Article from the March 2006 issue of the Socialist
newspaper of the Socialist Party, Irish section of the CWI

Socialist Youth campaigns on International Women's day

By Aideen McMullan
Wednesday 8 March was International Women's day. In 1857 in New York, on this day, female textile workers came to the streets protesting for a working wage and union rights.

Two years later, they formed a union to protect their rights. Socialist Youth in Belfast held a stall calling for the end to discrimination against women, a right to choose when and whether to have children, free childcare and equal, fair pay for all.

After the stall we held a meeting on the topic "Have women achieved equality?" At this meeting we talked about the conditions in which women live across the world. In Britain for example, full-time working women earn on average 17% less than men, and those working part-time, an average 42% less. 70% of the 1.2 billion people in the world living in poverty are women and children.

Women suffer sexual discrimination daily and from an early age are taught that this is natural. They are constantly bombarded with images to make themselves "perfect" by the media.

The jobs typically performed by women are low paid and though working, women still tend to carry the main burden of housework and childcare.

These are just some of the reasons why women should get active and unionised and fight for their rights alongside working men.

The CWI issued a collection of articles for IWD - here's a pdf copy. Printed copies can be obtained from SY or print one off yourself.