‘Decade of real advance

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crane scion

By NAN McDONALD

_ The United Nations proclama-
tion of a ‘‘Decade for Women”’
focussed global attention on the
need for a united world-wide
Movement for the equality of
Women; for women to be fully in-
tegrated into the economic and
Social development of their coun-
try; for women to play a powerful
Tole in safeguarding world peace.
The inspiration for this proclama-
tion did not come about spon-
taneously.

The ‘‘World Plan of Action’,
adopted at the 1975 United Na-
tions international conference in
Mexico City, showed that there
Was global consensus on what
Should be done to improve the
Situation of women in achieving
€quality. Time to implement the
action was necessary, so the con-
ference called for the period
1976-1985 to be proclaimed by the
United Nations as the Decade for
Women, and the conference itself
Was the focal point of the celebra-

tion of International Women’s
Year.

_ The UN’s designation of Inter-
National Women’s Year 1975 was
of major significance in reflecting
the undeniable fact that the bal-
ance of world forces had changed
in favor of socialism, national and

osssnsioes

social liberation and the ever-in-
creasing role of the working class
and democratic forces on a world
scale.

For it was the growing in-
fluence of the socialist countries
in the United Nations that in-
spired the agreement to proclaim
1975 as the year to highlight the
rights of women under the slogan
‘Equality, Development and
Peace’. It was the Women’s
International Democratic Federa-
tion, embracing progressive and
democratic women on all contin-
ents and holding consultative
status (B) in UNESCO and other
UN bodies, which actually in-
itiated the UN-proclaimed Inter-
national Women’s Year. It was
indeed a historic year in advanc-
ing women’s struggle for their
rights. Moreover, it laid a solid
foundation as the opening year of
the UN Decade for Women.

International Women’s Year
and the Decade have been years
of achievements and setbacks,
but undeniably, the democratic
upsurge by women, particularly
among working women, has
compelled governments to recog-
nize women as a powerful politi-
cal force in the fight for social and
economic progress, for peace and
for socialism.

The peace movements,
coupled with labor’s and wo-
men’s fightback against the poli-
cies of the transnational corpora-
tions, including the military
industrial complex in the U.S.,
continue to expand in Canada and
internationally.

The working people in capital-
ist and socialist countries ex-
tended international solidarity
with the women of Greenham
Common, England and Cosmos,
Italy in their struggle to prevent
U.S. deployment of the Cruise
and Pershing-2 missiles on their
soil. The ever-growing solidarity
of workers in capitalist and social-
ist countries with the epic strug-
gles of the British miners and the
Miners Wives Against Pit Clo-
sures, for jobs and the survival of
their communities, reflects the
growing understanding among
women that the struggle for
peace, against nuclear war, and
the struggle for economic, social
and political rights are indis-
solubly intertwined.

In Canada, the struggle for
women’s equality has taken on
new dimensions. The drive to or-
ganize the unorganized in the ser-
vice industry where women pre-
dominate has been heightened, as
seen in the struggle by Eaton’s

workers for union recognition and
a first contract. Affirmative action
programs and equal pay for work
of equal value have won wide
support, first of all in the trade
union movement. The un-
precedented united actions by the
women’s movement in the last
federal election centred on the
demands for jobs, equal pay for
work of equal value, verifiable af-
firmative action, universal, free
quality childcare, fully paid
maternity leave, the right to
choose birth or abortion, and
above all, the right to live a mean-
ingful life in a world free from nuc-
lear weapons and war.

March 8, International Wo-
men’s Day, is of special signi-
ficance this year. In reviewing
and appraising the achievements
of the UN Decade for Women,
women the world over will also
take stock of the past 75 years,
since the time March 8 was first
proclaimed as International Wo-
men’s Day, at the Second Inter-
national Socialist Women’s Con-
ference in Copenhagen on August
27, 1910. The Conference, on
Clara Zetkin’s proposal, decided
to hold annually an International
Day of Solidarity with working
women. The final document
adopted by the delegates from 17
countries reads:

“Together with the proletarian-
conscious, political and trade
union organizations the women
Socialists of the whole world an-
nually mark women's day which,
first of all, must be made use of to
agitate for granting women the
right to vote. This demand must be
linked with the socialist under-
standing of the women’s question
as a whole. The women’s day
must be international in character
and carefully prepared for.”’

For 75 years since, March 8 has
been marked as International
Women’s Day, a day of reviewing
the militant forces and the work-
ing class solidarity of working
women.

As a conclusion to the decade,
the United Nations decided to
convene a World Conference of
Government delegations, and a
non-government World Forum
for Women in Nairobi, Kenya, in
July of this year. These events
promise to be of great significance
for the mobilization of the women
of the whole world in the priority
task of humankind — that of safe-
guarding world peace against a
nuclear holocaust.

Nan McDonald is Women’s Director
of the Communist Party of Canada.

Vomen will be big losers with Tories

When the women’s movement forced
the leaders of\the three parliamentary
parties onto the platform during the last
federal elections it was a political coup.
Never before, anywhere, had politicians
been brought to account in such a public
manner for their record on women’s is-
sues. It was the gender gap in action,
testimony to the influence women gained
during the post-war period when they
flocked out of the households into the
labor force.

The tangible results of the gender gap
Were proven illusory, since women
voted in the same proportion as men for
the Tory government. But in times when
the electorate is out for ‘“change’’ how
significant this was is debatable. Never-
theless the women’s question was felt in
the campaign, the old line parties were
required to cloak their neo-conservative
policies in populist rhetoric, conscious of
the reality that women’s concerns and
restraint policies are at opposite poles.

But the election is now over and its
outcome will be with us for the next long
while. Election promises have been re-
placed by Tory talk ... corporate bal-
ance sheets have to be repaired, the in-
vestment climate must be improved, our
U.S. friends are not to be provoked.
Neo-conservatism has dovetailed with a
capitalist world economic recession anda
restructuring of the economy brought
about by technological change.

Economists are pointing to trends
shaping up in the economy which will
have differing impacts on male-female

employment and this effect will be far-
reaching. Tory times will be tough times
and women are likely to be the big losers.

Women’s concentration into the ser-
vice sector of the economy has served in
the past to cushion them during
economic recession. But this segregation
will make them more vulnerable in future
as the new technology invades the offices
and the checkouts.

Similarly the public sector, which
facilitated women’s entry into the work-
force through its rapid growth has been
hit by cutbacks.

According to federal labor department
figures 200,000 full-time “‘female”’ jobs
were lost between 1982-83. Yet this mas-
sive job loss slipped through relatively
unnoticed since it was frequently phased

" They gave you a bigger one than me...”

in through attrition or the transformation
of full-time work to part-time.

The results, however, are showing up
in the jobless figures. For the first time
women’s unemployment rates are sur-
passing men’s and the steady increase of
women in the labor force has abruptly

haulted. The numbers of women not .

counted among the unemployed because
they have quit looking has soared.

Even a recovery period will not en-
hance women’s employment prospects
since that period will be used to hasten
the changeover to new technology in the
labor-intensive sectors where women
work.

But unemployment is more than a
labor market problem. The loss of a
wage earner drastically reduces family
income. As the main supplier of domes-
tic services, the work load of women in

the home is intensified to compensate for

lost wages. Compounding the difficulties
is a decline in state support for social
services. The stress and strain is carried
into the home and as tensions mount
women increasingly become the victims
of violence.

Women also bear the main burden of
marriage breakdown. Current projec-
tions estimate that four in seven Cana-
dian women will at some time be sole
support parents, and three of these four
will carry out this responsibility at in-
comes below the poverty line.

Such circumstances are ripe for
right-wing ideology. Research abounds

about the adverse effects of ‘“‘maternal
deprivation” during the child’s forma-
tive years. Reproductive choice is under
attack. Human rights commissions
which have offered women limited re-
dress have been restricted or eliminated.

Equal pay for work of equal value be--

comes ‘‘too expensive’? during reces-
sionary period. Funding for day care
must be vigorously justified while
multi-million dollar ‘‘defence’’ programs
are passed without parliamentary de-
bate. Government policy is once again
turning women into secondary earners,
as limited job creation and training pro-
grams are targeted at ‘‘prime-aged
males’.

Women have not passively accepted
their deteriorating position. Family vio-
lence, pornography, reproductive rights,
the impact of part-time work and techno-
logical change have been forced into pub-
lic debate. The trade union movement
has played a decisive role in this process.
But as women are forced out of the jobs
in the public and service sectors where
unions with large women memberships
predominate, there is a danger that this
fightback could be curtailed.

The ability to resist the onslaught will
require a much strengthened and or-
ganized movement which will unite all
women: immigrants and Canadian-born;
the jobless and those who work; full-time

and part-time workers; young and old. —

This coupled with a labor movement
which is conscious of the need to struggle
for women’s equality is needed to ad-
vance all of labor’s interests.

vat

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 6, 1985 e 7