Diversity among women trade union activists is explored with reference to feminism and the women's movement, and the social and civil rights movements of black, disabled and lesbian and gay groups. Relationships between this diversity and women's individual and group identities and priorities are traced through some of the women's own descriptions and reflections on their trade union activism. These are drawn from our research with the public service union UNISON, in particular, two questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews. We draw on theories of social identity, the relations of out-group status and gender group consciousness to help to understand and explain the complexity of the social interactions involved. This frames our central analysis of the role of self-organization in the union in the construction of women's identities and consciousnesses, and the potential of self-organization as a site for collective action leading to organizational challenge, change and transformation.
How can we account for the persistence of exclusion of women from organizational power and leadership in trade unions in spite of their increasing proportion of the labour force and of trade union membership? For a while, often as part of revitalization strategies, trade unions have put in place extensive structural reforms to encourage gender equality, but in practice these do not result in gender proportionality in formal positions in unions. We have to seek for deeper explanations, and this article explores how at a more profound level cultures of exclusionary masculinity are strongly embedded especially in traditional unions and among traditional male leaderships. However, there is also increasing evidence of changing attitudes among younger and more diverse workers and trade unionists, those from different cultural and ethnic groups, migrant workers, men as well as women, as their experiences of increasingly precarious work align with patterns long established by women juggling family and part-time insecure work. An optimistic reading of these changes sees the possibilities for increasing inclusion and gender equity within trade unions. Ré suméComment peut-on expliquer la persistance de l'exclusion des femmes du pouvoir organisationnel et du leadership dans les syndicats et ce malgré leur proportion toujours croissante tant dans la population active que dans leur affiliation à un syndicat? Pendant un certain temps, souvent dans le cadre des stratégies de revitalisation syndicale, les syndicats ont mis en place de vastes réformes structurelles afin d'encourager l'égalité des sexes, mais en pratique, elles ne garantissent pas une représentation proportionnelle des genres dans des fonctions syndicales à responsabilités. Il nous faut chercher des explications plus profondes. Cet article explore la façon dont, à un niveau plus profond, les cultures d'exclusion par les hommes sont fortement ancrées en particulier dans les syndicats traditionnels et dans les milieux dirigeants traditionnellement masculins. Il y a néanmoins de plus en plus d'indices qui indiquent qu'il y a un changement d'attitude chez les travailleurs plus jeunes et plus diversifiés et les syndicalistes, provenant de différents groupes culturels et ethniques, des travailleurs migrants, des hommes et des femmes, compte tenu du fait que leurs expériences de travail de plus en plus précaires s'alignent sur les modèles établis depuis longtemps par les femmes qui jonglent avec vie familiale et travail à temps partiel précaire. Une lecture optimiste de ces Downloaded from changements permet de percevoir des possibilités d'accroître l'inclusion et l'équité de genre au sein des syndicats. ZusammenfassungWie lässt sich erklären, dass Frauen trotz ihres wachsenden Anteils an Erwerbstätigen und Gewerkschaftsmitgliedern in den Gewerkschaften nach wie vor von Macht-und Führungspositionen ausgeschlossen werden? Seit einiger Zeit führen Gewerkschaften, häufig im Rahmen von Erneuerungsstrategien, umfassende strukturelle Reformen durch, um die Gleichstellung von Fr...
A trade union's constitution is intended to produce its leaders in a democratic and even-handed manner, but the reality for women is one of inequality. They remain almost invisible in senior positions in British unions. The social processes by which women do or do not progress in a union's career structure are investigated through a case study of SOGAT '82.This article examines the social processes through which women take on and sustain active trade union roles. It also investigates the problems in these processes with regard to the continuing absence of women from union leadership positions despite the growing numerical importance of women in the trade union movement [l].The list of putative causes of the underrepresentation of women in union leadership is a long one; patriarchal attitudes, inequality a t work, union rules on office holding, inconvenient times and locations of union meetings, unequal sharing of domestic responsibilities, loyalties divided between union and children, the lack of quality childcare provision, and so on[2]. Discussion of such barriers have not, however, provided an explanation of how women take on and sustain leadership roles.Using evidence collected from a case study of the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades n The authors are all lecturers in industrial relations, trade union and urganisational studies at the Polytechnic of North London-Sue Ledwith, Fiona Colgan (who also both teach womens' studies) and Paul Joyce in the Business School and Mike Hayes in the School of Social Research.'82 (SOGAT '82), which in the 1980s was the largest British printing trade union, we have examined in some detail the major ways women moved into union leadership roles. We have also considered the ways in which women leaders related to the traditional structures and activities of their union.
University business schools are key providers of future managers, and in the UK, business and management students are an increasingly international and diverse body. How do their learning experiences draw on these resources of diversity and multiculturalism to prepare students for working in a global economy? This article draws on two studies of business and management undergraduate students at a new UK university. Each was in a different university school, using different research methods. Both came to similar conclusions; that strongly ethnocentric attitudes prevailed among home, UK students, systematically leading to feelings of exclusion and disadvantage among international students, whatever and wherever their origins. However, in terms of gaining understanding and skills in the eld of multiculturalism, it was the international students who had the advantage. The implications for preparation of students for careers in the global economy are explored, and the positive results of some subsequent initiatives discussed.
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