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Issue No. 127 08 March 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

Power Plays
Depending on where you sit, the decision by a State Labor Government to sell off the division of the power industry responsible for its long-term planning is either bold or reckless.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Still Flying
ACTU Secretary Greg Combet looks beyond the bid to save Ansett to a broader union agenda for 2002.

Women: Suffrage or Suffering
Alison Peters marks International Women's Day by surveying the achievements - and shortcomings - of a century of female suffrage.

Industrial: No Coco Pops For Brenda
The working poor get short shrift from the hypocritical Minister For Workplace Relations says Noel Hester.

Unions: Back to the Heartland
Lidcombe, western Sydney. A boring cultural desert, right? Wrong, wrong and wrong again according to CFMEU officials who talked to Jim Marr about relocating their headquarters to a working class base.

Activists: Getting to the Point
Rowan Cahill reports on a development battle that has fractured a South Coast community and the role the union movement has played to drive a just outcome.

International: Push Polling
On the eve of elections in Zimbabwe, trade unionists are paying the price for their commitment to democracy.

Economics: Debt Defaulters
Amidst the colour and movement of CHOGM little was said about the pressing issue of debt relief, writes Thea Ormond.

Poetry: Those Were the Days
The Golden Wing lounges have closed. The last of the commiserating Ansett workers have long since departed those makeshift taverns.

Review: Black Hawk Dud
If you want to find out exactly what went wrong during the US Marines' 1993 peacekeeping operation in Mogadishu in Somalia, do not see Black Hawk Down.

Satire: Fox-Lew Launch Rescue Bid for Beta Video
Businessmen Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox have shocked the financial sector with a daring bid to rescue the communications giant Beta Video.

N E W S

 Egan Sells His Brains

 Spying Bill Targets Strikers

 Dunny Wars: Will Workers Carry the Can?

 Drivers Appeal To Commuters

 New Tack on Asylum Seekers

 Go Forth and Multiply � Unions on Women

 Howard Shuts Workers Out Of Steel Talks

 Questions Remain As Rio Rings Changes

 Labor Hire Swifty Exposed

 Unions Fight 'Industrial Blackmail'

 AIRC in Contracting Debacle

 Mayne Chance For A Wage Deal

 IT Workers Get Their Own Geek Scopes

 PNG Women Visit Australia

 Brazilian Unions Study Aussie Experience

 No Shangri-la in Jakarta

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Love Thy Neighbour
Bruce Childs explains why he's reactivated the Palm Sunday committee to take a stand for refugees.

The Locker Room
Debt Before Dishonour
In a week that featured allegations of drugs in footy, fast horses and faster cars, Phil Doyle struggled to keep up.

Week in Review
Bullies Rule, OK?
Jim Marr considers a week which highlighted the absolute joy of being big, rich and powerful in a lassez faire world.

Tool Shed
Leader of the Free World
George W Bush barricades himself in this week's Tool Shed with the sort of double standards that gives world domination a bad name.

L E T T E R S
 How to Beat the Banks
 Collins Goes Cahill
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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Women

Suffrage or Suffering


Alison Peters marks International Women's Day by surveying the achievements - and shortcomings - of a century of female suffrage.

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This year marks 100 years since non-indigenous Australian women got the right to vote (indigenous women had to wait until 1962). This centenary of suffrage is something to celebrate but it also a chance to reflect how far we have come in the last 100 years. Have Australian women gained from suffrage or are we continuing to suffer economic, political and social inequality?

Unfortunately the answer is yes to both.

On International Womens Day, 2002 it seems quite clear that women have benefited from the struggles of our great great grandmothers and their sisters to achieve the vote for women. The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy. This is a good start - women are equal citizens in this regard. My cynical self however, says "Great, at least we get a say in which bloke represents us in Parliament". The sad fact is that women are still not a critical mass (let alone 50%) in our Parliaments. This means that the experiences of women are less likely to be taken into account when important decisions about our lives are made. There are, however, encouraging signs that things are improving. We've had two women State Premiers and two Territory Chief Ministers. Federally at least one political party (the Democrats) has had four women as their parliamentary leader. There have been and are women Ministers in both State and Federal Governments. What progress there has been has been painfully and frustratingly slow (especially for us impatient types who want it now!).

Some could argue that the small number of women in Parliament reflects womens' good sense - after all who would want to put up with the lying, backstabbing, pettiness and woeful hours that our pollies seem to put up with. Maybe women should concentrate on business. After all that's where the real influence lies in our modern globalised economy. However, the situation isn't much better there. In Australia women make up less than 2 percent of senior executive officers in large private sector firms and about 10% of directors on company boards. Its better in smaller companies and the public sector but still nothing to write home about.

Ok, so we don't run the economy (although you may not want to take credit for such a thing anyway) but we at least contribute through our labour (and our spending). Women are in the workforce in record numbers and the numbers continue to increase. In 2002 it is only the true dinosaurs who claim women should not be in the paid workforce. Compared to 100 years ago working women have much better pay and working conditions and legislated protection from discrimination.

Our great great grandmothers would be happy. Except that there are still a few problems - like women are more likely to be in casual or other forms of precarious employment (i.e. no job security). Women still only earn 82% of what men earn in the private sector and in recent years the figure has been getting worse. Reports such as HREOC's Pregnant and Productive report from 2000 also highlights that while discrimination may be illegal that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I also probably don't need to remind you that Australia is one of only 2 industrialised nations that doesn't have a universal system of paid maternity leave for working mothers (the USA is the other). In the current political environment we're unlikely to get it without a struggle as significant as that of our great great grandmothers' to achieve the vote.

The future strength of the union movement, to me, lies in its ability to organise women workers and to improve their job security, pay and conditions. As in the political scene there are some positive signs that things are improving. The ACTU President is a woman and the ACTU Executive has 50% women. In the latest statistics on union membership released by the ABS the number of women union members grew by 0.9% (OK not much but at least it was growth) compared to men where union membership dropped by 0.6%. The statistics also show that women unionists are significantly better off than their non unionised sisters earning on average $119 a week more.

Like in the business world however women are not well represented in leadership positions in their unions. While 40% of union members are women only 11% of national union secretaries are women and only 20% of NSW state secretaries are women. It is estimated that only 5% of enterprise agreements have provisions for paid maternity leave with most providing between 2 and 6 weeks (well short of the ILO Convention standard of 14 weeks). As a proud and committed unionist this is just one of many challenges I must take on with my union sisters to ensure women workers get a fair and equal deal.

hese examples are only one very small part of the picture. They do however illustrate that while there has been achievements, they have been slow and patchy. Some women do very well and others remain vulnerable. Progress is not consistent and in some cases we have gone backwards. There has definitely been some suffering along the way.

One hundred years on it seems to me that suffrage in and of itself is not sufficient to ensure equality for women. I'm quite convinced that our great great grandmothers would have agreed - the vote was important but its also about how by working together we can make improvements that really matter for us all. Women must continue working together to ensure the promise held out by suffrage - that of true equality - is finally met. We owe it to our great great grandmothers.


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