“The figures now stand at more than there are…”

The figures now stand at more than 120,000 there are women, The table beclow gives the rate of increase for men Men 65% mcrease Women 81% a In other words, women are getting laid off at a faster rate than men. The conclusion is very simple on a general level. Women are being made to perform the same role in the labour force as they did in the last major capitalist crisis — that of the industrial reserve army. It is women who are pulled into production insofar as there is a shortage of labour and then at lower wages. In times when there is no shortage they will be pushed out of the labour force to become a pool from which any other labour (which becomes too expensive — i.e, demands decent wages)

can be replaced or threatened with replacement. It is because sexism is so prevalent in society as a whole that the industrial reserve army can be accomplished with such ease. Even though a number of married women at work in Ireland is still quite low — 13% as compared with Britain — it is still Jess the case over the last ten years, that marriage takes women out of the workplace. The use of the home to control womens participation in the work-force is no longer the force it has been.

Among the main reasons have been the expansion of light consumer industry and the need of cheap labour; the increasing use of contraception among yourger women and the impact of the womens movement, This means that getting women out of the work force may involve a bigger push than was the case previously. This can involve an ideological offensive in favour of traditiqnal values and “family life”, Situation jin Ireland In Ireland the introduction of legislation as a result of pressure from the womens — movement, the Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act and the promised Anti-Discrimination (Employment) Act and the public debate around these, has brought to the attention of women in mass, the inequalities of their lives, While these Bills will in no way for the government and employrs; damestin service, 3 particularly insofar as they become the focus of fightbacks against the economic policies of the government; e.g. Equal Pay and the Civil Service linked with cuts in public and government expenditure, These Bills introduced to ensure that the radicalisation of women workers did not get out of hand. But part of their consequence has been the raising of womens consciousness on a general level and a certain solidifying of womens place within the workforce and the sharpening of an emerging militancy among women workers e.g the telephonist and T.V, trade strikes and go-slow, It would be a mistake however for any militants in the labour or womens movement to think that all problems have “fundamentally” been solved, A few more facts ought to keep at bay, any ideas that the position of women has changed s0 much that they cannot be returned bag and baggage to full-time domestic slavery. The slow integration of married women into the workforce should be considered in the light of the following: (a) That women are more likely to be employed if under 25 or over 40 years of age, It is still usual for married women to have up to 10 to 15 years off work to have children, 0b) The vast majority of women workers still have no real training and most are employed In short, the position of women workers is one which still situates them at the bottom of the pile their lives still determined by domestic responsibilities, The fields in which women are employed are the least productive and most vulnerable sectors of the economy. The most dramatic example is the textile and clothing industry, where the problems of productivity are now being solved through closing whole factories down for months on end and very often for good.

The present unemployment situation is inextricably linked up with the crisis in the Irish economy. A fierce social struggle is on the way in which a whole range of questions — from “For whose benefit do we work? ...... to “Yr all womens place in the home?" , . come up for answer Womens Struggles grow The only way for women to move forward in the fight against unemployment is to group their resistance around an overall programme that actually tackles the problems, Simple militancy is not enough. A programme, which alongside demands of work-sharing, no loss of pay, nationalisation of all bankrupt companies, would include the demand for the right of all women to work.

Socialists in the womens movement must be in the forefront of the efforts to join with the militants of the labour movement in their struggles around these demands, With this in mind it is absolutely vital that the forms of strugele that we undertake — such as factory occupations, are based on a full consciousness of what js implied for women involved, There must be creches, wives of strikers must be folly involved (in collections among local communities, security etc.) and there mi 4 be a consistent struggle against male chau’ nism among workers, It is no accident that rece; ¢ struggles have been led by women orkers. It will be no accident if male chauvini n precipitates defeat, We must organise to Juild vital links initially between women, organising in trade unions and the liberation movement, help build womens caucuses in the unions, lead the fight to make the leadership fight for its policiés on women and solidarise with women who begin to struggle by giving all the support we can.

Formed in October 1975 So immediately women mobilizing thereby raise the consciousness of the women