Equality: Voices in Union

Key Issues

Topic 1: Gender pay justice and gender inequality at work

One way to consider the relevance of gender equality campaigning today, is to think about pay justice. Gender pay justice was a key component of the 2022/23 EIS Pay Attention campaign. This campaign marked the first time teachers took national strike action in Scotland since the 1980s.

A 2-year strike campaign from 1984 to 1986 by Scottish teachers against Thatcher’s policies, resulted in a pay review and major pay award near identical to the one won this year.

This campaign won a common pay scale for primary and secondary teachers, which would reduce the gender pay gap as the proportion of women in primary teaching is greater than in secondary.

About this topic

Gender equality is an important component to EIS’s equality work. Over 80% of the members we represent as a Union, are women.

This topic will talk about gender equality at work, through looking specifically at the gender pay gap.

Overview

1. Introduction: Gender and trade unions

What is Gender Inequality
Learning Points:
  • Gender inequality is cumulative and affects people across their whole life cycle, it is not a one-off event.
  • There is a difference between minoritized and marginalised. Women, as a social group, are marginalised in society. Just because women are in the majority, globally, doesn’t mean that they do not experience marginalisation, as the world is set up and designed by and for men.
  • You may not have experienced inequality personally, but that does not mean that women are not disproportionately more likely to be affected by inequality.
 

Reflective question:

Think about key milestones in a person’s life (being born, going to school, relationships, first job, becoming a parent, going for promotion, retiring and so on).

What are some examples of where the experiences of these milestones differ between men and women?

Some may wonder whether gender inequality still exists in modern Scotland, or feel that different experiences between genders are not really to do with inequality but preference, and that men and women are simply inherently different.

Historically in trade unions, we are used to seeing men on the frontline, but there are countless examples of women leading the charge for workplace rights.

In 1888, the Women’s Trade Union League Secretary Clementina Black successfully moved a motion at TUC Congress for equal pay for equal work, which laid the foundation for the equal pay legislation we have today. Despite this legislation, the pay gap remains. In 2022, Close the Gap reported that the gender pay gap in Scotland decreased only from 10.4% to 10.1% between 2020 and 2021. 

Within the EIS, women led the charge for equal rights to training, and for the removal of differential pay for primary and secondary teachers. The majority of those marching in the streets of Glasgow for fair pay for teachers in 2018’s Value Education Value Teachers campaign demo, were women.

So, we still see that gender dynamics and structures have material effects on women’s lives and livelihoods. As trade unionists, Fair Work for women is an essential consideration – how can work offer effective voice, opportunity, security, fulfilment and respect for women, and address the barriers that exist, today?