W O M E N ( N O T ) A r W O R K

rj. _..

W o m e n a r e o v e r w o r k e d , u n d e r p a i d a n d u n d e r v a l u e d . . .i f we had a un ion , we 'd de f i n i t e l y be t ak i ng t o t he s t r ee t s t o p ro tes t .

Fem in i s t au tho r K i r a Coch rane imaq ines t he scene

S T Y L I S T . C O , U ' < 4 5

w o M E N ( N O T ) A T W o R K

he high street rsdeserted. the shopsshuttered, museumsare locked uP anda note on the librarY

door declares it is closed until furthernotice. A group of men with childrencluster hopeful ly at the Primaryschool gates, but they're padlocked'with a banner attached to the rai l ingsair i ly announcing "Be back soon!"The chi ldren whimper, unti l they rescooped up by their fathers and takenhome, stopping at the only place leftto buy food: the local garage. Someare struggl ing to make their debitcards work at the t i l l as their banl(balance is inexpl icably depletedArriving home, businessmen cal l intothe office to check their diaries andcancel their appotntments, but i t goes

straight to voicemail . "Al l personalassistants are out of the office untilthe next century or the dawn of equalr ights." intones the answerpnonemessage, "whichever comes first "

ln the hospitals, they've cancelledall the operations that can wait, but

are st i l l in cr ists mode: so too in care

homes, where small groups of male

volunteers tend to residents. lt'sproving tricky to find a police officer to

ask what's going on as one in four isn't

on the beat todaY. On TV, normalprogramming has been rePlaced bY

male news reporters filing panicked

stories about the collapsing economy,

and venturing into homes where

harrred men speak about the strrLggle

to manage anY work while looking

after the kids ( in the background,toddlers scribble on walls with

crayons). The rePorts also showwomen gathering in citY centres,30million out on the streets, shouting,singing, brandishing sigrrs and

banners, al l with one simple message:

WotvlEN ON STRIKE. Because, Putsimpiy, they have al lhad enougl"t

Women make uP 49.40lo of the

24.2 mil l ion employees in Britain, and

one in five of us are the household'smain breadwinner. Yet the ful l- t imegender PaY gap beiween us andmen is 14.9olo (rising to up to 55olo

in the f inance sector) and in the lastquarter, eight out of 10 PeoPle who

lost their jobs were female We st i l l

overwhelminglY bear the ilrunt or

chi ldcare and housework, even when

we work ful l- t ime, We're si l / lso

unfair ly and unequally treated that

i f women had a union, surely our

leaders would be urging us to take

industr ial act ion? And although i t

might seeri"r an LrnlikelY (not to

mention mildly apocalyptic) scene'

i t wouldn't be the f irst t ime

a women's str ike has been cal led'

ln 1970, the femintst writer and

activist Betty Friedan proposed US

. . T H E F U L L . T I M E G E N D E R P A Y G A Pt 5 1 4 . 9 9 6 A N D l N T H E L A , s T Q U A R T E R '

E I G H T O U T O F 1 0 P E O P L E W H OL O S T T H E I R J O B S W E R E F E M A L E "

homes. ieave men to juggle chi ldcareand the work place. shopprng and theschool run. for even a week? Shouldwe fol low the lead of lceland'swonren, who staged a maior strikein 1975, involving 9Oo/o oi the femalepopulation - and who now live in thecountry regularly ranked the best inthe world for women?

The essential question is this:how serious is the current threat ioour r ights? The economic cl imate rsdisastrous for everyone, of course,but there are some part icularlYworrying signs for women. Thenumber of women out of work isgrowing at a much faster rate thanmerr, wtth 32.000 women becomingunemployed, compared with 16,000men in the last quarter of 2011.Women's unemployment hasn t beenthis high since 19BZ when neoncycl ing shorts were considered anacceptatr le fashion statement. "Over

t ime,'says Bird. " i t 's going to becomeless and less common to see womenworking, part icularlY mothers,

C H I I * D C A f l g . C R I S J S

One of the obvious reasons ls neavycuts to the public sector; womenmake up two thirds of this part icular

workforce, as nurses, social workersand teachers. And these job losseswill lead to a much bigger average gap

between male and temale PaY, as in

the publrc sector i t currently stands

at13.2o/o, but rises to 20.40lo in theprivate sector. The gap is especiallysignif icant because when chi ldcarebecomes unaffordable i t 's more l ikely

to be the Partner with lower PaY who

gives up their lob to look after thekids. And chi ldcare is bit ing l ike never

before, Last year, a study found the

average cost of ful l ' t ime chtldcare is

5385 a month, r ising to t729 for

a child r-rnder two. These costs aremaking i t di f f icult for women to stay

in their jobs. Gail CareYn',30, was

working as a {ashiol l iournal ist in

London when she had her son HenrY

a year ago, saYS she knew she'd"never be able to afford to go back

full-time, because with childcarecosts, i t wouldn't have been real ist ic ' lln Hertfordshire, where she l ives,

a nursery Place can cost as muchas S65 a daY. "So You're looking at

S,1,30O a month, just for chi ldcarer'

Who coulci ever afford that' with iheir

commuting costs plus everything else

too?" Instead, she now works as a

blogger, looking atter Henry during

the day, and working in the eventngs

and weekends, relying on her parlner

ancl family for help. She considers

herself real ly fortunate to have thls

option, but worries that she doesn't

have a penston. or anY of ihe 1qlbenefi ts that she had in ful l- t ime Yl

women should strike for a daY, and on

26 August of that Year, 20,000 women

converged on Fifth Avenue in NewYork, calling for equal PaY and free

childcare. "Don't iron while the strikeis hot" declared their banners. The

strike was an enormous success -

the biggest women's demonstrationin the US since the suffragemovement, A Protest that Putfeminism on ihe map. "lt was mucn

more anarchic than Betty Friedan everplanned, believe me!" says poet and

campaigner, Robin Morgan, who sPoke

at the event. "l remember saying toher,'Well, Betty, when You go for a

mass action, you iust can't control it."'

T H C G E N I D f F t G A P

As researcher and writer Julia Longpoints out. women actuallY have

a history of courageous, dramatic

demonstrations. Just two Yearsbefore Friedan's march, 187 women

walked out of their iobs sewing

car-seat covers at the Ford car plant

in Dagenham, in protest at being paid

less than their male colleagues. The

three-week strike led to a PaY rise,

and also to the Equal PaY Act'

introduced in 1970. Along with the

Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, this

was supposed to usher in an age of

equal rights where women's voices

would ring out at the top of politics

and business and men would enjoya healthier, happier balance of work

and family life (and a much moreintimate relationshiP with thehousehold cleaning cuPboard).

While progress has beenfrustratingly slow, it's also thought to

have been constant - a steady snail

trail towards equalitY. So it's

surprising to speak to those who

believe women's Progress hasn'tsimply stalled, but might actually be

rolling back a generation - women

rewinding out of the office, out of our

business suits, awaY from our own

money and ambitions, back to an age

where we greet men at the door each

evening with a kiss, a iumbler of

whisky and a valiant little smile. Anna

Bird of the Fawcett Society, the UK's

leading camPaign for equalitybetween men and women' says

we're at a tipping Point, "and if we

don't take action now. the imPact

will be felt for Years:So is it time for UK women to

stage a strike, walk out of offices and

5 T \ ' L I S T

w o M E N ( N o r ) A T w o R K

employment, such as sick PaY'or holiday cover.

There are also fears that morewomen than ever are being Pushedout of their iobs due to Pregnancydiscrimination. A study by the EqualOooortunit ies Commission before therecession showed 30,000 women ayear were losing their lobs as a result

of being pregnant, and the AllianceAgainst Pregnancy Discrimination in

the lvorkDlace has reportecl analarming r ise tn the number ofw0men contacting them. And the

discrimination can be overt 0r subtleWhen Marie Coll ins".33, returned to

work in HR after having her first child

her career seemed to be in reverse.

Before her pregnancy, she had beenpromised experience u,thich could lead

to a promotion, but was instead stuck

doing the sort oi work she'd masteredyears before. lt was as if she d been

demoted, and she eventual ly felt there

was no choice but to leave. She now

looks after her two children Jesstul l- trme, but needs to return to work

and is worrted about her prospects.

C H A O S T H f C R Y

It seems there rs everY reason toprotest, but what would haPPen if

women ditched the workplace, tne

home. and hit the streets? Could

the country contlnue to function?

Probably not. The employmentfigures for men and women from

the Office for National Statistics

sholv the level of chaos this wouldcause. At the least worrying level'there would be bosses uP anddown the country having to maketheir own coffee, tYPe their ownmemos and work out how to replacethe toner in the Printer as womenmake up 99o/o of the total numberof oersonal assistants.

For anyone unfortunate enoughto be having a baby, an operation, ora nervous breakdown that day' thesituation would be dire - 970lo ofrnidwives.8STo of nurses and 820/o oi

theraoists are women. And any menimagining they could simPIY droP

their kids off at school and go to

work would almost certainlY be

disappointed. Nurseries and prrmary

schools would have to close' as a

result of 93olo of all childcare workers,and B5o/o of primary school teachersbeing women. Universities couldcontinue to tunction, as onlY 20oloprofessors in the UK are female, but

their lecture halls would be emPtY,

as female students now outnumbermales at Bri t ish universit ieS.

Although other sectors maY not

grind to such an immediate halt,

they would stillbe hit - 300/o of

all businesses are female owned.

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Y E , A R W E R E L O S I N G T H E I R J O B S A 5A R E S U L T O F B E I N G P R E G N A N T "

The legal profession and lawenforcement would also be affected- 29olo of constables in England andWales are female and roughly thesame figure are prison otficers, nearly230lo of .iudges are women, as are6090 of trainees entering law firms-There would be a devastating effecton retail. not iust in terms of theworkforce, but sales, since women areresponsible for an estimated 80o/o ofhousehold buying decisions and onein trve women now earns more thantheir partner (and?5o/o earn thesame). And there would be fewerpeople to keep tabs on cash flow -

nearly half of the accountancy tralnee

intake in the UK is now female.Many men would have to staY off

work, looking after children, and the

house would most likelY be a mess bY

the time women arrived back. Lastyear, an international study by Oxford

University found household tasks still

tend to be divided bY gender, with'non-routine' iobs including DIY and

car upkeep seen as a masculrnepreserve, while cleaning, cooking

and caring were considered feminine'

And if men decided to abandon the

empty kitchen to eat out' they may

not find anywhere open - 560/o of the

workforce in hospital i ty. leisure. travel

and tourism sector are women.

P O S I T I V f P R C T I S T

So would women ever agree toa strike? Finn MackaY, one of theorganisers of the annual Reclaim theNight protests, in which thousands olwomen march through centralLondon, suspects not. The problenl

she says, " is that the sort of iobswomen tend to do, Paid and unpaid,

are very difficult to strike from. YoLr

can't just leave your baby at home al l

day by itself, and you can t leave your

elderly parent or relative eltherl'Most women's strikes have been

based on compromise. The 1970 USstrike was actually timed at the endof the working day. so women couldprotest without r isktng their;obs' ; lnd

the name of the lcelandic str ike was

softened to women's'day off : In bothcases many wofnen marched with

their chi ldren. These were hugelYvisible, successful demonstrat ions,and perhaps it's time for us to foliowtheir lead - not bY striking. but bY

ioining other women in some form

of positive protest. Maybe it is timeto stop starting those businesses.put down that iron, hand over Your

:::ij;:iJi,.Yoseb€nners 6)

Kira Cochrane is editor of Women Of

The Revotution: FortyYears Of Fe'll.inism

(!9.99, Guardian Books)

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