UNISON’s women’s conference re-opened this afternoon with stark look at the impact of COVID-19 on women.
Tania Earnshaw took the chair for the afternoon session (pictured above, right, with her fellow vice chair of the national women’s committee, Deborah Yapicioz), introducing a trio of debates on the issues.
Opening the first, Shazziah Rock from the West Midlands regional women’s committee detailed the added pressures that the pandemic has heaped onto women.
Never mind working from home, there has also been home schooling for children – of which “women carried the bulk” – care for elderly relatives, care of the home itself … and finally, “remembering to breathe”.
Pointing out that home working can have positive benefits for women, including reducing “the maternity penalty and presenteeism”, Ms Rock noted that, for this to work, there needs to be a change in attitudes among employers and new models of working.
On the second motion, Paulette White from City of Wolverhampton local government reiterated that “we, as women, have had to face the brunt of COVID”. There has been “cooking, cleaning teaching – and for some women, we have to look after our elderly parents, which can have a detrimental effect on our mental health”.
On the third of the trio, Sharon Foster for the national committee, detailed how young-to-middle-aged women are “disproportionately” affected by Long COVID, by four to one compared to men, and noted that too many women are being “pressured” into returning to work too early.
This plays to “age-old biases about woman and sickness”, she said, while employers are using unsuitable pre-pandemic rules to discipline women workers who are suffering from something that is a new condition.
Rosie MacGregor, for UNISON’s retired members, noted that the “the last two years have been challenging for everyone”, and reported how “one retired member told me about the stress and guilt that her daughter felt” at not being able to help or see her mother more during the lockdowns.
“Women are among the forgotten heroes of the pandemic,” she declared.
Among the actions that conference called for, it asked the national committee to:
- provide opportunities for women members to discuss their experiences of working from home, with a view to providing responses to the government’s proposed extension of flexible working rights;
- recognise the unequal burden on women as unpaid carers who have to balance this with paid work;
- work with groups across the union to help raise awareness of the disproportionate impact of Long COVID on women.
Vice chair Tania Earnshaw (third right) on the conference set
Away from the pandemic, Neelo Farr for the national disabled members’ committee, introduced a motion on violence against disabled women by saying that that group is “twice as likely to be victims of domestic violence” as non-disabled women, and find it harder to find help.
Eileen Best for the LGBT+ national committee stressed that all “marginalised women” are frequently left out of considerations of what services are needed when tackling domestic violence.
“Home and work issues cannot always be neatly kept apart,” she said, successfully urging that the motion also include “Black, LGBT+ and migrant women”.
Isla Watson, for the national young members group, told conference that, in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, “Amazon started to price-hike rape alarms”. The fear of violence against women “is now profitable”.
She called for UNISON to campaign for employers to become white-ribbon accredited, where they commit to creating workplaces that are safe for women.
Deborah Coyle from the Northern Ireland women’s committee highlighted the problem of police attitudes, by citing the example of Charing Cross Police Station, where misogyny and other forms of bigotry used by police toward those they are “meant to serve”.
And she concluded: “Misogyny must be recognised as the hate crime that it is.”