How we organise

Women must be able to participate fully in union activities and decision-making. We can only achieve our goal of promoting equality at work, in the community, in public services and in the union itself through active organisation to break down the barriers.

Women's self-organisation
There are women's self-organised structures at national, regional and local level in UNISON.

In these groups, women meet to discuss their particular concerns and develop proposals for promoting equality to feed into the wider structures. Women in these groups also provide valuable support and encouragement to each other.

Branch organisation
At local level, many branches have women's self-organised groups. They provide a forum for women to meet and discuss issues of concern and provide advice to branches on promoting women's equality at work and in the union. Ask your branch secretary for information.

For information and advice about setting up a branch women's group, contact your regional women's officer.

Regional organisation
Each region also has a women's group, which meets on a regular basis to develop policies to promote equality and encourage women's participation at regional and branch level. Many of these groups will organise training and other events open to all women in the region. Many produce regular newsletters for women.

Read a list of the regional women's officers at:

www.unison.org.uk/women/pages_view.asp?did=103

National organisation
At national level, the national women's committee has representatives from each region, plus representatives from the LGBT, disabled and black members groups and from the national executive council. There is also an annual national women's conference which sets the agenda for the women's committee.

Proportionality for women
UNISON is committed to achieving fair representation for women at all levels in the union.

To achieve this, the rulebook requires all elected bodies to achieve proportionality for women. This means women should be represented on the various UNISON committees and structures at least in proportion to the percentage of women in membership. Because women make up over two thirds of our national membership, at least two thirds of the members of the national executive council will be women.

Positive action
This commitment means we have to take positive action to break down the barriers that excluded women from participation in the past. Strategies to achieve proportionality include:

The election process for many committees ensures a proportional number of women are elected eg national executive council and regional committees

Women-only training and education

Provision for childcare and dependent care for those attending meetings and conferences

Women's self-organised groups play a key role in developing strategies to promote proportionality and fair representation. For advice on strategies to achieve proportionality, contact your regional women's officer.

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