Labour promised women better, safer lives: a year on, we decode the small wins and biggest let downs

Cosmopolitan

04-07-2025

This time last year, there was a buzz in the air: a cautious sense of optimism that crept in as we all headed to our local polling stations to vote in the general election. A vibe shift suggested that after fourteen years of having a Conservative government, we were close to seeing changes for the better. Finally, we all said, there'll be an end to austerity and insane energy bills, no more money being wasted on pointless contracts for friends of the party (Michelle Mone's £200m PPE scandal, here's looking at you), a party in power who actually cares. How novel!
On 5 July 2025, it was confirmed. Enter: Keir Starmer's Labour party to 10 Downing Street, primed to save the day.
For women, there was also Labour's key promise that male violence against women and girls (MVAWG) would finally be on the agenda and taken seriously. In its 142-page manifesto, the party pledged to halve MVAWG within ten years by using 'every tool at its disposal', from fast-tracking rape cases through specialist courts to targeting the most horrific perpetrators of sexual offences by 'using tactics normally reserved for terrorists and organised crime'.
Elsewhere, the manifesto made plain it would tackle stalking – a crime which, despite impacting roughly one in five women and often being a precursor to other offences, is not always taken seriously – and to address misogyny in schools, after a worrying uptick of concerning behaviour. More affordable childcare options and rooting out the misogyny within the police was also tabled.
A year on, when I think back to last summer, and watching the live coverage of votes being tallied and feeling so stupidly hopeful, it all feels like a fever dream. It's hard to muster up that same feeling of optimism in many ways and now, whenever I see Keir Starmer or senior members of the Labour party pop up, the only thing that really comes to mind is the iconic meme of Tyra Banks shouting, 'We were all rooting for you, Tiffany!' to an America's Next Top Model contestant who, in her eyes, simply didn't deliver as expected.
We're 365 days down, with a (most likely) further four years to go before another general election is called. So, have Labour actually made any progress when it comes to making the lives of women and girls better? Perhaps the data isn't as bad as it feels?
We took a deep-dive, with the help of the Fawcett Society, into the key promises for women and girls… and the progress made (or lack thereof) one year on.
Progress: The Fawcett Society has questioned how the metric of 'halving violence against women and girls within a decade' can actually be efficiently measured, but said it's encouraging to hear the Home Office is piloting specialists in 999 rooms in London, Manchester, West Midlands and South Yorkshire. Progress, albeit slow.
In London, the Met Police has launched its V100 programme, using new data-driven methods to track down the worst 100 offenders who've committed violence against women and girls. The force claims it has more than doubled arrests and charges for rape and serious sexual offences, but these numbers are still abysmally low compared to the number of reports received.
Given that the worrying stats around VAWG, including that 2 million women each year experience domestic abuse and three women are murdered a week, have not changed in decades, it's clear Labour has a lot more work to be doing in this space.
Domestic abuse wasn't mentioned in the Spending Review at all and women's centres and support services are crying out for urgent funding.
Progress: In recent years, 1,300 police officers (that we know of) have been arrested for domestic abuse. Refuge is calling for automatic suspension, but that hasn't happened yet.
Ellie Butt, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Refuge, told Cosmopolitan UK, "Women's confidence in the justice system is currently at a crisis point and we continue to see abuse perpetrated by police officers themselves.
"Following on from Refuge's 'Remove the Rot' campaign, which exposed the shocking magnitude of police forces' failure to tackle misogyny and police-perpetrated VAWG, Labour committed to the suspension of all officers accused of domestic abuse or sexual offences pending an investigation. The government must make good on this pledge as a matter of urgency. We keenly await further details of plans to improve police vetting."
Progress: As well as Keir Starmer calling for Adolescence to be shown in schools, RHSE guidance is being updated to include lessons tackling misogyny – but again, it all leads back to money. There's little in terms of funding or a national push for change that has been announced, and it's no secret teachers are exiting the profession in droves.
Progress: AI is being utilised across the board to demean, punish and scare women – for example 'nudify' apps, deepfake porn and e-pimps using AI to scan social media accounts to coerce young women into Only Fans are all big problems. Ones that the government is having a hard time holding the relevant platforms to account over.
Labour inherited the Online Safety Bill (2023) – and both the party's manifesto and the Bill already are out of date. It fails to deal with the threat of AI against women head-on and legislators across the world (UK included) are struggling to keep up with the technological advancements and its misogynistic manifestations.
It often feels like powerful social media companies can easily shirk responsibilities when it comes to regulating harmful content and behaviours, and that they're reluctant to properly address the issues. After all, shocking content equals better engagement for them which drives revenue. It's a whole mess.
Elsewhere, as part of the Crime and Policing Bill, violent choking scenes depicted in porn are set to be outlawed.
Progress: For working mums, having more free childcare is a no-brainer and helps to keep women in work after starting a family, which would shrink the gender pay gap.
So far, 300 primary schools have been granted funding (£150,000 per school) to expand by building a nursery on-site, which it's hoped will lead to 4,000 more available places by September 2025. It seems progress is being made (but again… slowly). But ask anyone with a kid in nursery about the astronomical fees – it costs £14,000 on average to send a child to nursery per year – which don't seem to be coming down, and it's clear there's still so much that needs to be done in this space.
In fact, not all parents are even eligible for the 30 free hours of childcare that the government has offered: women who are in education/training, who work under 16 hours, and who have no recourse to public funds are still cut off from free childcare entirely – which has a serious impact on social mobility and economic growth.
Working mums know the struggle of the juggle – and how hard it can be finding a job that allows them to drop their children to school and get to work on time. Expanding childcare offerings within a school setting, such as with breakfast clubs, could help reduce the 'motherhood penalty' which is a big factor in the gender pay gap.
Progress: The Department of Education has begun a roll out of 750 'early adopter' schools, providing spaces for 180,000 children. Government data shows half of working parents will use this breakfast club provision to improve their working patterns.
Seeing as the UK has the worst paternity leave in Europe (something that has hit headlines again this past week), levelling up the playing field is needed. There are links between post-partum depression and a lack of support post-birth for mothers, which could be alleviated if fathers had a better leave system.
Progress: An 18-month review into parental leave has just begun, but it'll take a while for results to trickle in – and even longer for action and changes to be implemented.
'We have long called for a review of parental leave and it's great that the government is doing just that, but we really hope that this will move at pace otherwise women will continue to lose out,' Penny East, Fawcett Society's Chief Executive, told Cosmopolitan UK. 'Progress on equality doesn't just happen; it's won and we need to give credit where it's due, while also holding the government to account.'
Progress: A new investigation into the worrying state of maternity care (half of all maternity units in England and Wales are deemed unsafe) has just been launched, with findings from the review set to be published in December 2025.
While a 'men's health strategy' consultation launched in April 2025, the Conservative-inherited women's health strategy hasn't been given much public attention – Cosmopolitan UK reported earlier this year that experts have expressed concerns that women's health is actively being deprioritised.
Progress: Discrimination at work is prevalent; 54,000 of us lose our jobs while on maternity leave every year and half of women have experienced sexual harassment at work – this cannot be allowed to continue. Oh, and the gender pay gap actually grew last year for the first time since 2013.
While the Employment Rights Bill began its journey through Parliament within three months of Labour taking office, it's no silver bullet. Yes, the Bill promises greater support for women in work – for example providing protections from day one, and ensuring all employers need to provide an alternative role to women who are made redundant on maternity leave – but it still means employers can easily reject requests for flexible working patterns.
The Labour manifesto also promised enforcement agencies would ensure employers adhere to the new workers' rights; however, the recent Spending Review in June 2025 did not set out any funding for this, making alarm bells ring in the women's sector. Without this, employers will continue to escape their legal duties to improve rights for workers.
Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC's Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women's Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.