Equal
Rights
The
Progressive Unionist Party is conscious of the gross under- representation
of women in positions of power and influence within our society,
and is mindful of the fact that women have a vital role to play
at all levels of activity in the social, political and cultural
development of our Province. Consequently the party actively encourages
the nomination and acceptance of women as party delegates, office
bearers and candidates for election and wholeheartedly endorses
the following principles as being essential to securing justice
for women in our society:-
- Equal pay
for work of equal value and an end to women being regarded as
a source of cheap labour in low-esteem part-time jobs.
- Improved
rights for part-time workers, including the right to be represented
by a trades union and the right to equal status in Law regarding
pay and employee benefits.
- Cr�che
and nursery facilities to be made available in the workplace
to help facilitate the right of working mothers and other single
parents to take up employment opportunities,
- More benefits
for working married mothers such as Childcare Allowance, Flexible
Working Hours, Reasonable periods of emergency leave, training
schemes and further educational opportunities.
- Childcare
to be accepted as a universal right and to be to be looked upon
as a partnership approach involving local authorities, schools,
the voluntary sector, trades unions and parents.
- Adequate
levels of welfare benefits to ensure realistic financial maintenance
for children and for single-parent families.
- The legal
right of non wage-earning women to adequate financial support.
- More financial
and material support for women who have taken responsibility
for households due to the imprisonment of their partner.
- Full and
complete health checks for women of child-bearing age with particularly
reference to screening for breast and cervical cancer.
- The right
of women to have intimate examinations carried out by a women
doctor.
- A more
open and adequate sex education programme backed up by a free
comprehensive family planning service for all.
- Acknowledgement
of an individual's right to control one's own body irrespective
of marital status together with an acceptance of a woman's right
to choose whether to continue with or whether to terminate a
pregnancy.
- The extension
of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland together with a
confidential and non-judgmental advisory service on abortion
and related issues together with access to free confidential
treatment as urgently as required.
- More adequate
provision of facilities and support for victims of domestic
violence, rape, sexual assault and incest, and a strengthening
of the law in relation to rape and all forms of sexual assault.
- More stringent
endeavours to tackle and eliminate sexual harassment in the
workplace.