TUC Women’s Conference 2024 – Women who represent women in the workplace, society and across the world
The annual TUC Women’s Conference was held from 6 to 8 March in London, with the BDA being represented by Rachael Hawthorne, Northern Ireland representative on the BDA Trade Union National Executive Committee (TUNEC) and Annette Mansell-Green, Director of Trade Union and Public Affairs.
This conference is the only democratic event of the year that brings together women who represent women in the workplace, in society and across the world and as such we’ve come to call it the annual Parliament of Women.
It takes place in March to coincide with International Women’s Day every year and you can see a blog on this written by Annette Mansell-Green here, which gives an overview of the conference and what was discussed and presented.
As women make up the majority of trade union members across the UK and the workforce in the NHS it is really important that we are represented and are able to participate in the policy making process of the TUC. We can make positive changes for women at work and in society through our engagement, which is something to be celebrated.
This year we were particularly pleased to take two motions to the conference on the subjects of menopause at work and rights for carers at work.
The subjects for the motions were discussed and decided by participants at our annual Rep’s Conference and then finally agreed by TUNEC. This gave us the confidence that we were putting forward issues that are important to our members.
Motions are debated at the conference and if agreed by majority they go forward as policy for the TUC Women’s Committee to progress within their work programme.
Both of our motions were successful with supportive speeches coming from a wide range of unions.
Rachael, did a fantastic job representing BDA members and gave a brilliant speech on why more support is needed for women experiencing the menopause at work. We had the opportunity to engage with colleagues from other AHP unions and the wider union movement, which will help us with future collaboration.
