Caroline is urging parliamentarians to join her in putting pressure on the government to change ‘sexist’ marriage certificates.
At present marriage certificates contain space for the name and profession of the father of the bride and groom – while mothers are excluded. Last year David Cameron accepted the need to change, yet there has been no action so far from his Government [1].
Lucas has tabled an Early Day Motion in Parliament this week calling for the Prime Minister to honour his pledge. [2] The motion is signed by MPs from across the House of Commons.
Lucas said:
“The Government must act now to correct the blatant sexism of only having fathers’ details on marriage certificates.
“The Prime Minister has accepted that marriage certificates are discriminatory – yet his Government has been unforgivably slow to act on this issue. It’s high time we end this institutional inequality and update marriage certificates to be fit for modern society.”
Members of the public are also using social media to put pressure on the Government to change marriage certificates. Using the hashtag #MothersOnMarriageCerts people are calling on Ministers to be true to their word by urgently put mothers names on marriage certificates.
ENDS
Contact: Matthew Butcher on 07885 459 904 or clucasmedia@parliament.uk
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/11858508/Government-fail-British-mothers-still-not-on-marriage-certificates.html Last year Cameron said:
“The content of marriage registers in England and Wales has not changed since the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign.
“At the moment, they require details of the couples’ fathers, but not their mothers. This clearly doesn’t reflect modern Britain - and it’s high time the system was updated.
“So I have asked the Home Office to look at how we can address this.”
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