MAKE no mistake — we are facing a government that is determined to turn the clock back on women’s position in society and reverse the gains we, our mothers and grandmothers fought for and won. Women want our politicians to look outside the Westminster bubble, reflect on the evidence of the real effect of austerity on women, build a political narrative that will resonate with women and restore hope that we can rebuild our economy.

The cuts in public investment are hitting home for women in our communities. In June the government announced a £200 million cut to the public health grant provided to local councils — now Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust is trying to close the Margaret Pyke Centre which provides sexual health services.

Britain already has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in western Europe and sexual health charity FPA estimates further cuts to services will lead to an additional 83,648 live births from unplanned pregnancies.

Employment tribunal fees gave a green light to employers to discriminate against pregnant women who do not have the resources to assert their legal rights — 54,000 women each year are sacked for being pregnant.

Children are going to school hungry as women struggle to make ends meet. Our community spaces and support are being closed down. It is women who are plugging the gaps in care services for our children and older or disabled relatives.

This sits within a much wider context — in total 70 per cent of austerity has fallen on women’s shoulders. Women still on average earn a fifth less than men — black and minority ethnic women (BME) face a larger pay gap — and among all part-time workers the pay gap is twice as wide.

The parts of our economy where women are concentrated are the those where insecure, precarious work is much more prevalent and pernicious. Types of work that make it hard to calculate from week to week what your earnings will be, when rent, electricity, gas and water bills still need paying regardless of whether your employer deigned to give enough shifts to make ends meet, and whether you were able to arrange childcare at short notice. One in four women are in low-paid or insecure work.

In 2011 Iain Duncan Smith said that he was introducing universal credit because “right now a lot of the second earners have to work extra hours because the first person’s pay packet doesn’t pay.

With universal credit, staying at home or working less “then becomes an option which they can tie around their caring responsibilities, and working one, two, five hours suddenly begins to pay then that can be fitted around care.”

Under the pressure of the 24-hour demand for news and the speed of social media many stories can get lost — quickly forgotten in the quest for the latest quote.

And this quote was worth revisiting because it received little coverage at the time and has been lost in the years since. But it is instructive — there is a suggestion of a return to the main breadwinner and the carer in a couple or family. The second earner in such a household — overwhelmingly women — should mostly concentrate on caring. Their employment is simply an added extra, its only role to provide a bit of extra money for the household. Years ago it used to be called pin money.

It isn’t an accident or oversight that the government’s austerity programme is driving women into low-paid work or unemployment. Its neoliberal economic dogma requires it to force down wages and create insecurity, fear and isolation.

This government is determined to divide and blame — whether disabled workers, migrant workers, women or pregnant teenagers — and divert attention away from the real cause of our economic crisis: themselves.

The trade unions — the collective vehicles in which to organise against such inequality — have come under sustained attack with the Trade Union Bill.

The work-life balance employer survey in December 2014 found that unionised workplaces were substantially more likely to have written policies on flexible working (and job shares, term-time working, compressed working weeks and annualised hours) and enhanced maternity pay.

Unionised workplaces are also associated with higher pay — 16 per cent on average and 30 per cent for women. Equality in the workplace — for women, disabled people, LGBT and BME workers — will only happen with strong trade unions.

Alongside equality campaigners and many others in the trade union and women’s movements, I have been fighting against the dismantling of the legal protections for equality.

Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign has brought many young women into political party campaigning shown that our political system does not have to be alienating.

We are campaigning against austerity, opposing the scythe the government is taking to our services and benefits and through this undercutting women’s drive for equality; building campaigns against cuts and the movement that is the People’s Assembly Against Austerity.

It is in this spirit I will be joining many other campaigners at the Labour Assembly Against Austerity conference to speak about the effect on women and to organise and win the battle against this government.

Labour can articulate policies reflecting the energy and determination of the growing army of women determined that our voices be heard.

It’s time to restate the case for public services for all — that a national health service, social care, education and childcare are public goods. We need to reframe the debate from welfare to social security; that tax credits and universal child benefit put cash in the hands of women, enabling them to work.

We need to challenge the neoliberal consensus that the market should be left alone. New alliances are being built around investment in our infrastructure, technology, our environment, in our communities, in our people and that regulating finance to provide long-term investment rather than casino capitalism is key to growth and stability.

Our contribution as women to rebuilding our economy must be recognised. Women must not be viewed as a burden on the state — by investing in women we invest in our economy. We demand equal rights to decent work, social housing, warmth, food, education and international peace where we build mutual respect with our neighbouring countries.

We demand equal representation with men at all levels of decision-making because quite frankly women are missing from this government’s table and it shows.

• Siobhan Endean is national officer for equalities at Unite the Union.

• The Labour Assembly Against Austerity conference will take place 10am–5pm on Saturday November 14 at the Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL. Speakers include Siobhan and shadow chancellor John McDonnell, Diane Abbott, Lucy Anderson MEP, Don Flynn (Migrants’ Rights Network), Ann Pettifor (Prime) and Steve Turner (Unite). Tickets £10/£7 online or you can register on the day itself.