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Magazine Issue 9 - Autumn 1999 | ||
| Men Behaving Badly When biotech firm Monsanto announced its intention to force genetically modified foods on the public, it couldn't have predicted the wave of resistance that was unleashed. But it was no coincidence that five of a group of six activists from direct action group GenetiX Snowball, taken to court by the company for pulling up some of its GM crops, were women. Katrina Fox reports... From Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragettes chaining themselves to railings and demanding women's right to vote, through to MP Barbara Castle who stood shoulder to shoulder with women workers in the 1960s campaigning for equal pay, women have had to battle constantly with a predominantly male establishment - corporate man - and that battle continues to the present day. "Corporate man is a closed, cliquey bunch of men who only pay lip service to women's issues," says trade union activist Lydia Richards. And some of them don't even do that. "One employer that was about to privatise an NHS trust said to me: 'What do you mean, you've got to have a maternity policy? Can't you just give me a list of all the women that are pregnant and we'll sack them before we take over' The Problem With Families Issues surrounding children are the ones most likely to lead to confrontation. "Corporate man is very child un-friendly," says Doris Henderson, women's officer at banking union Unifi. "People are expected to work long hours every day - it's the jacket on the back of the chair scenario to let everyone know how late you're working. That aspect of male culture means women coming into the workplace are challenged by it if they have commitments at home." Despite the government's Employment Relations Bill attempting to put family-friendly policies on the agenda by granting employees three month's unpaid parental leave, in practice, only the top earners, who are predominantly men, can afford to take this sort of time off work. Women who return to work after maternity leave are often met with hostility, says Henderson, "or they find they are invisible because they dared to leave employment for a few months to have a child. “We, as a union, are still dealing with cases where an employer refuses to give a female employee time off to attend the ante-natal clinic." The Bully Boy Environment Certain industries are particularly hostile at letting women into their ranks, even at the most junior levels. Christine Gaudsen is a chartered builder. She has few positive things to say about the industry. "Construction is a field that readily lends itself to a bully boy environment. “It's very hierarchical so there's always someone below to pick on. If the men have wives who are subservient, they treat all women that way." In meetings, Gaudsen finds her suggestions are mostly ignored and even those men who are quietly supportive of her would never dare say so, because of peer pressure. Of course there are firms who boast of equal opportunities for women, but Gaudsen questions their motives. "It's probably only for reasons of commercial gain," she says. "Things have changed very little over the 30 years that I have worked in construction and it's not going to change vastly in my lifetime." Marginalising Minorities If a white woman finds it hard to break through the glass ceiling, how much more difficult it is for ethnic minority women, and how much harder still for black or Asian lesbians. "You need armour to go into corporate man," says Anne Heyfield, training officer at Lesbian and Gay Employment Rights (LAGER). "Being a black lesbian in the corporate world is so isolating. To be promoted, you need to get on well with people, so you never feel able to challenge someone if they make sexist, racist or homophobic comments." In her second job out of school she was the only black woman in a large group and was just coming to terms with her sexuality. "Everyone else was white, male and in their 40s so there was no one else to talk to on any level." When Hillingdon Hospital Trust in London tendered out its cleaning contract to Pall Mall Services in 1994, which then cut employees' pay, the workers, predominantly Asian women, went on strike. They were dismissed, disowned by their union Unison who accepted the new conditions, and remain on a picket line to this day. "The employers think they can take advantage of us. They say 'Oh, Asian women, they can't speak English," says strike leader Malkiat Bilku. Things are little better for those in more senior professions. Dr Jayshree Pillaye, MD and co-chair of the Professional Afro-Asian Women's Association has found her experiences of working in the NHS very negative. "It's all about men meeting up with men for dinner - a real old boy's network. When you remind them of minority policies, you come up against a brick wall. They think if you are an Asian woman, you aren't supposed to think, so when you speak, they don't know how to deal with it." Wages For Housework? But it's not just from within the workplace that women have trouble with corporate man. Since 1972, the International Wages for Housework Campaign has been pressing for pay for the unwaged work women do, as well as campaigning against multinationals such as McDonalds. "Women are the major target of McDonald's practices and products, their advertising techniques and misinformation," said a spokeswoman. The group also accuse government bodies such as the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of acting as a lobby for the food industry rather than protecting the public. Women's access to alternative information of all kinds is limited by poverty and overwork, claims the campaign. Ironic really, when you consider that women grow most of the world's food. Rowan Tilly's encounter with Monsanto was not her first run-in with corporate man. She was part of the women's peace movement, first at Greenham Common in the 1980s protesting against cruise missiles, then working for the Women's Environmental Network (WEN). She believes that corporate man's greed and indifference is the biggest threat to our world. "It's hard to get to the human beings behind corporate man. They seem to be surrounded by a veneer of blankness. We all feel it at times - it's what makes us step over homeless people in the street and corporate man is the epitome of indifference." WEN is no stranger to controversy either, having taken on the likes of household products manufacturer Procter and Gamble. "Their publicity claimed that nappies did not have any impact on the environment," says Ann Link, campaigner. "We told them we were researching and going to challenge them." WEN eventually took the firm to the Advertising Standards Authority and won. "Corporate man acts first and considers later," says Link. "They believe in imposing things on us, thinking that once we have it, it will be too late to campaign to stop it." Chinks In The Armour It can be hard for small groups to go up against the corporate giants. They have huge publicity machines churning out propaganda and hiding their dirty secrets, as well as the benefit of the libel laws, which are used against newspapers, individuals and groups who dare to expose the truth. "The threat of libel charges has potentially devastating effects when it silences any industry's critics - the campaign against Thalidomide is one glaring example of this," says the spokeswoman for the International Wages for Housework Campaign. But those who dare to challenge often reveal chinks in corporate man's armour. Monsanto took out an injunction against Tilly and the other activists from GenetiX Snowball, but in April the women won the right to a full trial to challenge the injunction. Monsanto had hoped they would go away, but instead it looks as though the firm will have to launder its dirty linen in public in September or October. In 1990 Helen Steel, together with Dave Morris took on McDonalds, which accused them of libel when they distributed leaflets criticising the firm's ethical, health and environmental polices and its advertising. Although the court ruled that the two had libelled McDonalds, it found, embarrassingly for the firm, that some of the allegations in the leaflet were true. An appeal in March this year found that more of the allegations were true and the two intend to take their case to the House of Lords to overturn the original court's decision. Women will continue to be at the forefront of campaigning for peace and equality. On June 18 activists from all over the world descended on the financial districts in 40 countries to protest against global capitalism. In the UK the signs of social unrest were plain to see, with rioting and chaos in the streets. The City of London was given a wake-up call. "If we don't act, it will be too late," says Tilly. "I look back in history and see small groups of isolated people lighting torches and passing them on. It is up to us to pass those torches onto the next generation. We must take a radical approach to corporate man - to try and get beyond the armour and find the human beings inside." Useful info and contacts: International Wages for Housework Campaign Tel: 0171 482 2496 genetiX snowball Tel: 0161 834 0295 Women's Environmental Network Tel: 0171 247 3327 |