b) Ending the 'no recourse to public funds' requirement which currently applies to those with uncertain immigration status.

c) Introducing a well-publicised guard's carriage on late-night trains.

d) Developing a stopping-on-request service for buses late at night.

e) Providing a freephone helpline for use by victims of trafficking and for clients who suspect that women have been trafficked.

2. Proposals to create a better work-life balance and improve childcare by:

a) Extending the right to request flexible working to all employees.

b) Reaffirming the proposals for universal childcare and enhanced parental leave in policy paper 88, The Best Start for Children, The Best Deal for Families.

3. Proposals to challenge the narrow and overly sexualised aesthetic presented in the media and popular culture by:

a) Requiring OFCOM and the ASA to mainstream gender equality into their regulation of the media.

b) Requiring all advertisements to declare the extent to which digital retouching technology has been used to create overly perfected and unrealistic images of women (and men).

4. Proposals to allow young girls (and boys) the space to challenge conformity and to decrease their chances of developing eating disorders by:

a) Banning the use of digital retouching technology in advertisements aimed at under 16s, which creates overly perfected and unrealistic images of women (and men); we would work with industry professionals to ensure that legislation was appropriately worded to reflect these aims.

b) Providing age-appropriate lessons on body-image and media literacy as part of Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) in schools.

5. Proposals to improve the physical and mental health of women by:

a) Producing patient-recorded outcome measures for the cosmetic surgery industry.

b) Improving school and community sports facilities to make them cleaner, safer and more female-friendly.

c) Requiring public service television to provide coverage of the most important women's sports events and to support the movement to have netball included in the 2012 London Olympics.

d) Recruiting and training more health visitors and midwives.

6. Plans to tackle discrimination at work and in pay by:

a) Requiring companies to publish data on the pay scales within their organisations and to conduct pay audits.

b) Allowing women (and men) to bring representative actions and allowing women from ethnic minorities who have faced 'double discrimination' to bring a case on more than one ground.

c) Allowing the use of hypothetical comparators.

d) Introducing a 'name blanking' policy so that job applicants apply with National Insurance numbers.

e) Scrapping mandatory retirement ages.