By Sue Ferns | 3 min
On 15 February Unions 21 will hold its first women’s networking breakfast.
Women’s networking events often provoke a question or two about whether they are still necessary ‘these days’.
Of course ‘these days’, one only has to look across the Atlantic to find a simple and very direct answer, and it is heartening to see the strength of solidarity in response to President Trump’s vicious misogyny.
But what about our in own trade union environment – do we still women’s networking?
Last year I was invited by an academic journal to write a personal perspective on changing gender roles since the Donovan Commission 50 years ago, and there’s no doubt that it was a very different world then.
Men outnumbered women in the workforce by a ratio of 1.7:1, whereas women now account for half of employees and a majority of trade union members. Today’s typical union member is a female professional or associate professional working in the public sector.
When I started my union career all of the TUC’s senior staff were male, as were the majority of union general secretaries and senior officials. Over the last 20 years, the trade union movement has been feminised at all levels. It took a mere 143 years to elect the TUC’s first female general secretary, but 29% of affiliated unions now also have female general secretaries.
So, thanks to the women who preceded us, we’ve made tremendous progress. However much more needs to be done.
I was particularly struck by the finding in last year’s ground-breaking TUC report on sexual harassment that only 1% of victims had reported their experience to a union rep. This tells us something really important about how the trade union movement still looks and feels to too many people, and in particular women working in male-dominated industries.
In my view a key priority is to develop the next generation of female activists into key branch positions and to support their succession, including into full time union roles. Women, like me, who already have the privilege to work for a union need to be part of the culture change that drives this change
Women’s networking events provide a space for these important conversations to happen and for ideas to take root.
Let’s face it, we need more ‘bloody difficult women’ but we need them to be women with our trade union values. These are values that need nurturing.
Men know this – they network all the time.
Sue Ferns is Deputy General Secretary of Prospect, and Chair of Unions21
