Ub67i: Week Action

Scan page 6

EUROTELS .... million jobless women are invisible for the official statistics 979.000 unemployed women in Britain at a time when the official figures said there were only 681,000. The latest GHS (1981) also round that over a quarter of the women who were looking for work in Britain at that time were not registered. So every time the unemployment figures are quoted, multiply the female figure by 125/100 to get an idea of how many women are really looking for work.

The Tories' latest plan for voluntary registration is a :urther device to disguise unemployment amongst women. From October 1982 people who don't get benefit won't figure amongst the unemployed. The counting Half a of the unemployed won't be based on registration any more but on whether you pass the availability for work test for benefit.

The latest • available figures (1980) show that only half of the unemployed women in Britain on May 8, 1980 got any benefit (unemployment or supplementary) while 72% of unemployed men got some dole money. On that day there were some 144,000 unemployed women who were registered (i.e. coutned) but who didn't qualify for benefit. From Women October they will disappear from the official record.

That isn't the end of the story, unfortunately, because the recession has meant that many women have given üp looking for work altogether. If the economy • had continued to grow and if the public sector had not been cut, over half a million women who are now full-time 'housewives' would be looking for paid work. The Department of Employment found in 1976 that nearly 30% of women looking for long term work left the register within six months without getting a 10b - more than the number that got work.

In 1977 the Departmen: of Employment predicted that 7.2 million married women would be in the workforce in 1981 but in fact only 6.6 million were: hali a million of whom were unemployed.. On this F.=s, 600,000 women HAVe vanished back into the home.

Front the Women's Campaign for Jobs letter October 23 in London. For details send s.a.e. to Wornen's Fightback, 41 Ellington St, Londo N7 Wales:. Malcolm Renna (DE Section Organiser) C 213 4552.

London: Cathy Hughes 0483 (h): 836 6622 CPSA Broad Left. Pa Martin 01-981 4764. Other addresses:

Welsh Women's Aid (f pamphlet): Incentive Hous Adam St., Cardiff 022 388291.

Wageless Women, Cromer Street Womer Centre, 90 Cromer Stre London WCI.

National Childcare Car paign, 17 Victoria Park Sc London E2. 01-981 1221. Women's Campaign for Job 41 Ellington Street, Londo N7.