Terry Conway looks at the crucial role women have to play in the movement against austerity today.
Cuts, privatisation and austerity hit women hardest. We were at the bottom of the pile at the beginning of the crisis as a result of both discrimination in the labour market and because of the role we play in the family; taking the majority of responsibility for caring, cooking and cleaning. The attacks that have followed, particularly since this Con-Dem government took office, have made the burden on women even greater.
We are the majority of those who have lost jobs as a result of the cuts. In their report on the autumn financial statement, the Women’s Budget Group (here) pointed out that women’s unemployment was then at 7.7 per cent, the highest level since 1994, with a dramatic increase for women over 50.
We are 65% of workers in the public sector. Data from the GMB union shows that women make up two-thirds of those who have lost their jobs in councils and schools since May 2010, and that in 19 English local authorities, women accounted for 100% the jobs that were lost.
More of us have been forced into part time work. There are 1.7 million under-employed women workers, they make up 52% of all under-employed workers. Since 2008, the number of underemployed women workers has risen by 495,000.
The proportion of female part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs is also rising. It passed 13% (from a previous peak of 8%) in November 2011 for the first time since the figures were first recorded in 1992.
We also depend more on the services that are disappearing because of cuts – or are being privatised. From Sure start – where a quarter of the budget has been cut – to home helps, from the bedroom tax to the loss of Disability Living Allowance and all the attacks on the NHS, women are at the sharp end. £5.6 has been axed from violence against women services.
The House of Commons library estimates that the cumulative impact of all the income tax, tax credit and social security measures, from the June budget of 2010, to the December 2012 Autumn Financial Statement, is that 24 % of the money raised comes from the pockets of men and 74% from the pockets of women.
Some of the changes to benefits and allowances only affect women. Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance will rise by just 1% over the next three years, far lower than living costs. This amounts a loss of £180 in statutory payments for every new mother.
The government has already abolished the Health in Pregnancy Grant, a
payment to all mothers in the later stages of pregnancy, and restricted the
Sure Start Maternity Grant for low-come parents to first babies or multiple
births. The cumulative loss of benefits and reductions in maternity payments 11
leave women with up to £911.87 less during pregnancy and maternity
leave.
And most of the changes introduced by this reactionary government hit the poorest hardest – and this in itself affects women worst – even where the changes are not consciously directed at us.
Childcare places are also becoming more expensive, both at source and because of the reduction in what can be claimed through working tax credit. At the same time childcare places during school holidays are becoming scarcer as a result of local authority cuts.
And mostly it will be women who are expected to increase our (unpaid) working day if our communities and trade unions cannot beat back those attacks. In other cases women are forced to give up their jobs or to take less secure ones with worse conditions in order to meet caring responsibilities.
Not surprisingly then, women are also at the forefront of resistance in Britain and internationally. Many young women came onto the streets leading the student protests in 2010 and the pensions dispute saw thousands of young women taking strike action for the first time.
Last December UKUncut organised highly successful day of action which focused on some of the effects of the cuts on women. Their call-out read: Join us on Saturday 8th December to transform the tax dodger Starbucks into services women depend on, such as refuges and crèches.
And then there was the determined and courageous fight of Cait Reilly who through her tenacity won a fantastic victory at the Royal Courts of Justice in February against the Condems slave labour schemes after being forced onto a Workfare scheme at Poundland ( see here for more). While the government rushed through new legislation Cait’s campaigning gave the lie to the divide and rule nonsense of the government’s campaigning against so called ‘benefit scroungers’.
In the campaigns by disabled people, black people and LGBT people resisting austerity, women are often in the forefront of resistance.
And this is not just something that is happening here. Sonia Mitralia from Greece explained the terrible effects of austerity in her country here and calls for solidarity. The situation has only got worse as a result of the interventions of the Troika and their supine friends in different Greek adminstrations. But in Greece, as in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy women are a central part of the resistance.
The struggles that women are involved in leading today include in the brilliant occupation against privatisation at Sussex University through which management plan to outsource 235 jobs, which is 10 per cent of the workforce. As well as sustaining the occupation itself, campaigners have also used demonstrations and flash mobs to spread their message of resistance.
Other places where women are playing a leading role include in the crucial fight to defend Lewisham hospital which has become symbolic of the broader battle to save the NHS (here), in the campaign for better wages for cleaners which involves many migrant workers (here), against the attacks on home care services in Ireland (here) and in many other struggles.
Across Britain a whole number of events are taking place to celebrate International Women’s Day – where we are aware of them, we have listed them in our calendar. And here Lindsey German reminds us of the history of International Women’s Day.
As well as participating in the events taking place as an ongoing part of women’s struggle, one fitting way to mark this important day is to step up the fight against cuts.
By Terry Conway, Coalition of Resistance
