International Women's Day 2023

Today we are celebrating every woman in the UCU that is standing up for a better workplace.

I am proud to lead this union alongside an all-women Presidential team and women reps up and down the UK. Women who are dedicated and passionate about getting change across our sectors.

We know that pay, pensions, workload and casualisation are feminist workplace issues. We know that abortion rights are a feminist workplace issue, and that they are under threat. We know that gender-based violence and sexual harassment are feminist workplace issues. We know protecting and extending the legal rights encompassing pregnancy, maternity and menopause are feminist workplace issues. And we know that these issues are intermixed with racism, ableism, anti-LGBT+ and anti-migrant issues.

We, at UCU, will never shy away from highlighting the intersectional issues facing our women members and we will never shy away from driving forward change to address them.

So my message to all of our women members in higher education, further education, prison education and adult education is this:

Let's be the ones who don't just talk about equality, but deliver it.

For ourselves, and those who come after.

In solidarity

Jo Grady
UCU general secretary