International Women’s Day 8 March
Fight for women’s REAL right to choose
We are constantly told by the mainstream media that girls are
outperforming boys at school and that young women now have more
opportunities and choice than women of previous generations.
New Labour tell us that we need ‘reforms’ in our services in
order to endorse ‘choice’ for women. But what choice do women and young
women in particular, really have in today’s society?
Zena Awad, national coordinator of Socialist Students, writes.
Education, work and benefits
‘Right’ to Education
Fees, means-testing for a grant and student debt estimated at £26,000
have made it increasingly difficult for working-class people to go to
university. Applications have dropped as a result and two-thirds of
students now have to work during their degrees.
These attacks disproportionately affect women who are paid less than
their male counterparts. They often enter part-time work because of
family responsibilities and therefore take longer to pay back top-up
fees and student debt.
It could take a woman with two children twenty years to pay off her
student debt, five more years than male colleagues with the same
qualifications and job. This is only providing she manages to secure a
position with an annual wage of £36,000!
Female students are also less likely to enter subjects like finance,
computer science or engineering – subjects linked to some of the highest
paid jobs in Britain today. Female dominated courses are often seen as
non-profitable for big business and do not attract private funding,
which is the new funding system under New Labour.
Women with children also find it next to impossible to enter higher
education. Universities don’t always provide childcare that covers all
the hours needed by parents.
This hardship is worse during school holidays, where student parents
are expected to study and sometimes work as a result of cuts in benefits
and grants. Universities find millions of pounds however to fund schemes
increasing their prestige on the market and attracting private
investment.
No to top-up fees and student loans. Free education and a living
grant for all students.
Free, quality childcare for students which covers all the hours
parents need, including holidays.
‘Right’ to Work
Women working full time earn on average £559 a month less than men,
according to the Equal Opportunities Commission. The government’s Women
and Work Commission put the average gender pay gap for full-time workers
at 17%. Female graduate average income is 37.8% less than that of male
graduates.
Despite the fact that on paper it is illegal to discriminate against
female workers, only one-third of large workplaces have completed an
equality review, and now New Labour are refusing to make these
compulsory.
Firms are being let off the hook on equal pay by the government which
stands for big business interests while hypocritically claiming to
provide more ‘choice’ for women.
Women are more likely than men to live in poverty. Almost half of all
women in Britain have total individual incomes of less than £100 a week
compared to a fifth of men. Taking time out of work to bring up
children, the concentration of women in low paid work and the gap
between women’s and men’s average earnings all contribute to this.
‘Right’ to childcare
Despite New Labour’s claims to be improving childcare, we still have
one of the worst provision in Europe. One childcare place is closing for
every two that open. According to the Daycare Trust, the typical
full-time cost for a child under the age of two is £134 a week, but
costs are much higher in London and the southeast. With 60% of mothers
with a child aged under five now in employment, professional childcare
is an option only for a minority.
The most common type of childcare is close relatives. Even with tax
credit, families on low income have to find 30% of the cost of
childcare. Three million children live in families where there is no
working adult but only 20,000 of them access childcare funded by their
local authority.
‘Right not to work’
New Labour’s strategy is focused on getting women, especially lone
parents into the workplace. But for many lone parents, work is not an
option. This could be because of ill-health, disability, the absence of
affordable childcare or the poverty trap which means they are no better
off, and sometimes worse off in work.
Women (and men) should have the right to stay at home and look after
children if they choose and to do so free from poverty.
- A minimum wage of £8 an hour.
- A minimum income linked to the minimum wage for carers, students,
pensioners and all those unable to work. - A network of good-quality, flexible, publicly funded and provided
childcare that is free and accessible to all parents who want it. - A shorter working week with no loss of pay.
- Fully funded maternity and paternity leave and child benefits that
reflect the real cost of bringing up children.
Reproductive rights
Privatisation of the NHS will affect women’s health, especially in
areas such as maternity and sexual health. Sexual health services are
already under-funded with people having to wait weeks for an
appointment.
Legally we are supposed to have the right to an abortion. But a woman
needs the authorisation of two doctors which can result in delays.
Because of cuts and delays in the NHS, many women are forced to pay for
an abortion privately.
We need free abortions to be available on request through the NHS
with support given to women to allow real choice to be made in relation
to our bodies. Abortions should be obtainable as quickly and as safely
as possible and counselling should be available before and after.
We also need quality sex and relationship education provided at
school and free and easy access to means of contraception and the
morning after pill. There should be investment in scientific research
into the causes of infertility as well as into ways of preventing and
dealing with such health issues. Treatments like IVF should be available
on request on the NHS.
The government cutbacks adversely affect women’s right to choose
whether and/or when to have children. Free, quality childcare, decent
maternity and working rights, affordable, quality housing and social
services, and benefits which reflect the real cost of bringing up
children would offer real choice to women.
- A fully funded, publicly financed and provided NHS, free at the point
of use and under democratic control. - Defence and extension of abortion rights.
- Young women and men to have access to adequate advice regarding
contraception and sexual relations. - The right to fertility treatment on the NHS.
- A massive increase in public spending on childcare, housing and
services needed to help bring up children.
‘Rights’ in society and in relationships
Sexism
Working-class women, including students, can find themselves victims
of the sex industry which is exploiting this impoverished and oppressed
layer in society and objectifying their bodies. ‘Escort jobs’ have been
advertised in local students unions putting female students at even
higher risk of sexual harassment and rape.
These problems are made even worse by students unions who use sexist
advertising and promote events such as beauty contests and ‘Pimps &
Prostitutes’ nights to sell more alcohol.
This is despite the fact that NUS boasts about its ‘pro-choice’
policy for women and the ‘place of a woman being in education and a
trade union.’
Three-quarters of female students do not feel safe walking on their
campus after dark. Yet with lack of adequate reasonable priced
transport, many students are forced to walk in areas where they feel
unsafe.
The images presented of women are promoting sexist attitudes,
reinforcing the objectification of women, portraying us and our bodies
as commodities for the ‘free’ market and contributing to the overall
oppression of women, including violence against women.
The ‘right’ to choose what to wear
Stereotypes as to how women should look and dress are to the direct
benefit of big business. All mainstream sources of information,
especially the media, promote the latest appearance and diet trend which
often targets women and as a result boosts the enormous profits of the
diet and beauty industries.
This is contributing to health problems, both physical and
psychological, with 85% of women worrying about their bodies every day,
only 1% of young women being completely satisfied with their bodies and
many experiencing eating disorders.
Women should have the right to wear what they choose, whether this is
wearing the latest fashionable dress or a hoodie. Women who want to
should have the right to wear the hijab (veil) or not. While on the one
hand, we are told that women now have ‘choice’ and are sexually
‘liberated’, we are also told what to wear, how to look, and to accept
sexism, discrimination and oppression.
Violence against women
Violence towards women especially from abusive partners is still a
big issue.
A recent TUC poll found that 51% of those polled had experienced
domestic violence of which 92% were women.
Young women between the ages of 16 and 25 are the most likely to
experience domestic violence
New Labour have made some changes to the law and and to procedures
relating to domestic violence. But at the same time, council housing and
services are being cut back and privatised, denying women the material
resources needed to leave a violent relationship.
- No to sexism on university campuses, schools, colleges, at work and
in society generally. - More public funding for facilities and services for women who are
experiencing or have experienced domestic violence or rape. - A fully funded and democratically planned safe public transport
system.
Why women need socialism
Women in struggle
The vast majority of women today, no matter what part of the world
they live in, are hit hardest by the neo-liberal profit-driven and
brutal attacks against the working class as a whole. These attacks
especially affect women in the neo-colonial world.
Still, even in the most advanced capitalist power in the world, the
United States, women’s rights have been under attack as George Bush has
leaned on the Christian right who want to end a woman’s right to
abortion.
But women have fought back – the ‘Million Women’ march in April 2004
was the biggest ever women’s rights demonstration in the USA.
It was through collective struggles that women won the right to vote,
to – at least on paper – be legally entitled to equal pay, and for the
right to have an abortion. Women’s right to choose cannot be demanded on
an individual level nor can it be achieved in abstract terms. This has
to be directly linked to the material conditions on the ground and to
what is on offer in society.
Real change to women’s lives is inextricably linked to change in the
economic and social conditions for the whole of the working class.
Working class women experience double oppression based on gender and
class and it is in the interest of all workers to fight this. Sexism and
discrimination divide workers and cut across the unity and solidarity
needed for a successful struggle for real equality and liberation.
Political representation
With three mainstream anti-working-class parties women do not have a
choice of political representation. Whatever the gender of ministers
they attack our rights.
The British education minister, Ruth Kelly, has viciously attacked
the working class, especially the right of young working-class women to
a decent education.
What is needed is genuine working class representation and
accountability. What we need is a new mass workers’ party that can unite
women and men around a programme to fight the attacks on the working
class as a whole and which puts issues affecting working-class women at
the top of its agenda.
Change the system
The oppression of women by its nature divides working men and women
in their constant struggle for a better life and it is therefore crucial
to overcome this divide for a joint workers struggle. Similarly, it is
through unity of men and women that it is possible to change the way
that society is run – a necessary development to end discrimination and
achieve real equality.
Capitalism is a system based on inequality of power and wealth. It
was with the rise of society divided into classes that the oppression of
women developed. We need a completely different way of organising
society. We need a social and economic system where services are
provided and production is planned to meet the needs of all, rather than
profits of the few.
We need to democratically control the decisions which affect our
lives and the lives of our families on a day-to-day basis – we need
socialism.
Democratic public ownership of resources which are controlled and
managed by workers’ and in the communities would mean everyone having
access to a decent job, housing, education, health and other services.
Moreover, with co-operation and enhancement of talents, REAL choice
and equality can flourish and we can put an end to poverty, oppression
and all forms of discrimination, and finally witness the REAL
emancipation of women.
Women and work report
A ‘missed opportunity’ says union
BRITAIN’S MAIN civil service union, the Public and Commercial
Services Union (PCS) has called the forty or so recommendations of the
Women and Work Commission’s report Shaping A Fairer Future, a "missed
opportunity".
The union said the report’s recommendations. published on 27
February, did not go anywhere near far enough in addressing
discrimination in pay for women workers.
More particularly, it pointed to a gender pay gap in the civil
service that stands at a staggering 25%, that’s 8% above that in the
rest of the economy. It said the government needs to get its own house
in order by dealing with the scandal of pay inequality in the civil
service!
Janice Godrich is PCS president and also a member of the Socialist
Party’s sister group in Scotland. She said:
"There is a real sense of disappointment that the commission hasn’t
recommended compulsory equal pay audits."Whilst some of the report’s recommendations are welcome, they simply
don’t go far enough in addressing the scandal of pay inequality. If
achieving equality at work is a legitimate social aim, as the government
agrees it is, then all avenues open to society to achieve this,
including legalisation, should be utilised."Half-measures don’t fill a cup. Tinkering around the edges by
offering better career advice, training and more flexible working is all
well and good, but it has to be backed up by affirmative action such as
equal pay reviews if the pay gap is to be properly addressed."
As Janice Godrich told the socialist:
"This weak report is just another example of New Labour putting the
interests of big business before those of ordinary workers."
Reports on campaigns to defend women’s rights all over the world are
on the website of the Committee for a Workers’ International:
www.socialistworld.net
Fighting for Women’s Rights and Socialism £2.50 including postage
Available from Socialist Books, PO Box 24697, London, E11 1YD, or
phone 020 8988 8789. email: [email protected]
Leaflets on women’s’ rights from Socialist Students and the Socialist
Party are also available.
