ACCORDING to research by the TUC, workplaces with a predominantly female workforce, eg the NHS (77 per cent), teaching (75 per cent) or social care (82 per cent) will be disproportionately affected by the anti-strike Bill intended to enforce minimum service levels.

This means that women are more at risk of being sacked for taking strike action during disputes. 

The pay gap between men and women currently stands at 14.9 per cent and women aged between 50 and 59 have the highest pay gap of 20.8 per cent. 

Women are more likely to struggle at the harshest end of the employment spectrum, in the lowest-paid, most undervalued work.

According to figures from the London Living Wage foundation, half a million more women earn below the living wage than men and 60 per cent of all jobs that pay below the living wage are held by women. 

TUC-affiliated trade unions have equality structures that have the stated intention of supporting marginalised groups to self-organise.

But women are further away than ever from making sweeping changes in the world of work that bring real material benefits to us and our children.

Women continue to suffer abuse and exploitation in workplaces, and we must question why this remains the case when we are told that the world is more progressive than it has ever been, and women allegedly have more opportunities than ever before.

Women who do manage to surmount the significant barriers to get active in trade unions quickly get pulled into equality structures where identity politics invariably trumps the one thing that unites us all, class.

Single-issue campaigning around so called individual “lived experience” gets prioritised over developing and rolling out a perspective and strategy that is linked to class struggle.

The imperative to look outwards and develop strategies that will raise up all working-class people together is too often lost in internal rivalries and hostilities between the various equality strands and the 100 or so identities within the equality committee. 

The fight and struggle for equality was started and led by socialists and trade union self-organising of minority groups should be a vehicle for change and not just help to maintain the status quo. 

Union reps across the equality strands need a stronger steer to prioritise and prepare union representatives to lead industrial disputes around improving wages, terms, and conditions in their own workplaces.

If we want representation for marginalised groups and minorities, we don’t do it by separating them out from the rest of the movement but by making sure that these reps and members are at the very forefront of the struggles that unite us all.

This is precisely what self-organised minority groups should be seeking to achieve in a period where the working class, and women in particular, are more exploited at work than ever before.

The right to comment or express a view outside your own direct personal experience is restricted by the authoritarian demands of identity politics which set narrow and rigid preconditions around public discourse.

This too negatively affects the trade union movement, and these toxic developments are silencing women in their unions.

The unintended impact of all this is not only that tokenism is increasing, and at the cost of putting class at the forefront of our politics.

Demands to “shut up” or “stay in your lane” are not dissimilar to those I experienced myself at the hands of NHS employers when I first came here as an immigrant from Ireland to work as a nurse in London.

And taking away our right to speak out as workers allows employers to press ahead with cuts to services that can cause harm and cost lives.

It’s little surprise that the corporate world is among the biggest advocates of the politics of identity rather than class.

Employers get to polish their “equality, diversity and inclusion” credentials as they ruthlessly drive down pay, terms and conditions for the working class.

This gives bosses a free hand to carry on employing black and Asian migrant workers on worse terms and conditions than everyone else as they deck the halls with celebratory bunting on diversity days. 

No marginalised group, especially women, can afford to be pulled away from the broader class struggle because time and time again we are at the sharpest end of it.

A woman’s time is limited because society is rigged against us. We hold the burden of care in a way that few men will ever truly understand, and time is a luxury for most of us. 

We are now in period of relentless class struggle and how we organise to protect public services is tied with how we train, motivate and inspire trade union representatives.

If women are to shift the balance of work in our own interests, we will have to realign our priorities and move them away from identity politics and single-issue campaigning and firmly onto the industrial arena.

It’s in the interests of working-class women to gain the skills to organise within their workplaces against exploitative employers.

We can look outwards playing leading roles for the betterment of the entire working class which will not only protect our own material interests, but we will be at the forefront of the struggle to drive up pay and conditions for everyone.

Women can be the most effective organisers of our class in the workplaces. 

If we embark on this work in a serious way women can earn credibility among rank-and-file trade union members, in branches as well as in the ranks of our own trade unions and this is where we need to be so that we can become instrumental in fighting to achieve a socialist society. 

Helen O’Connor is a trade union organiser and former nurse. Follow her on Twitter @HelenOConnorNHS.