18 November is Equal Pay Day 2021

Today marks the day in the year where women effectively, on average, stop earning relative to men because of the gender pay gap

Equality is at the heart of UNISON

As a result of COVID-19, many conferences and meetings have had to be cancelled. With this in mind, UNISON South East organised a series of online sessions in place of the usual regional Equality Conference–online and live. The Conference was opened by Regional Manager and Head of Equality, Jo Galloway. “This year has been like […]

International Women’s Day – Black women perspective

Living at the intersection of racism and sexism is far from easy. We are discriminated against for being Black and for being women, and we exist in both identities at all times. When trying to understand a Black woman’s experiences, intersectionality is an important consideration. Intersectional discrimination has only recently been recognised, at least in […]

Women making a difference in UNISON

With more than a million women members, UNISON is always loud and proud for women at work. Tara Langan works in an NHS mental health trust in Sussex. Tara has recently become active within her branch as a steward and will soon be training as a Health & Safety rep. We spoke to her just […]

‘Empowering women is what this union does’

UNISON’s Empowering Women – Live! online event begins with speeches from general secretary Christina McAnea and deputy leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner As a result of COVID-19, many conferences and meetings have had to be cancelled. With this in mind, the national women’s committee has organised a series of online events in place […]

UNISON wins workplace protection for domestic abuse victims

New domestic abuse protection orders will help to prevent abusive partners coming to victims’ workplaces As the Domestic Abuse Bill moves through Parliament to become law, UNISON has won a key amendment to ensure that domestic abuse protection orders (DAPOs) will apply to the workplace. The new protection orders are set to replace domestic violence […]

Raising my voice against FGM

Raising my voice against FGM By Sandra Charles, Regional Women’s Committee member The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines female genital mutilation as: “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The age at which girls undergo FGM/C varies enormously according […]

Women make great Health and Safety Reps

Women make great Health and Safety Reps! There has been an increased interest in Health & Safety, and UNISON South East have recruited and are training 70 new Health & Safety Reps to work with employers and their local branch to make work safer for all our members. Reps in most workplaces will receive full […]

Women on the frontline feeling pressures at work and home during pandemic

New UNISON report shows the pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on women

International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day (8 March) is a global celebration of the economic, political and social achievements of women past and present and this year will be particularly important as it marks 100 years since the day was honoured for the first time. For more info: www.internationalwomensday.com Women’s history has been long overlooked. During the month […]

A Million Women in UNISON – 2020 National Women’s Conference

With the UK having just started its first full year under a Boris Johnson government, one of the dominant themes at conference was continuing austerity – because, aside from the announcement of a rise in the national minimum wage to come in the spring, election campaign promises to end austerity have yet to be realized. […]

Funding for our Future: a new learning grant scheme for UNISON South East low paid women members and activists

UNISON is a union of women, over 1 million of them working across the public and private sectors delivering quality public services. Our women members are in all professions, catering assistants, nurses, midday supervisors, librarians, cleaners, social workers and cooks amongst a wide variety of jobs. A large proportion of our women members are low […]

#MeToo One Year On

New research from the Fawcett Society has found that one year on from the outpouring of #MeToo stories, there has been a significant shift in attitudes to sexual harassment. According to the research released on 2 October by the Fawcett Society, the majority of people (53%) say that since #MeToo what is seen as acceptable […]

50 years of Choice for Women

The Abortion Act became law 50 years ago this week on 27 October 1967

Women’s History Month: Meet our women activists

This month we’re celebrating all things women, and what better way that to shine a light on some of our key women activists in the region? Our activists do thousands of different roles- from representing members in hearings, campaigning for equality in the workplace to leading local recruitment activities. So, if you are a UNISON member and want to […]