A woman?s place is in her union

It's your right to be a union member, and being a member protects your rights, say TUC officers Gemma Lavender and Hannah Reed

To read some newspapers you might think that women had already won equality at work. Of course, there has been real progress, but there's still a long way to go.

Look around Britain's boardrooms and you'll find they are still dominated by the old school tie. At the other end of the jobs market, most of the UK's worst-paid jobs are done by women.

And while women continue to be expected to take on the bulk of domestic and caring responsibilities, they're always going to be at a disadvantage in Britain's culture of working long hours, where promotion often depends on how many unpaid hours you put in.

What's been achieved?

We have now celebrated 30 years of the Equal Pay Act - the ground-breaking law that first gave women the right to equal pay for work of equal value. There has been a whole series of landmark cases that have since helped many women achieve a fair pay deal at work.

Julie Hayward, a qualified cook employed by Cammell Laird in the canteen at its Birkenhead shipyard was supported by her union, the GMB, and the Equal Opportunities Commission. She claimed equal pay for work of equal value with several male craft workers. The case went to the House of Lords, where in 1988 Hayward won the right to higher basic pay.

In 1987, backed by the union, MSF, a number of women speech therapists claimed equal pay with clinical psychologists and hospital pharmacists. Thirteen years later in 2000, the women won their claim, receiving a total of £12 million. The cost and length of the case bears witness to the tenacity of women and the commitment of the union that supported them.