[couraged from seeing themselves as part of the…]
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-08-26Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 6 →
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couraged from seeing themselves as part of the workforce.
The traditional division of labour is reinforced: man - breadwinner, woman - housewife and mother, even though this picture corresponds less and less to the reality. Women in paid work are marginalised as workers; their rights and conditions and job security are trivialised because that's not their 'real' job, their 'real' job is at home.
This point was well made by Jane Streather from One Parent Families at the press conterence to launch Welsh Women's aid's pamphlet. What, you ask, has Rayner got to do with single parents, since they are not required to register as available for work and may find themselves better off on long-term social security than UB?
But single mothers more than any other group are vulnerable to being defined out of the workforce. Most single parents want paid work. If they are seen as unavailable for work, the childcare provision won't be forthcoming, the poverty trap is reinforced and they are condemned to proEqual opportunities? About 30% of women in waged work do office jobs about 20% in domestic or catering jobs, 10% in shops, 15% in unskilled factory jobs, and only about 25% in other sorts of jobs.
A recent report from Women in Manual Trades in Scotland shows that very few women get onto TOPS training courses for traditionally male-dominated skilled jobs.
Despite all the campaigns of the 'Moral Majority', recent opinion poll showed that 62% of people in the US support abortion rights.
New issue of Women's longed miserable subsistence.
It' s not a long time before the Rayner proposals become operable. While it may be that only a small number of claimants will be directly affected by having their benefit cut off, the issue affects every woman.
It's urgent for women's groups, unemployed and claimants' groups to get together with the unions in the benefit offices to mount a joint campaign, publicising the implications of Rayner and rendering it inoperable.