IT WAS the hot topic of this year’s TUC Congress, but a woman’s voice was not heard in the debate on the Tories’ new anti-union laws until the fifth speaker.

But the times they are a-changin’ and this week Tracey Whittle became the first woman to represent construction union Ucatt at Congress.

It seemed an impossibility for Ms Whittle 12 years ago when decorating, which she now does for a living, was just a hobby.

But after having her third child, the Little Chef catering worker was encouraged to sign up for a course in the trade at a local college.

“I’d always enjoyed doing it at home,” she told me.

Shortly after qualifying, she found herself being harassed by two managers in her company and it was this that sparked her union activity.

“A (Ucatt) regional officer came down and saw first-hand what was happening,” she recalled.

“I said: ‘If I join, will it stop?’ and he said it would.”

After the bosses realised Ms Whittle now had the support to stand up to them, they quit their bullying tactics.

Within a few years she had become the first ever woman on Ucatt’s regional council in her area.

Now 41, Ms Whittle is self-employed and is also qualified as a carpenter.

She won a place on Ucatt’s TUC delegation this year after a vote that pitted her against a male colleague.

“It’s overwhelming — but I’ll be fighting for the other ladies out there,” she said.

Ms Whittle’s meteoric rise is particularly noteworthy in a union that has only 1,919 female members among 84,377 men — to some extent reflective of the building trade.

But even in unions with far more female members, representative structures are frequently male-dominated. How does Ms Whittle think the movement can encourage women to push themselves forward?

“For me personally, the structures have always been there for me,” she said. But she suggested that the perception of representative positions meant they did not always appeal to women as roles they can take on.

“It’s about getting the message out,” she said.

“If we continue to do what we’ve done for years, (women’s representation) will get brushed under the carpet.”