WE meet at TUC women’s conference this week, in the TUC’s 151st year at Congress House, under the banner of “Solidarity in sisterhood.”

Conference will be chaired by Usdaw’s Su Patel, a longstanding member of the TUC’s women’s committee.

We will both celebrate our achievements and our successes as well as setting our agenda for the women’s movement in the year ahead, the order paper covering issues as diverse as the gender pay gap, maternity provisions, women’s poverty, safety and mental health as well as opposing the far right and the international perspective.

As chair of the TUC’s women’s committee for the past year, it has been an honour and a privilege to work with such great sisters from across the labour trade union movement both domestically and internationally.

Even in the face of this government’s attacks on working people and disproportionately detrimental impacts of these on women, we have seen real progress in unions representing women in the workplace.

We have driven many proactive initiatives such as challenging gender stereotyping, raising awareness of workplace stress and mental ill-health and progressing parental rights at work, as well as hearing the myriad voices of our young women members and activists in challenging working practices in the “gig economy.”

Always, as women so often do, achieving for all workers while at the same time making strides for women. As a result of a motion passed at last year’s conference, the committee has made a fantastic film which challenges occupational segregation and will be debuted at conference and will be downloadable from the TUC website too.

We have solidified our international networks, raising the importance of global links with women’s organisations around the world and are delighted to be progressing a TUC-supported women’s trade union delegation to Palestine.

A report of the visit by 16 British women trade unionists will be produced alongside a short film to highlight the situation for women in the West Bank and to encourage solidarity action and effective networking opportunities.

One outstanding piece of work, not just for the women’s committee but our entire movement, is making strides to eradicate sexual harassment and sexual violence both in the workplace and society as a whole.

All too often, sexual harassment is lost within general harassment and bullying statistics, yet it is still a very real issue for the more than 50 per cent of women who, TUC research shows, are experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace.

That fewer than one in five women even report it is as equally shocking.

A third of young women workers have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace — a red line issue if ever there was one.

This is exacerbated by the fact that many women are in precarious work, and so are reluctant to make complaints and are often not protected by union membership.

We will be discussing this in detail at the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group’s fringe meeting on Thursday lunchtime in the general council chamber. The fringe is entitled “#MeToo — Trade union responses to harassment in the workplace.”

The fact is that employers in all sectors need to take a collective responsibility for what is happening on their watch and ensure they have strong, effective procedures for identifying, educating, reporting and eradicating workplace harassment in all forms.

And our movement is not immune. Many women are increasingly concerned about the increase in sexist, misogynistic and oppressive responses to women’s participation and progression in our movement and the impact of this upon democratic debate and inclusive dialogue.

To close, the 2019 women’s conference wanted to draw attention to the issue of period poverty, an issue affecting 25 per cent of women and girls, which forces them to miss either work or school due to being unable to afford sanitary products.

In Scotland and Wales, governments have invested in schemes to provide free sanitary products in public buildings, however women in England are being left behind.

This government needs to understand that nobody should have to choose between buying food and looking after their menstrual health.

The period poverty of a quarter of our women and girls in 21st-century Britain is simply criminal.

Donations of sanitary protection will be collected at the conference registration desk and distributed throughout our London networks.

Vicky Knight is TUC women’s committee chair and president of UCU.