Women will rise! Recalling the Working Women’s Charter includes chapters by women who promoted the Charter, and others looking at what has been achieved since — and what remains to be done.
In the late 1970s, as the women’s movement was fracturing, trade union women put forward a new agenda to bring feminists and women workers together. The one-page, 16-clause Working Women’s Charter covered …
★ the right to work
★ equal pay
★ an end to discrimination at work
★ better conditions, family leave, flexible work arrangements
★ free, quality childcare
★ reproductive rights
… and more. Challenged by patriarchal union traditions, the women worked hard to win union support for their demands.
