ACHIEVE ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE AND APPROPRIATE CHILDCARE FOR ALL – UNISON NORTHERN IRELAND

Conference notes that in Northern Ireland, women still bear the major role of unpaid primary carer for their children and that the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Executive has not developed a childcare strategy that delivers adequate, accessible and affordable childcare for all. Conference believes that access to affordable and appropriate childcare provision in Northern […]

Oppose the Rape Clause

Conference deplores the decision of the UK government to limit child tax credit to the first two children, claiming that it wanted “people on benefits to make the same choices as those supporting themselves solely through work”. Conference believes that the restriction of the child tax credit to the first two children is fundamentally wrong, […]

Misogyny is hate crime

Misogyny and hate crime is on the increase in society. In 2016 Nottinghamshire police were the first force to re-classify wolf whistling, cat calling and other misogynistic harassment as hate crime and handled 30 cases in 5 months. Following on from that 15 other police forces are now looking at following Nottinghamshire Police’s lead. In […]

Organising amongst Low Paid Women members

More than half of UNISONs women members meet the criteria in terms of being classed as low paid however these women are not always represented throughout our union structures. Women make up three quarters of the union’s membership yet this figure does not translate when looking at senior positions – 49% of Branch Secretaries are […]

Recognising Misogyny as a hate crime

Conference notes that Nottinghamshire Police, supported by Nottingham Women’s Centre made history in 2016 by becoming the first force in the country to recognise misogyny as a hate crime. The additional category applies to a range of incidents reported to the police, from street harassment through to physical intrusions on women’s space. This is defined […]

Removing Stigma of STEM subject study to increase female participation

According to statistics from Wise campaign research shows that at GCSE level engagement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects has a broadly similar gender split. At this level female students are achieving higher or equal average A*-C grades compared to males. In addition according to the Women’s Education Society, at A Level this […]

Sexist expectations about young women workers

This Conference believes that sexism in the workplace is still prevalent, despite being challenged by women organising against it predominantly through collective action. This Conference also believes that young women face double-discrimination through sexism and discrimination against them on grounds of age. This is manifested through bullying, harassment – and sexual harassment in particular. It […]

Getting young women involved

This Conference welcomes annual UNISON’s equality survey as a way of getting statistical information to support our equality bargaining agenda, and also organisational information. This Conference notes that this year 248 young women members responded to the survey questionnaire, approximately 4% of all women members that participated. This proportion is in line with their representation […]

Branch Women’s Officers

Conference notes with concern that in Rules G2.4.1 and Rule G4.1.1 Women’s officer is not listed as a general branch officer, meaning that some branches will not include this post in the list of positions that they seek to fill. Given that the majority of UNISON members are women, conference believes that the role of […]

Carers – The forgotten members

1 in 8 adults or 6.5 million people in the UK are carers according to carers UK with this figure set to rise to 9 million by 2037. Every day 6,000 people take on a caring role and 58% of the careers are women. In 2011, females were more likely to be unpaid carers than […]

Women and Automation

Women and Automation Conference notes that automation and digitisation of jobs is changing the nature, quality, and distribution of employment, not just within sectors such as manufacturing and distribution, but in the sphere of public services too. This means that there is a mistaken view that Automation affects jobs that are predominantly done by men. […]

Stop Porn Culture

The pornography industry has pushed its way into our lives, distorting our conceptions of sex and sexuality. Pornography offers people a vision of sexuality rooted in men’s domination of women and women’s acceptance of their own degradation. Pornography is not simply the sexist, naked Playboy photos from earlier times. Those pin-up-type centrefolds look tame when […]

Low Pay and Women in UNISON

UNISON’s principles of proportionality and fair representation means that some seats on elected bodies, including the NEC, are reserved for women and low-paid members, so that the make-up fairly represents the wider union. We have a variety of places where low paid seats exist, and low pay is included in branch delegations to national delegate […]

Femicide – not an isolated incident

The killing of a woman, especially in a domestic setting, is often reported as an ‘isolated incident with no further threat to the public’. Such descriptions dismiss the scale of the issue, and diminish the fact that gender-based violence is a society-wide issue. This conference applauds the work of Karen Ingala-Smith (Chief Executive of Nia […]