THE seeds of the Morning Star Women’s Readers and Supporters Group (RSG) began to germinate at the Scottish Trade Union (STUC) Congress in 2022 in Aberdeen. Specifically at the Morning Star fringe. I was chairing and we had two great women speakers on the panel. 

It was well attended and lively. Lots of questions and discussion. However, it was noticeable that audience consisted almost entirely of men. In fact there was only one woman. By then I was a member of the Morning Star Scotland Readers and Supporters Group (RSG) and when I thought about it, I realised that it was predominantly male too.

These men, young and not so... are excellent comrades who were and who remain totally supportive of women’s issues. They made us feel welcome in their company. However the subject matter of the Readers and Supporters and the Our Class, Our Culture events was often of greater interest to men than to women and it was noticeable that men attended in greater numbers.

I wondered how we could change that. Women’s issues are not going away. In fact half a century after the Sex Discrimination Act, women continue to suffer lifelong material disadvantages compared to men both in employment and society, with levels of male violence against women and girls described recently as a national emergency. Discrimination and sexual harassment at work remain a serious issue and women’s occupations are disproportionately low paid and prone to violence at work. 

I began to speak to other women who were supporters of the Morning Star and we decided to set up our own Women’s Readers and Supporters Group (RSG), to organise webinars on issues directly relevant to women. A small organising group was formed to drive this forward.

The newspaper itself has lots of excellent women contributors, including many on the Voices of Scotland rota. We wanted our webinars to promote this and have a greater focus on women’s issues — after all we are more than half of the population and our membership in trade unions is growing all the time. We also hoped to encourage more women to read, and then hopefully contribute, to the paper with our own distinctive perspectives.

The organising group decided that as well as focussing on issues directly relevant to women, we would make the first webinar a women-only event to maximise the opportunity for women to participate and have their voices heard. We were supported in this by the wider RSG.

We held our first webinar in October 2022 entitled “A Woman’s Place is in her Union.” We had input from Lyn-Marie O’Hara on the Glasgow equal pay campaign, led by women workers on the ground, which won a massive victory for low-paid women. We also had input from Eireann McAulay, a young trade unionist, on engaging with young women to encourage union membership. Participants were enthused by the topics and we had great engagement in the discussion on the night. We were on a high. 

We asked participants about continuing as women-only events and this was enthusiastically supported. 

In early 2023 for International Women’s Day, we held our second webinar on women, low-paid work and children’s health with Professor Morag Treanor and Emily Donnelly, a community organiser with Living Rent. This was another excellent event and the wider academic perspective and the “on the ground” account of the issues faced by women around housing and health complemented each other beautifully.

Our final event of 2023 was on Women in Palestine. This too was an excellent webinar with great presentations from Manal, a young Palestinian woman and from Denise Christie, who had recently come back from a visit to Palestine. Both painted a stark picture of life for Palestinians under Israeli occupation, and also highlighted the additional challenges for Palestinian women. 

Unfortunately the turnout for this had dipped and although there was great feedback from those in attendance we decided we needed to think more about how we engage with a wider group of women.

On a positive note, the numbers of women writing for the Voices of Scotland had risen, with some of those on our organising group joining its ranks. Keith Stoddart, our Voices of Scotland co-ordinator was well pleased.

Last year’s STUC Women’s Conference provided an opportunity to expand our email circulation list as we were able to go round delegates asking them to sign up. We now have a very healthy email list of women activists.

Our organising group reconvened at the start of this year and those sisters currently a part of it agreed that a focus for our webinars in 2024 would be on Women and Austerity. We know that the cost-of-living crisis has particularly impacted on women.

Our first looked at women in precarious work, where we heard from women workers in the care sector, hospitality and the colleges about the challenges affecting them in the workplace and in their lives.

Our next webinar will be held on Tuesday September 3 from 7-8.15pm. It is on Women and Maternity and will look at the impact of austerity on women before and after childbirth. All women trade unionists and activists are welcome to come along and we would be delighted to see you there: register here.

If you can’t manage this event but would like to be on our mailing list, please email me at katearamsden@gmail.com and we will add you to our list.