Elections are often won and lost on women’s swing votes … What better time to start a serious debate on the things that matter to women – and to working women in particular? Of course, this debate is already taking place across the country in organisations from Mumsnet to the 30 Per Cent Group, and from the Fawcett Society to many employers. Just this week, Asda finds itself forced to into the debate via a legal challenge from thousands of its women employees embarking on a new battle for equal pay and recognition. And in Newham, the women activists of Focus E15 may have ended their occupation of empty flats but their battle for basic housing continues.A new Working Women’s Charter could transform these debates – not because a new list of new demands will change anything on its own but because it could harness the energy and promise of growing ‘third wave feminism’ …
Tag: Working Women’s Charter
An ‘All-Women’s Garage’ in the Making
When I was about twelve-years-old my sister became involved in the Women’s Movement. At first I was repulsed by her missionary zeal, particuarly her strident efforts to ‘raise my consciousness’. We talked lots about sexuality and the roles women and men are forced to live, and I came to realise that my beliefs fitted comfortably with feminist ideology. Over the following years I met many of my sister’s friends and became more involved with feminists and political activists. Then, the civil liberties campaign for the right to march in Queensland was at its height and I began to attend demonstrations.