Women workers are preparing to take the lead on Scotland’s future today as trade union leaders vow to make politicians accountable for their pre-referendum promises.

Speaking to the Star before the opening of STUC women’s conference in Perth, chairwoman Ann Joss highlighted the key role of women in Scotland’s future.

Ms Joss said the conference was of particular importance this year “because we now need our governments to deliver on the promises they made to us prior to the referendum.”

With under a year until general elections, conference will be planning how to lobby Westminster and Holyrood on issues such as childcare, housing, and women’s pay and conditions.

A motion on the “impacts of austerity on women in Scotland” proposes demonstrations and direct actions to combat austerity.

And Ms Joss said: “Everything is doable.”

“Civil disobedience comes is all shapes and forms and what the committee, their members and their affiliates put forward before us in the next two days is how we will go forward.”

The chair believed it was no coincidence that Nicola Sturgeon had been elected SNP leader and one of the main candidates to Scottish Labour deputy leadership was Katy Clark.

With almost 50 per cent of the voting population of Scotland being female, politicians will need to tread carefully in the coming months — even if they happen to be women.

“We are not going to be silenced by any bureaucratic person, who’s faceless to the people of Scotland,” said Ms Joss.

However she would not confirm whether the STUC would endorse Ms Clark’s candidacy.

“It might come up at conference over the next few days — wait and see,” Ms Joss added.

Delegates are also likely to discuss what steps to take on industrial matters such as the firefighters strikes and the renationalisation of the rail system.

Stuc assistant secretary Ann Henderson said much was set to be decided, including an emergency motion critical of the government’s proposed freeze to child benefit.

“There’s a higher percentage of women in the workforce in Scotland than rest of the United Kingdom, so we use (the conference) as an opportunity for women to pick up information,” she said.