We've moved to a new site!

Join us at publicservices.international - for all the latest news, resources and struggles from around the world.

We are no longer updating world-psi.org and it will be progressively phased out: all content will be migrated to the new site and old links will redirect eventually.

Gender equality

“Women hold up half the sky – get used to it.” That message, painted on a sign at a demonstration, tells only half the story. In many ways, women do more than their share: caring for the next generation and elderly parents, household duties, and contributing economically. Women are more than equal in the responsibilities they assume. This must be matched with political, economic and social equality.

The voice of women workers at the UN (UNCSW62)

25 January 2018

Union women from around the world are preparing to attend the 62nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW62), taking place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 12-23 March 2018.

Free trade or women's rights?

12 January 2018

After 30 years of neoliberal globalization, it has been increasingly acknowledged that austerity, privatization, deregulation of finance, markets and corporations, and trade and investment liberalization have had a devastating and discriminatory impact on women and have driven inequality. Recent large multilateral agreements, designed primarily to enable the unhindered flow of global capital, are significant barriers to the realization of the human rights of women.

Women’s Rights Organizations call on Governments to Reject the WTO Declaration on “Women’s Economic Empowerment”

12 December 2017

According to the signatories of the letter, including PSI, the declaration “fails to address the adverse impact of WTO rules and instead appears to be designed to mask the failures of the WTO and its role in deepening inequality and exploitation”.

Young workers academy in Nairobi

12 December 2017

Young workers from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zanzibar, and Sweden met in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, to discuss issues surrounding Quality Public Services, Tax Justice and Gender Equality.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

23 November 2017

“Stopping violence against women is everyone’s responsibility and men must play their part” stated Dave Prentis, PSI President, as his initial words at the PSI Congress 2017’s Pledge to end Violence against Women. Lead by Greg McLean from Australia, public services male trade unionists pledged in Geneva to be key actors in this struggle, in of one of the most emblematic acts of political engagement of public services unions.

Pledge to #EndVaw

03 November 2017

On Friday 3rd November, Congress male participants made a pledge to end Violence against Women.

Women municipal workers in Brazil and the Southern Cone meet to bridge gender gap in the sector

26 September 2017

For the first time since the launch of the PSI Confederation of Municipal Workers’ Unions of the Americas (CONTRAM-PSI), more than 60 municipal sector trade unionists met in Asuncion, Paraguay, on 7 September, to discuss the labour and trade union situation of women workers in the sector.

Accelerating Women’s Economic Empowerment to Achieve the 2030 Agenda

17 July 2017

PSI General Secretary, Rosa Pavanelli, will be speaking on 17 July at the UNSG’s High-Level Panel (HLP) on Women’s Economic Empowerment. The HLP is a side event at the High Level Political Forum (HLPF), currently taking place in New York.

PPP: Corporations divert UN agenda, claims civil society report

13 July 2017

New York, 13 July 2017: Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), usually portrayed as a useful tool towards sustainable development, actually “involve disproportionate risks and costs for people and the public purse”, claims a global coalition of civil society organizations and trade unions in the Spotlight Report 2017 launched earlier this week.

Policy Coherence and Financing for Sustainable Development With Equality

13 July 2017

Side-event during the 2017 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. Jointly organized by Civil Society Financing for Development Group including the Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, Femnet, Forum for Women and Democracy, Womankind Worldwide.

Corporate power threatens women's human rights

12 July 2017

New York, 12 July 2017:  Corporate power threatens  women´s human rights by promoting a race to the bottom in labour standards and avoiding taxes in the countries where  profits are obtained, concludes the report Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2017, in its analysis of the fifth Sustainable Development Goal which promises to achieve gender equality by 2030 and empower all women and girls.

World Bank plan to mobilize “trillions” will not help the poor

11 July 2017

Global Spotlight Report says that the proposed “cascade” of private financing for infrastructure will result in more corruption, high fees for essential services, and massive resource transfers to the rich from the poor.

PSI at the Women's Rights and Tax Justice Convening in Bogota

14 June 2017
Rosa Pavanelli, PSI General Secretary

The Women's Rights and Tax Justice Convening kicks off on 13 June in Bogotá, Colombia with a conversation between Rosa Pavanelli, PSI General Secretary, Jose Antonio Ocampo, member of ICRICT and Chairman of the Board of Banco del República (Central Bank of Colombia) and Maria Nieves Rico, Director of Gender Affairs from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL).

Rosa Pavanelli's speech at the Women's Rights and Tax Justice Convening in Bogotá

13 June 2017
Rosa Pavanelli, PSI General Secretary

On 13 June, Rosa Pavanelli speaks at the Women's Rights and Tax Justice Convening in Bogota, Colombia during the dialogue session between PSI's General Secretary, Jose Antonio Ocampo, member of ICRICT and Chairman of the Board of Banco del República (Central Bank of Colombia) and Maria Nieves Rico, Director of Gender Affairs from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL). See the full speech here.

The Mexico City Public Service Workers’ Union wins historic provisions in the defence of labour rights and public services in the federal capital’s constitution

26 May 2017
City of Mexico

On 5 February 2017, the government of Mexico City, one of the world’s largest and most populous cities and capital of the Federal State of Mexico, promulgated its first constitution, which will come into force on 17 September 2018.

Rise now! End violence against women

19 November 2012
PSI Congress delegates sign to end violence against women

This background document was produced for the Women's Caucus held prior to PSI’s World Congress. The World Congress is an important forum where we can raise our voices and join together in solidarity to pledge our combined efforts to stop violence against women. Our public sector unions must work towards creating a violence-free world for the women of today and for generations to come.

Impact of the economic crisis and austerity measures on women

04 July 2012

Women are losing jobs in both the private and public sectors, which has an immediate effect on household income but a much longer term effect on the role of women in the labour force.

Annual Report 2010

05 April 2011

In the face of widening cuts to public services and attacks on the rights of public sector workers around the world, leaders of private and public sector trade unions, municipal governments and civil society groups made the unprecedented joint commitment to work together to promote investment in quality public services backed by fair taxation policies as the key solution to the economic crisis, and the best way to build peaceful, equitable, democratic and environmentally-sustainable societies.

Annual Report 2009

03 April 2010

Environmental and social sustainability provided the primary theme for PSI’s work in 2009. Leading into the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15) in Copenhagen in December, trade unions and civil society allies worked hard to ensure that world leaders would agree on an ambitious plan to reduce carbon emissions. Alas, this dream did not become reality. But we are committed to continuing this struggle and achieving real results.

Annual Report 2008

03 April 2009

Looking back at 2008 the one word that comes to mind is CHANGE. We saw a dramatic change in the global economy, it was the keyword in the US election and we initiated changes in PSI.

It’s time to end violence against women

30 October 2008
End Violence against women (cover)

“Violence against women means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”. United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, Article 1

Closing the Gender Gap

31 January 2005

This guide was first developed by the Public Services International Women's Education and Organising Project in the Andean Region to provide practical support for its affiliated unions in the Andean countries to progress towards pay equity for women. It sets out in detail a method for designing and then implementing a programme of job evaluation, with the purpose of revaluing, without gender bias, the work effected within an organisation or company.