The Global Women’s Strike is a unique and powerful opportunity for me as an Intensive Care Nurse working in the UK to take decisive action and send a clear message to the world about how things need to change.

As a nurse, the Global Women’s Strike represents a golden opportunity to act in protest against the devaluing of women’s and girl’s work. There are myriad, creative ways to demonstrate dissent without compromising safety and standards. Nurses could wear stickers on their clothing or bands around their arms to show solidarity. Other ideas include signing, and asking patients and their relatives and friends to sign petitions for mailing to hospital managers, nursing journals/ other publications and the Royal College of Nursing. The possibilities are endless.

Many people have been (mis)led by the media, educational institutions and the medical and nursing professions themselves into believing that striking always involves walking out of the hospitals and leaving our patients to suffer and die. But in many countries throughout the world: Ireland, the USA, Canada, France to name a few, nurses have gone on strike to protest against the sexism and lack of compassion that is inherent in the management of caring institutions.

When I was in my first year of nursing, the Australian Nurses Federation backed strike action in South Australia. I was "on strike" -- in my first week on the wards! -- as part of well organised, creative action. The strategies were designed to avoid compromising patient care for as long as possible and to highlight the diversity of the work that nurses do. We protested and picketed through the streets of Adelaide, to Parliament House; we stopped wearing uniforms to work and we worked to rule, meaning we stopped carrying out all the extra little (but important) non-nursing jobs, such as writing x ray or blood forms for doctors, only dealing with enquiries relating directly to patient care. We never ended up having to walk out, as we received a pay rise and other demands relating to work conditions were met.

I am also a lesbian, who has been lucky enough not to have experienced any overt discrimination or abuse. Unfortunately my wife (we were married in Holland) has not been so lucky, having been abused verbally and threatened by a patient . . . and received the very minimum of support from her manager and colleagues. She also has a colleague who attempts to "convert" her to heterosexuality on a regular basis, alternatively by interrogating her about why she "chose" to be a lesbian, and then quoting the Bible to her and sparing no detail of the punishments awaiting her in the afterlife. Other workmates sat nearby hearing all that was said, yet offering no support or defence , yet if the comments were being made to another minority group, it’s more likely the offensive comments would not have been tolerated . . . which demonstrates that homophobia is often accepted in and out of the workplace and people are reluctant to intervene.

Another frustrating and unjust aspect of lesbian life is the blatant legal discrimination we encounter...financially and socially. We are denied financial rewards (eg tax relief, pensions), parenting rights and immigration status in most countries.

Nursing is an amazing profession: stimulating and rewarding in a way that perhaps only "caring" jobs can be. It is also extremely demanding: physically, mentally and emotionally. It is exhausting work, especially as it is shift work, notorious for being detrimental to health and social/ family life. It is a job fraught with danger also: nurses are regularly exposed to infectious diseases, body fluids and violent patients/ visitors.

Nurses have varying levels of formal education, and are expected these days to know about human biology, pharmacology, chemistry, politics, psychology and more; our registration body, The UKCC requires each nurse to continue their education throughout their career, or their registration is revoked. Yet nursing is still regarded as a vocation, many people believe that nurses are born, not made, that caring just comes naturally, that it’s not really hard work, that in fact, women enjoy it since we are fulfilling our (perceived) biological function. We are told the job satisfaction is its own reward...as opposed to the caring being a distinct and valuable contribution to the well being of the world, deserving of better pay and better conditions.

In the workplace, the hospital, clinic or community, it is, the nurses who provide the cohesion for the whole operation. We not only provide nursing care, we also act as social workers and counsellors, secretaries, porters, mechanics and cleaners out of necessity, since there’s usually a shortage of "official" staff for these roles . . . so nurses compensate for that.

Unfortunately, the capable and industrious individuals who enter nursing with aspirations of providing high standards of care to the patients become disillusioned with the poor pay, lack of autonomy and lack of recognition for their work and knowledge. Within 3 years of graduation, a large percentage of new nurses leave the profession. Hospitals recruit nurses from countries like Nigeria, S. Africa, the Philippines to make up staff numbers. This is problematic, as it deprives developing countries of skilled medical personnel. The pay initially seems good to these nurses, compared to what they earned in their own countries . . . they soon realise that it’s not great, but are bound to comply to the terms of their contract and not complain, for if they do, the contract is terminated and they are sent home.

There is no doubt that the sorry state of the nursing profession low status, low pay, female can be directly attributed to the fact that it was contrived to serve the needs of the high status, high pay, male medical profession, following the overthrowing of women as healers.

Nursing occupies a unique position, industrially, as it demonstrates blatant sexual discrimination: nurses have similar educational qualifications as other professionals eg pharmacists, or accountants, and we work erratic hours, yet we receive no overtime and meagre recognition of unsocial hours worked. We have responsibility, people’s lives depend on us -- all this is forgotten though. If it were taken into account, hopefully we would not be in the situation where a nurse in charge of 10 beds with 10 years experience earns a pittance per hour compared to an IT specialist or lawyer.

It is perceived that nurses’ primary role is mothering and housekeeping, and for the necessary change to occur, mothering and housekeeping...and all of the energy and creativity and time that women commit themselves to every day, all over the world to nurture and nourish and protect and educate others must be valued and seen as the important activities which they are.

For all these reasons, I will be marching on March the 8^th, making a HUGE noise with my pots and pans to protest against the continuing global failure to pay women poorly, or not at all for their work and the subjugation of and discrimination towards lesbians.

Home