Britain's 100 richest people have a combined wealth that outstrips the poorest 30 per cent of families.

Or, put another way, the total wealth of the elite 100 rose by £25 billion last year to £257bn.

The poorest 30 per cent of households have £225bn between them. These figures were published by the Equality Trust recently.

At the same time, Pulse magazine found that one in six GPs had been asked to refer a patient to a foodbank in the past 12 months.

In a further damning criticism of this government's policy the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nicholls recently launched a full-scale attack on the government's "punitive" welfare reforms.

He must have stung the government as the Prime Minister felt moved to have an article inserted into the Daily Telegraph in which he claimed that the government's welfare reforms were being carried out for moral as well as financial reasons.

Heaven knows - perhaps literally - what Cameron's moral compass is pointing at, but it does not resemble my definition of morality.

We're certainly not all in this together - and in particular women are finding that yet again, on International Women's Day, they are bearing the brunt of the government's austerity programme.

Elementary research shows how gender-biased the impact of the government's policies has been.

Women's employment rate had been growing between 2000 and 2008 but then fell and was at nearly the same level in 2012 as it had been in 2000.

The latest figures show that women's employment has grown again and at 67.2 per cent is now at its highest ever.

However, a large qualification is needed. A growing number of women are now classed as self-employed and many of them are making less than the national minimum wage.

Many are in very casualised and precarious employment, which has implications for their social security support, their maternity pay, their sick pay and their state pensions.

The number of part-time women workers who would prefer to work full-time has grown and women now make up the majority of underemployed people.

The gender pay gap in the private sector is double that in the public sector. Overall the gender pay gap is growing again as median wages for women fall - partly as a result of job losses in the public sector. In the last year it has risen from £89 to £97 a week.

Other employment issues that have particularly affected women are below-inflation pay increases, a huge expansion in vulnerable and precarious work and zero-hours contracts, increased pregnancy discrimination, unaffordable childcare and cuts to in-work benefits such as working tax credit.

The number of working-age women classified as retired has been falling - probably a result of the raising of the women's state pension age.

Many recent changes to benefits have affected women in particular, including abolition of the health in pregnancy grant, a three-year freeze in the value of child benefit and the same for the value of working tax credit and the abolition of the baby element of tax credits.

In addition there have been cuts to Sure Start centres - 124 closed since the general election - to maternity services, to midwife provision and other services that are essential to women, such as rape support services and refuges for women who suffer domestic abuse.

More women over the age of 50 are working than ever before but the generation of women who blazed a trail for women's equality in the workplace are still struggling to get a fair deal.

The bottom line is that this generation of women has been let down. They entered the workforce in the 1970s or '80s.

They were the first generation protected by equal pay and sex discrimination laws, and the first to have right to paid maternity leave.

Many returned to work after having children and struggled to combine work with childcare at a time when few employers offered flexible working.

But after decades of hard work, many of these women feel short changed.

The fact that this generation of women earns a fifth less than their male counterparts and less than any other age group of women should set alarm bells ringing.

The TUC has put the needs of older women in the workforce at the forefront of our recent campaigning activities with overwhelming support from our affiliates and the TUC women's committee.

The TUC is campaigning for changes to the law to help working women. Equal pay laws should be made more effective by placing a duty on employers to carry out regular audits of their pay systems and to take action to narrow any gender pay gaps that cannot be justified.

For carers, the TUC calls for five to 10 days of paid carer's leave per year.

For grandparents, an unpaid leave entitlement similar to parental leave should be introduced.

The TUC calls for a period of paid statutory "adjustment leave" and "bereavement leave" for sudden changes to caring responsibilities and crisis situations.

We want employers to advertise all jobs on a flexible basis, and we want public-sector employers to take the lead.

The growing use of zero-hours contracts must be reviewed and steps taken to give such workers more predictable working hours and a more stable source of income.

Those workers on zero-hours contracts who work regular hours should have written contracts guaranteeing them these working patterns on an ongoing basis.

Zero-hours contract workers who offer increased flexibility for employers should be properly recompensed, including being paid for the time that they are on call for their employer.

Workers on zero-hours contracts, agency workers, freelancers and home workers should be entitled to the same floor of rights.

This should include all family friendly rights, including the right to request to work flexibly, and protection from unfair dismissal.

Enforcement of statutory rights for all vulnerable workers must be improved.

The TUC calls for an extension of collective bargaining. All vulnerable workers should have easy access to trade union representation.

We also want employment tribunal fees to be scrapped. They are nothing but a tax on justice for the less well-off and the signs are that they are particularly affecting sex discrimination claims.

So what else can we do? The TUC campaign against austerity is going at full throttle and there are plenty of activities that everybody can join in with - check out our website, www.tuc.org.uk.

We are lobbying Parliament on various horrendous Bills, such as the De-Regulation Bill, which will remove rights from millions of self-employed workers, including those with bogus self-employed status in areas such as construction, and will repeal yet another chunk of the Equality Act - the provision that allows employment tribunals to make wider recommendations in discrimination cases.

Some unions are taking industrial action on a wide variety of issues - pay freezes in education, closure of ticket offices on London Underground, firefighters being made to work much longer before getting their pensions and the bakers' union's successful strike against the use of zero-hours contracts.

Unions are organising too, working with community groups and reaching out to all those young workers and young people who want to work but cannot get jobs or are only offered unpaid internships or work experience.

The TUC is part of the Women's Budget Group, which has a feminist plan for growth and investment.

We want to see public investment in social as well as physical infrastructure. We want to see investment in education, health, childcare and social services, as well as transport, green energy and manufacturing.

We want all women workers - and of course men too - to mobilise for the TUC's national demonstration in London on October 18. Don't keep calm, organise!

Sarah Veale is head of Equality and Employment Rights Department, TUC