The Socialist 8 March 2002 [Home]
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International Women's Day
|
8 MARCH is international women's day.
It's a day which commemorates women's struggles
against discrimination and exploitation and for a better
world.
Katrine Williams, a benefit worker and member of
the civil service union PCS, looks at some of the problems women
still face both in and out of the workplace and explains why women
need to fight for socialism.
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Fighting Back In The Workplace
THE PUBLIC sector has often been seen as a good place to work for
women. The perception has been of a job with security, good conditions
with equal opportunities policies in place and part-time and part-year
working available as well as flexi-time available in the civil service.
The majority of the workforce in the civil service tend to be women but
this is overwhelmingly in the lower grades. Despite good equal
opportunities policies this does not always become reality on the ground.
With the cuts in the welfare state started by the Tories but continued
with vigour by New Labour the pressure on the workforce is reaching
breaking point.
Sickness absence policies are in place to make the person feel guilty
for not coming into work when sick and the rules have become far harsher
with regard to getting rid of an individual on inefficiency grounds.
Many members are trying to keep the welfare state and the benefit
system going by pushing themselves in work and not taking breaks, cutting
their lunch hour short to try to make sure that the public they support
have money.
They try to square the circle of providing a service that does not have
enough staff or the means to do the job well.
Staff are well aware of the pressures on women claiming benefit. Many
delivering benefits are on Working Families Tax Credit themselves and are
struggling to raise a family on low pay.
Instances of RSI and stress are on the increase as working conditions
are so pressurised.
The threat of privatisation hangs over people's heads and the jobs
don't feel secure any more especially with the constant change and
upheaval.
However the one advantage in the public sector is that we are well
organised and have a high percentage of union membership. With all the
changes, women who previously have not been involved are rushing to join
the union and there is more interest in getting active.
Women won't take all the cuts lying down and will fight changes with as
much vigour as ministers who want to introduce the cuts.
What's Socialism got to do with it?
SOCIALISM IS about democratically planning society so that people's
needs are met rather than profits being made for the few at our expense.
We cannot have real equality until we end this system based on
exploiter and exploited.
There are enough resources in society to meet the needs of the world's
population but they need to be owned, controlled and organised
collectively for the good of all.
The technology exists now to release us from the workplace making our
jobs easier and shortening the working week but instead under capitalism
technology enslaves us and we have to work longer hours under more
pressure whilst there is an army of people unable to get work.
After work women still bear the majority of the burden of household
tasks. It is a complete waste of time for each household to individually
shop, cook, clean, do washing and all the caring responsibilities of
children, relatives, and the sick.
These are things that could be socially provided and become the
responsibility of society.
By reducing the working week we would have time to make decisions about
what is needed in our communities and society as a whole.
Being able to eat in good quality restaurants in the evenings is far
easier and more social than preparing a meal in each household. There is
no reason why most of the household burden could not be provided
collectively, giving us even more time to enjoy life.
Healthcare would concentrate on improving and lengthening people's
lives with preventative medicine rather than picking up the pieces when we
become ill. The quality of food we eat and the environment we live in
would be paramount.
Women would have a real choice in what we do. If we chose to have
children and want to remain with them to bring them up that would be
valued but there would also be quality childcare and education provided
whenever needed.
Bringing up the next generation would be a vital responsibility of
society as a whole and valued as such. Relationships would be free from
economic pressures and the intolerable strain capitalist society places on
them. There would also be no pressure to remain in a relationship that has
ended.
Women make up 50% of the world's workforce and if you take into account
the unpaid work in the home we do two-thirds of the world's work for
one-tenth of the income.
So women have even more to gain from fighting to change this system
that perpetuates our treatment as second class citizens and create a world
based on cooperation and respect, free from poverty, war, violence and
environmental destruction.
Providing A Service On The Cheap
ALTHOUGH 70% of single parents on Income Support want to find work, the
government is introducing draconian measures to push claimants into any
job however unsuitable.
The propaganda is going out that this is a helping hand to single
parents and puts the onus on the individual to "help
themselves."
But the government only has to look at other countries with higher
rates of single parents working to see the need to put in place facilities
that support women to work.
Childcare is inordinately expensive and generally out of reach of women
working on the minimum wage. Publicly funded good quality childcare needs
to be available to all and employers need to be obliged not to
discriminate against women, especially those with caring responsibilities.
The government is pushing the principle of "work first " for
all claimants under 60 with the new agency Jobcentre Plus from April. But
escaping the poverty trap is the major worry for people. Many women end up
being worse off going to work than on benefit.
The minimum wage is set at a low level that does not allow you to
escape the poverty trap. And despite the small help with the run-ons,
paying benefit for a few more weeks, you are faced with high rent bills,
council tax, and water rate demands. Even council rents are at a high
level now which forms another barrier to being able to afford to work.
The government also forgets in all its propaganda that women on benefit
are providing a service on the cheap that should be provided by the
welfare state. They are bringing up the next generation, often caring for
children or other relatives with a disability.
Any support has to be fought for tooth and nail from a welfare system
cracking at the seams and social services only able to provide limited
help to the minority of cases.
Women are used to fighting for what they need in the community and want
a better future, so will be an unstoppable force when they realise there
is a real alternative to this system which can provide for everyone's need
- socialism
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