Take message to wider community, urges charter chairwoman

Louise Nousratpour
Sunday November 8, 2009
The Morning Star

The Charter for Women must widen its appeal beyond trade unions to engage more women and young girls, its steering committee chair said on Saturday.

Urging action at the Communist University in Croydon, Sharon Allen said that as an RMT union learning rep she had visited many schools and "it is depressing to hear that some young girls, affected by the media, aspire to ensnare a rich celebrity or appear on Big Brother.

"And they don't see the relevance of unions in their life because of a lack of job prospects."

And among wider society, Ms Allen said, many believe that women in Britain have already achieved equality.

"This is why we must take the reasonable demands of equal pay and equal opportunity outlined in the Charter for Women into the wider communities, not just trade unions," she stressed.

"I attended a Women's Institute meeting recently to promote the charter there because that is where most rural women - albeit middle class - are organised.

"When I told them about the pay gap, they were shocked," she revealed.

Ms Allen also urged activists behind the People's Charter not to ignore equality issues as "52 per cent of those people are women who suffer daily oppression.

"The two are inexplicitly linked because you cannot have social justice without addressing the injustice suffered by more than half of the population."