Advances need to be built on

(18/02/08) Ninety years after the first women in the UK won the vote, there's no room for complacency.

That was the message from a vibrant UNISON national women's conference, which ended on Saturday.

Women trade unionists from across the UK met in Harrogate to debate a wide range of issues of importance to working women, including discrimination at work and pensions.

Despite progress towards equality, there is still widespread discrimination against women in all walks of life, conference said: in the workplace, in the criminal justice system, and in the media, to name but a few areas in which women are consistently treated unfairly.

Black women face even greater barriers to equality, conference noted. It called on UNISON to campaign to challenge a situation where Caribbean, Bangladeshi and Pakistani women find it harder to get a job than their white counterparts, and where higher qualifications do not translate into higher pay or senior-level jobs.

Three quarters of UNISON members are women and the union, more than any other, enshrines equality. But it's not resting on its laurels, delegates were told. They were introduced to the union's own equality scheme, which recognises that although UNISON leads the way in challenging discrimination and promoting equality, it can go further still and do more.

Conference was also updated on UNISON's fight to close the gender pay gap, which has seen the union launch a record 33,000 equal pay claims.

Delegates welcomed the news that the Equality and Human Rights Commission is supporting UNISON's bid to ensure that women who reduce their hours are not penalised in pursuing equal pay claims. And they heard how UNISON is campaigning for new tougher laws on procurement for private companies tendering to take over public services.

UNISON president Norma Stephenson pledged the union would continue to campaign and use the full weight of the law to achieve equality for women.

She told conference she began her term mid-way through the year in which the gender equality duty was launched. Heralded as the biggest change in sex discrimination legislation in 30 years, the duty is intended to ensure workplaces don't just pay lip service to equal rights, but follow through.

"We want workplaces where we are not tolerated, or patronised, but respected and valued, regardless of our gender," Ms Stephenson said. And she urged delegates to encourage more women to become active in the union, to ensure their voices are heard.

This year is the 80th anniversary of universal suffrage. Conference agreed it was vital that women use their vote. However it raised concerns over their underrepresentation in public life, calling on UNISON to work with the relevant union structures and organisations such as the Fawcett Society to spot and nurture talent, train and support women to stand for office as school governors, magistrates, local body councillors and MPs.

Other issues on the agenda included gun crime, abortion rights, maternal mortality, penal reform and violence against women, which conference noted had become all too commonplace in the UK.

One courageous delegate spoke of her own horrific history - subjected to 26 years of physical and mental abuse at the hands of her violent husband, she was beaten, raped, stabbed, spat upon and forced to stand naked in corridors.

Yet the UK still has no legal definition of domestic abuse. Conference reiterated last year's call for one as a matter of urgency.

While delegates applauded the law lords for their landmark ruling over compensation claims in rape cases, they condemned the lack of funding for rape crisis centres that has forced many to close.

Conference also singled out Scotland's antiquated rape laws for criticism. They are urgently in need of reform. The conviction rate in Scotland has dropped to a record low of 3.9%, while figures reveal fewer than 6% of women who seek counselling for rape report the crime to the police.

Agreeing the system is failing women, conference urged women to take to the streets to protest, in Reclaim the Night marches throughout the UK and the Million Women Rise march in London on 8 March, to mark International Women's Day.

Women in UNISON

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