SOCIALIST Outlook has always supported the fight for women to control their fertility which is a central aspect of the struggle for women's liberation. We understand that women's role in the family is central to womens' oppression in class society.
In the 1990's women continue to be treated as second class citizens. Unless women have the right to decide if when and how to have children we will have little control over other aspects of our lives.
Despite the passing of laws such as the Equal ay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act, womer are far from equal in the world of work. Job Segregation still exists with women concentrated in jobs where skills such as caring or manual dexterity are important to carrying out the work. Women are still paid less than men and part time and casual jobs are on the increase. The lack of childcare provision ano ine act ma women are bearing the brunt of the cuts in the welfare state and taking on increased responsibility for elderly dependents makes it increasingly difficult for women to take full time jobs.
In the Autumn of 1995, of the 11.3 million women who were in employment 44.5 per cent of these worked part time in their main job. 751,000 women had second part time jobs. The pay is these jobs is in general so low that many women earnt less than allows them to pay national insurance contributions and thereby claim certain benefits.
Women's average hourly earnings (excluding overtime) were 79.6 per cent of men's. While more and more women are sole or primary breadwinners in their households this low earning power is still justified by womens' position in the family.
In the past tew years we nave witnessed an ideological offensive by those who want to bolster the traditional familv. We have seen. for examole the introduction of the so called Child Support Act, or as it should be called, the Treasury Act which is an attack on women's ability to get benefits.
There is a contradictory situation developing, however, where some right wing ideologues and politicians would like to emphasise the primacy of women playing their 'natural' role of wife, mother At the same time capitalism needs a supply of flexible and cheap labour. And for others on the right the opposition to state intervention extends to the area of personal life and the family. This is the context in which figures such as Theresa Gorman have supported womens' abortion rights.
The Womens' Liberation movement which developed in Britain the late sixties and seventies ought concerted campaigns on the related ques tions of women's position in the family and the workplace. Through mass action women were able to win important victories and gain important backing in the unions and the labour party. The support of trade unionists and the TUC was important in defeating the various attempts through parliament to restrict even further the limited rights women had The notion of post-feminist is as irrelevant to women today as the idea that the class struggle is dead they have children. The limited reproductive rights that women have are once again under attack. This attack is taking many forms and pro-choice supporters will have to step up our campaigning not only to defend these limited rights, but to begin the fight to exteno tem Today the fight for womens' liberation remains as central as ever to the struggle for socialism. The idea of post-feminist is as irrelevant to women today as the idea that the class struggle is dead was to the 86% of those questioned in a recent poll. The womens' liberation movement may have fragmented but it had an impact on the lives of thousands and thousands of women. far bevond those actually involved in its activities. Crucially young women growing up today have much higher expectations than women of earlier generations. The gap between these expectations and the reality of womens' lives in 1990's Britain could well lead to an eve don - won through the 1967 A DOTTON ACI Socialists and feminists continue to fight for the right of women to control their lives, and to decide if, when and how