The world of work is changing rapidly. Women in the labour market are facing huge challenges. Job insecurity is rising and the gender equality gaps are widening. The employment gap between women and men stands at 10 per cent. The gender pay gap persists, with a woman earning on average 82 pence for every £1 earned by a man.

The most recent EU report on the gender pension gap shows that in Britain the average pension gap remains at 30 per cent.

Women make up over 65 per cent of the public-sector workforce and are more likely to lose their jobs as the coalition government’s austerity measures and public-spending cuts continue apace. The impact of austerity has had a disproportionate effect on black, disabled, LGBT and young workers, many of whom are facing multiple forms of barriers and discrimination in employment.

The economic outlook for the public sector remains bleak. Over 500,000 public-sector jobs have already been lost and another 900,000 are expected to be lost by 2019.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies Green Budget 2015 published last week highlighted Office for Budget Responsibility figures which indicate that 60 per cent of the cuts from the austerity plans are yet to come.

Because 98 per cent of the austerity package presented in the Autumn Statement will come from spending cuts, this will bring public spending down to 1930s levels. In effect another £60 billion of cuts will need to be found in the next four years.

Public-spending cuts on such a scale and the prospect of the biggest austerity package in the world would destroy public services.

In the last five years, women’s employment has become more precarious and uncertain, fuelled by a growth in temporary and insecure work.

Use of zero-hours contracts has risen dramatically in the last few years across many sectors including education, health, local government and social care.

Office for National Statistics figures show that the number of people on such contracts has risen to 1.4 million. The total number of people on precarious contracts is as high as 2.7 million and these workers generally earn less than permanently employed workers. TUC research shows that 55 per cent of zero-hours contact workers are women.

All this is driving down workers’ living standards and leaving female workers on poverty pay, poor terms and conditions and vulnerable to exploitation from unscrupulous companies wanting to make a quick profit in the public sector.

The social care sector is a case in point. The majority of care workers are women, young and migrant workers. They look after the most vulnerable people in the Britain — the elderly and the disabled. The vulnerability and exploitation in this sector relate, in the main, to the shift from public to private-sector employment.

The private sector now accounts for 97 per cent of employment in the social care sector. Women have moved from permanent and secure jobs to precarious and insecure contracts. Moreover, local authorities are now commissioning rather than providing social care. And cuts to local authority funding and budgets are driving down pay and services.

According to the National Audit Office, a staggering 220,000 care workers are illegally being paid below the statutory national minimum wage of £6.50 an hour — as most care workers are on zero-hours or temporary agency contracts, with employers cutting out paid time wherever they can. Many care workers are denied payment for travelling between jobs. We want to see an end to this shameful exploitation of workers.

Unison has published an Ethical Care Charter calling on councils to commit to establish a minimum baseline for safety, quality and dignity of care and to ensure employment conditions which do not short-change clients and ensure stable employment, pay and conditions for workers.

In addition, Unison continues to put pressure on the government to launch a new series of investigations by HMRC into the care sector to end the scandal of care workers being paid below the minimum wage.

But it does not have to be this way. We can have a fairer society with job security and a living wage. There are alternatives to austerity, pay cuts and job losses.

Trade unions are more crucial than ever. Workers’ rights are under attack. Women’s rights, years of hard-won progress on equality and access to justice are being eroded. This is made worse by the imposition of fees to access employment tribunals and a 91 per cent drop in sex discrimination cases.

Women are a powerful group in society and a powerful force for change. Women’s voices make a difference. Trade union women have been mobilising to resist these pernicious attacks to pay and working conditions. Women in Unison have been at the forefront in campaigning for alternatives to austerity and to protect public services.

Unison women played a leading role in the TUC’s Britain Needs a Pay Rise national demonstration last October, in addition to taking action in schools, education, health, social care and local government.

The proportion of female members in trade unions continues to rise. Women make up 46 percent of the TUC and 75 percent of Unison’s membership. Women’s voices are growing stronger every day. Organising women in trade unions is crucial in widening collective bargaining coverage and building a strong and dynamic trade union presence at work.

Trade unions are a bulwark against the abuse and excess of corporate power. Yet in many areas, whether in the workplace or beyond, women hold the balance of power where their voices and votes are crucial in deciding the outcome of many policies.

Unions empower women to change policies that are affecting their lives, to assert their rights to equality and to mobilise to change their position at work and in the society. Women’s voices and votes matter.

Moreover, strength in numbers is an important factor in resisting job losses, cuts to pay, terms and conditions and in building a strong, growing and dynamic union. Women are stronger together in Unison.