International Women’s Day: Visible, Heard and Believed

International Women’s Day is a moment to celebrate the achievements, resilience and leadership of women everywhere. But for working-class women, it must also be a moment of reflection and of course determination.

While progress has been made, it is important to recognise that the reality is women are still too often invisible in decision-making, spoken over in workplaces, and doubted when we speak about our experiences.

Across the UK food industry, women make up a huge part of the workforce. Women work in bakeries, food production lines, warehouses, supermarkets, distribution centres, cafés and fast-food outlets. They keep workplaces running and keep food on the nation’s tables.

Yet too often the jobs women do are low paid, insecure and undervalued.

Women are disproportionately represented in part-time work, precarious contracts and lower-paid roles. The gender pay gap remains a stubborn reality across many sectors and women are more likely to be balancing work with caring responsibilities, often with little support from employers or government policy.

And many women in customer-facing roles face something else as well, abuse and harassment simply for doing their jobs, something I have personal experience of after working many years in a shop environment.

Shop workers, café staff, restaurant, hospitality and food service workers are increasingly reporting hostility from customers and members of the public. As social tensions rise and public anger grows, too many workers particularly women find themselves on the frontline of that frustration.

Being shouted at, threatened or harassed should never be considered “part of the job” yet too often women who report these experiences are dismissed, told to tolerate it, get over it or simply not believed.

When women raise concerns about harassment, discrimination, unfair treatment or violence they must be taken seriously whatever workplace or sector they are working in.

Across society we still see women being told they are exaggerating, misunderstanding or overreacting when they speak about inequality or abuse. We see women in public life subjected to horrific misogynistic attacks designed to silence them, this culture has to change.

Women must be believed when we speak about what is happening to us in our workplaces, communities and in society.

Years of austerity have disproportionately harmed women, particularly working-class women who rely on public services and social infrastructure. Cuts to childcare, community services and support systems have made it harder for women to balance work, family and community responsibilities.

At the same time, we are seeing the rise of divisive politics that attempts to turn working people against each other scapegoating migrants, fuelling culture wars and distracting from the real issues of low pay, insecure work and economic inequality.

The biggest challenges facing our communities are not caused by the people we work alongside they are caused by an economic system that allows wealth to accumulate at the top while millions struggle to get by.

The labour movement has fought for equal pay, maternity rights, protections from discrimination and safer workplaces. None of these victories came easily they were won through collective organisation and solidarity.

Union workplaces are safer workplaces. Workers with union representation are more likely to challenge unfair treatment, speak out about harassment and push for improvements in pay and conditions.

But representation matters too women must be visible within our unions as activists, reps, organisers and leaders.

International Women’s Day should never be reduced to corporate slogans or token gestures.

It should remind us that every gain women have made has come through struggle and that struggle continues today.

We still have a lot of work to do to close the gender pay gap, tackle violence and harassment at work and to ensure women’s voices are heard in politics, workplaces and our communities.

And as trade unionists, we know that change happens when workers organise, when women stand together.

And when we refuse to accept inequality as inevitable.

International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate women’s achievements, but it is also a call to action.

Women must be visible when we lead, heard when we speak and believed when we share our experiences and only by coming together, through collective organisation, we will keep fighting for the equality working women deserve.

In Solidarity Always

Sarah