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Poverty as an inability to attain a minimum standard of living a standard of living in which women have equal access to political, social, economic, spiritual and physical rights. IWD is an opportunity to highlight the ways in which dominant institutions perpetuate poverty among women. Institutions continue to make sexist policies based on assumptions that women are equal and rich. Women are silenced in decisions that directly affect our lives because poverty prevents access to these dominant institutions. Living costs for Australian women continue to increase. Governments are not hearing the voices of women because we are consumers on relatively low incomes. As women do not have an input into decisions which affect living costs, we are forced to pay luxury taxes on essential items such as sanitary pads and tampons. The proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) will impact heavily on women: since women are already over-represented in low income brackets, an extra 10% on all basic items will have a significant impact on living standards. In the paid workforce, the average female wage remains approximately 66% of the average male wage. Increasing casualisation of the labour market has meant that a high proportion of women workers are in casual or part-time work. The majority of these jobs offer little job security and are low paid, as well as having minimal representation for workers. The Workplace Relations Act has made it even harder for women to negotiate work conditions. Enterprise bargaining and declining opportunity for union involvement in enterprise bargaining means that women and other disadvantaged workers, such as migrants, who hold the majority of part-time, casual and low status jobs, have great difficulty protecting their workplace rights. Rights to childcare, superannuation, maternity leave and pay increments are being removed. The commodification of tertiary education, both at TAFE and university, excludes women on low incomes from higher education. As low income earners, women are less likely to be able to buy access to education than men. Expensive up-front fees eliminate access for women who may have been able to study if a reasonable pay-back scheme was in place. However, women are disadvantaged even in a pay- back system: it is estimated that one in four women will still be repaying their HECS debt at the age of 65, as compared to one in 25 men. The proposed legislation for voluntary student unionism (VSU) is an attempt to destroy the student union movement. VSU will eradicate union resources specifically for women students. Women-only safe spaces, libraries, sexual harassment referral officers, safety on campus and student representation in university and other administrations will be abolished. It is also important to acknowledge that the economic oppression of women is intrinsically linked to other oppressions women experience. Many women are also affected by such things as racism, ageism, able-bodiedism, queerphobia. This article does not mean to give a "generalised" perspective on women's economic oppression: listening to the experiences of many different women and exploring the relationship between our position as women and our class, culture, age, spirituality and many other identities is one way we can build up an understanding of how poverty affects women. These are many reasons why the Brisbane IWD Collective decided on the theme Women in Poverty. But, despite the stark reality, women are also rich in solidarity, determination, intelligence, networks, experience and courage, and we'll keep on sharing this until we get our fair share. Join us at King George Square as we use our voices, feet and lives to display our continual survival
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Women everywhere in Australia
are still living in poverty! The Brisbane International
Women's Day Collective has chosen "Women in
Poverty'" as the theme for this year's International
Women's Day.