Taunton MP Rebecca Pow wants more girls to study science and engineering

Taunton MP Rebecca Pow wants more girls to study science and engineering

Taunton MP Rebecca Pow wants more girls to study science and engineering

Somerset's only female MP has praised the progress women are making in British business but called for more girls to be encouraged to pursue careers in science and technology.

Taunton Deane MP Rebecca Pow addressed the issue of women and entrepreneurship during an opposition debate on equal pay and the gender pay gap.

She told MPs there was still some way to go towards achieving full wage equality, but pointed out there are now more women-led businesses "than ever before"

"In Somerset there are 1,957 women members of the Federation of Small Businesses, with 577 of them within the Taunton postcode area," she explained.

"Some 20 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises are either run by women or are women-heavy.

"I want to focus especially on the growing surge in women running their own businesses, which, of course, puts them in control of their own pay.

"The Government must do all they can to enable and encourage those businesses to grow."

Ms Pow said the pay gap between men and women in her own constituency was "relatively small" at 11 per cent. "With the actions being taken by this Government, [this] is coming down all the time," she added.
But she said women were a key to driving the UK's economic success.

She urged ministers to do more to encourage girls to take up STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.

"Obviously, the more successful the economy, the more pay will rise and the more women will benefit," she said.

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