First international conference on
Women and Work work, Sexual identity and self-per- starting point. Women represent an ever-
D. ERBA and R. CARBONI TURIN - The first conference of women from industrialised countries on the theme of women and work was held here on April 23-25.
The aim of the conference was to look at all aspects of women's work, inside and outside the home, and women's work in relationship to their role in the family. This approach was summed up in the title *Produce and Reproduce, Women and
The idea for the conference was put forward after some women from the Intercategoriale donne CGIL-CISL-UIL (the interprofessional women's commission of the three Italian trade-union confederations) attended a conference on women and work organised by the women's groups of the neighbourhoods and workplaces in Paris in November 1981. The conference was organised jointly by the organisations in Turin (see International Viewpoint No 25, March 7, 1983). group revealed two approaches to conference: those who saw the conference as an opportunity to compare the different experiences of women organised in trade unions and in the workplaces with a view to organising European-wide campaigns, and those who wanted to use the conference to 'oblige' sections of the women's movement that had never taken up the questions of women and work to do so.
The preparation of the conference, and the discussion that took place at it, reflected a compromise between these two positions. The preparatory papers and the workshop discussions covered broad range of topics: Wage-earning women, Women in Self-employment or in Self-managed Work, Domestic Labour, New Technology, Social Services and services run by women, were the topics of the first day's workshop. On the second day the themes were: The family 12 and ception, Culture, Feminism and power/ Women and politics, Trade unions and feminism.
The organising committee felt the conference needed to be a working conference where issues could be debated through, rather than a mass gathering This required a limit on the number of women attending in order that discussion material, translation facilities, etc. could be available to all. The original limit set was 500 women including 200 Italians. Many more women than this applied to come, and so for the first time that we know of there was the problem of selecting women to attend a feminist conference. Two national meetings were held in Italy to discuss this problem and each time it was left up to the different countries to discuss the criteria for a representative delegation.
The women attending were whitecollar and industrial workers, trade-unionists and trade-union officials, from women's committees and groups, researchers and university teachers. The bulk of women were whitecollar workers and trade-union members. There were a large number of trade-union officials from Belgium, Britain, Italy and Spain. A representative from the women's commission of the EEC also
In fact more than 650 women attend-
France, Spain, the Netherlands, West Germany, Sweden, the USA, Malta, Greece, Britain, Ireland, Luxemburg, Japan and Australia. There were particularly large delegations from France and
Many different points of view were represented, from very different components of the women's movement, which produced three days of intense and often unequal discussion.
### WOMEN AND WORK
The conference set out with the aim of analysing what has changed over the last ten years in the relationship between women and their work. There is some basic statistical information which provides a growing percentage, indeed the often majority of, the increase in the active workforce available. This is particularly the case for the 25-35 age range, which was previously characterised by a sharp drop in the number of women working as it was the prime period for childbearing.
This increase in the available workforce has not been matched by an increase in the jobs available, except in the service sector. There has been an increase in the number of women looking for jobs, and an increase in the number of unemployed women. For example, in the Common Market countries the number of women unemployed rose from 1.1 million in 1975 to 4.3 million in 1982.
The increase in educational opportunities for women has increased expectations in regard to jobs, but jobs taken often require a lower level of skills and qualifications than women have. The impact of the women's movement has also increased awareness among broad layers of women - leading them to see themselves as individuals, as unemployed workers, rather than anonymous housewives. This has stimulated them to fight for their own independence, including economic independence, despite the sacrifices this can entail. But how will this awareness and radicalisation survive the blows inflicted by the ruling class determination to make the working class pay for the crisis?
These were some of the elements in the present situation of women taken up by the conference.
COMMON FEATURES IN ATTACKS ON WOMEN
The contributions by women from so many different countries helped to produce a clearer understanding of the way in which these attacks are being carried out. A clear picture emerged despite the different political situations, there were common elements in all the European countries:
- there is a generalised attack on
employment, which most severely attacks weakest part of the workforce: there is an increase in part-time work under different forms (eg the 'free Wednesdays' in France, remaining at home but on call in Germany, the spread in job sharing schemes, or as in the commercial sector in Italy, working only those days of the week or times of the year when demand is heavy),
- the spreading concept of the 'family wage' through increasing dependents allowances and unemployment bendeveloping 'new theories' on which the should base discussions on productive labour and domestic labour, the division of labour within the family and the role of childbearing, came mainly from Italian intellectuals and trade-union officials, who probably feel the most threatened by dynamic that a strong independent active women's movement would create.
This approach was expressed in the summary report from the workshop on discrimination at work and in
Belgian women who have been involved in the Belgian women's campaign Femmes contre la crise' over the last three years. Joint activity between women's groups and the union rank and file laid the basis for the campaign which has now won the participation of the major unions and progressive political parties.
The main themes of the campaign agreed at Turin are:
- defence of women's right to work and economic independence
- opposition to governmental and employers policies which discriminate opportunities for the 'heads of families'
This latter point is illustrated by the should not lead us into the trap of accept- a shorter working week with no loss example of Italy where at the same time as there is a severe attack on the inflation-indexing of wages wages in general, government decrees have increased allowances for dependents. The trade unions and political parties have agreed to this trade-off. similar developments in Spain.
At the same time there are propaganda campaigns throughout Europe value' private and family life. In this context part-time work is often put forward as a means of women reconciling their role as mother/homemaker and worker.
Again, on a European-wide level there are cuts in public spending, with obvious consequences on jobs in the service sector - where many women are employed, and on the quality of life for women. This puts pressure on women to return to the family and drop out of the active work force and social involvement.
Another common feature came out in looking at how the trade-union leaderships respond to the effect of the crisis. They base their perspectives on what is "possible', what is compatible with the difficult to get union bodies to take up
This was the common framework to the discussion at the conference, despite the different experiences and different ways of expression that continually arose during the three days. The basic premise of each discussion, whether on personal identity or new technology, was the economic crisis although there were many divergent approaches.
WHAT SOLUTION TO THE CRISIS?
The existence of the economic crisis was the basis for the proposals by some particularly some trade-union officials, to accept the crisis as a given fact, which cannot be changed by the present relationship of class forces, try to use the actual opportunities that the crisis itself provides.
The same basic facts were used to argue for a different approach. That now is the time to rebuild the women's movement as an active movement, with the groupings of women that already exist, to try and broaden the struggle to involve new layers of women.
Accusations that this approach was 'out of date' and not oriented towards
"The objective difficulties arising from ing that sacrifices necessarily follow from the crisis, and that we must only aim for what is possible and compatible.
'Our starting point must be our real needs, daring to go beyond what is 'possible', the limits of so-called 'common sense'
•We have identified our field of action as the defence won - above all the right to a job. Without this right all further discussion on different possibilites, new areas of strug gle, run the risk of making us lose out or even integrating us further into the sys-
*For these reasons we have identified our main objective as a generalised reduction in working hours, without loss of pay, to be linked to forms of workers control to abolish overtime' ference came to such a clear conclusion. However, during the three days there was a growing awareness of the need to defend what we have won, not to lose the elements of our identity that we have put together with such difficulty over the last ten years, not to look for shortcuts. This common feeling was present in all the conclusions presented to conference by the various discussion groups, although expressed in many different ways.
### ACTION PROPOSALS
The conference was not just an opportunity to talk, it also came up with many proposals for future activity. These include:
setting up an international information network on new technology, based on an existing data bank created by British women, and to organise an annual meeting in a European country, to be chosen on a rotational basis to set up a co-ordinating committee of women's co-operatives to compile detailed information about them to set up a documentation centre on women and work in Turin.
WOMEN AGAINST THE CRISIS - A EUROPEAN CAMPAIGNING SLOGAN
For us, the most significant proposal to come out of the conference was to launch an international campaign on the slogan 'Women against the Crisis'.
This proposal came from several against or particularly affect women
- opposition to part-time work, for of pay.
The approach to organising the campaign put forward by the discussion group on Sexual Discrimination at Work and in Politics was generally agreed:
The content of the programme should be elaborated for each national situation, and must also take into account the position of immigrant women, so that it becomes a real European-wide point of
One of the fundamental aims must be to bring together the greatest number of women, not simply working women but also housewives, unemployed, young women, those who still feel isolated individuals as well as organised women's groups.
The initiative must be taken by the women's movement, although organisational methods cannot be defined in advance and must be adapted to diffor the self-organisation of Women trade unionists and members of political parties must be prepared to fight for the programmme of the campaign in their organisations, not vice
The proposed activities for this campaign were to hold an international Tribunal in Belgium in March 1984 on all forms of sexual discrimination women confront at work, and later a European-wide women's demonstration.
A secretariat for this campaign has been established in Brussels as an international reference point. against the Crisis' organising committee has already been formed in Turin involving women who were at the conference.
The final documentation and proposwill be sent to all those who participated giving the contacts for the future activities. the conference will also be published.
Despite all the differences of approach and opinion the conference marked a step forward in translating what women feel today into forms of struggle and organi-
After initial hesitation, the participants expressed their desire to organsie to involve other women, to undertake broadly based actions, to broaden their field of activity. Now we have to move ahead in this perspective.
Dynamic of the spirit of the East German constitution, are unconvincing to those who are really concerned about peace.
Actions such as "Peace Weeks," which have been held repeatedly over the last three years under the auspices of the Protestant church, have shown how exfree