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The start of this week witnessed two significant milestones on equality – one was Labour’s Equality Act coming into law and the other the opening of the film ‘Made in Dagenham’ depicting the Ford sewing machinists’ struggle for equal pay in 1968. The campaign by the women union members led directly to Barbara Castle bringing in the 1970 Equal Pay Act, which now forms a part of the new Equality Act.
Yes, there still remains much to fight for, particularly to secure the mechanisms to finally achieve equal pay in practice not just principle. However, we recognise that women workers have come a long way since 1968, in terms of the legislative and consequently cultural shift that has taken place.
But the progress and position of women in work and the wider world faces a real threat right now. The nature of the ConDem cuts means that they will hit women and more specifically, women workers hardest. George Osborne’s ‘emergency budget’ unveiled initial cuts in public spending worth £19 billion to be made through changes to the tax and welfare system. The House of Commons library did a gender audit of the budget, which revealed that 72 per cent of the savings outlined will come from taking money out of women’s purses. This is largely down to the fact that many of the ‘benefits’ being scaled back or scrapped are those that, traditionally, more women than men rely on – Sure Start Maternity Grant, child benefit, tax credits and the health in pregnancy grant.
Both Nick Clegg and David Cameron seem to be of the view that support such as tax credits, carers allowance and child benefit make people dependent, but as Yvette Cooper made clear in her speech to Labour Party Conference last week, the opposite is true. This support helps mums with childcare so they are able to go out to work. It helps daughters look after their elderly parents. Without it many women would find it a greater struggle to juggle the pressures of work and family life.
Yet this strike at women goes on. The reality of the detrimental and devastating impact of the budget on women workers will be far worse as the House of Commons analysis did not take into account the effect of the public sector pay freeze. The budget announced a two year freeze in public sector pay, except for those earning below £21,000. Women make up around 65 per cent of the public sector workforce so, therefore will be hit hardest once again.
This is before this month’s Comprehensive Spending Review, which is expected to set out a further £40 billion worth of spending cuts per year by 2014 -15. With jobs losses in the public sector being a predicted outcome of the review, there is justified and deep concern that this could additionally have a disproportionate effect on women workers.
We cannot let the ConDem government roll back all that has and can be achieved for women in the workplace. Overall, the UK workforce is made up from approximately 13.6 million women and 15.6 million men. Today, around 70 percent of women aged 16-59 work outside the home, compared to 56 percent in 1971, and this includes a majority of mothers with children under 16
Women did not cause the financial crisis and should not overly bear the brunt of it. In actuality, as an aside, if women were paid more fairly, they would also pay more tax and spend more therefore boosting the UK economy as a consequence. Indeed, there is an economic case for fairness.
Fairness needs to be at the heart of the recovery. A recovery that is based on a programme of economic growth through investment for the country’s future not cuts. A programme that emphasises skills training, education and support that ensure those with responsibilities outside of the workplace are able to fulfil their potential in work and receive decent pay and opportunities in return. The only road out of the recession is one that looks to a long term future of fairness not short term fixes that hit people unduly and unjustly.
Hannah Blythyn is a Political Officer at Unite. This article was also published on LabourList
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