Violence against women, pay disparity and sexual harassment topics for discussion at People Before Profit meeting in Lurgan

Fiona Ferguson. a community activist with People Before Profit (PBP) for over 10 years and who recently served North Belfast as a councillor for four years was joined by local activists Padraig Cairns at a meeting in Lurgan last week.

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Top of the agenda was #Socialism and The Fight For Women's Liberation’. Ms Ferguson said: “While women experience discrimination in pay disparity, sexual harassment and blocked access to their reproductive rights, it was also noted that working class women are statistically far more likely to experience all of the above."

Fiona noted that ‘modern day feminism focuses on trying to achieve more women being represented in political institutions or in the board rooms of big companies, but this doesn't alleviate the conditions of working class women. The 3 biggest parties in the north were all led by women recently - Arlene Foster, Michelle O'Neill and Naomi Long. However, NI is still one of the most dangerous places in Europe for women, with police responding to domestic calls on average every 16 minutes (PSNI Domestic Abuse Statistics). Our own community sadly lost Natalie McNally to intimate partner violence recently. It paints a picture of a society that needs real change and real equality for women, not simply representation among institutions’.

Fiona also spoke about the issue of the ‘double burden’ wherein women are overwhelmingly tasked with childcare, or the care of older relatives, while also being expected to work to provide income for her household. She said: “Women today are also having to choose between sacrificing almost a full salary for the extortionate costs of full-time childcare so that she can continue in her career, or sacrificing her career to care for her children full time (which also disproportionately affects working class women, for economic reasons).”

Ms Ferguson said: “How do we achieve better conditions? Through learning from previous struggles, such as the Suffragettes, and realising that mass movements of women fighting together for a better society is the only way to affect real change. Through working together, standing with striking workers, getting out into the streets to protest things like the right to choose. Fighting for universal public childcare to alleviate the double burden and allow women to be able to prioritise their careers, if they wish.”

Lurgan activist, Padraig Cairns, said: "As a socialist and trade unionist, speaking to women on picket lines outside our hospital recently or elsewhere, it's clear that the issues facing women in our community are stark. Successive female first ministers have done little to alleviate the hardships women face today. This is why we in People Before Profit believe Lurgan and Craigavon need a community-based movement to call for real change, such as public childcare, such as an end to the gender pay gap, such as the right to live and work free from sexual harassment. That's what we're about."