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Women around the world are celebrating International Women's Day and highlighting the struggle for social and political rights
Peace, justice and freedom
8 March is International Women’s Day. First marked in 1911, the day provides
a chance to highlight and promote the struggle for women’s social
and political rights, as well as being a time to celebrate womanhood.
As a trade union where 73% of the membership is female, UNISON is perfectly
positioned to understand the importance of this celebration, but it also
knows that further work is needed for women to achieve equal rights at
work and in the community.
And because of that high percentage of women members, UNISON’s priorities
for women reflect the union’s priorities as a whole.
The overarching theme of this year’s International Day is peace,
justice and freedom. In 2005, that could well read ‘freedom from
poverty’.
Poverty kills. According to Make Poverty History, 30,000 children die
as a result of extreme poverty every single day.
With the toll from HIV/AIDS expected to hit 28 million this year, women
around the world are hit particularly hard by the disease.
But women in the developing world suffer even more, particularly in sub-Saharan
Africa, where infection rates are at their most virulent. Services in
the region are not helped by nursing staff from the developing world moving
to countries like our own, where there are staff shortages.
For instance, the Ghanian government is committed to improving health
care, but is hindered by a rising shortage of health-care professionals,
while the UK has saved around £65m in training costs by recruiting
nurses who were trained in Ghana.
All these factors help to explain why, at the turn of the year, UNISON
hosted a conference in Johannesburg, attended by delegates from public-sector
unions in 13 southern African countries, to develop the trade-union approach
to fighting HIV/AIDS.
UNISON’s international work also includes working with other organisations
to defend the human rights of our Colombian colleagues and their struggle
for peace and justice, the most dangerous country in the world for trade
unionists of either sex.
But poverty is not just a problem facing women in the developing world.
It takes its toll in the UK too.
Just last week, Unicef, the children’s section of the UN, reported
that the UK still has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the
developed world, with more than 15% of families with children living on
less than half the UK average income.
Unicef noted that child poverty in Britain had fallen further and faster
than in any comparable nation in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD). Family and child-centred benefits and tax schemes
have helped to bring about a 10% reduction by 2001.
Indeed, the UK is on course to hit the target of cutting child poverty
by 25% by this year, said the survey, Child Poverty In Rich Countries.
But Unicef UK director David Bull noted: “Allowing the kind of poverty
that denies a child the opportunities that most children consider normal
is a breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,
an instrument to which almost all OECD members are committed.
“Making child poverty history is not just a mantra for the developing
world.”
Whenever child poverty is mentioned, women are invariably present.
UNISON is at the forefront of the struggle to end that poverty. For instance,
the union’s target of £6.50 for the national minimum wage
would help towards elminating low pay – a problem that particularly
affects women.
Just last month, UNISON welcomed a government announcement that the minimum
wage will rise from £4.85 per hour to £5.05 this autumn and
then to £5.35 next year. For 18-21 year olds, the rate will rise
from £4.10 to £4.25.
“This is good news for low-paid workers, mostly women and part-timers,
and shows that the minimum wage is moving in the right direction,”
said general secretary Dave Prentis.
“Rises in the minimum wage help close the large gender pay gap,
currently 18%, and that is one reason we need even bigger rises in the
future.”
Winning equal pay and eradicating the pay gap is another core priority
for the union; which has informed a variety of campaigns and negotiations
that UNISON hasbeen involved in, such as Agenda for Change, which will
provide a substantial boost to the lowest-paid workers in the NHS, many
of whom are women.
Pensions are yet one more area of major concern for women and the union.
UNISON wants to ensure pensions retain current benefits and are not devalued
It is campaigning with other organisations on the specific problems faced
by women in pensions.
For instance, low pay often means women cannot afford to pay into a scheme,
while career breaks and caring responsibilities mean broken contribution
records. All these things can lead to low pensions, poverty and dependence
on benefits.
Part-time workers still miss out on training and opportunities. There’s
plenty of evidence that pregnant women continue to be discriminated against,
and UNISON is committed to working for better maternity and paternity
pay to help families.
Poverty has many ramifications. It increases the difficulties faced by
women in abusive situations, for instance. It iss more difficult to move
out and find a new home if you can’t get a bank account because
you don’t have any income or because you’re employed in seasonal
work that doesn’t offer proper contracts.
But whatever the exact effect in each individual circumstance, poverty
destroys women’s lives. International Women’s Day is a good
opportunity to highlight that fact.
Story by Amanda Kendal
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QUOTES “It’s now more than 30 years since the Equal Pay Act
was introduced, but the gender pay gap and the glass ceilings remain. |
LOTS MORE FEATURESIncluding stress in the workplace, getting out of debt and the pensions crisis more... |
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