Gender & Trade Unions Database: A Basis for Change?

Abstract

This paper proposes that raising awareness of gender deficits in trade union leadership is required to highlight the need for change in trade union leadership and representation, if renewal is to be effective. The writers discuss in particular a project by a research group under the auspices of the Global Labour University to develop an international database on women in trade unions. This database is intended to be both a tool to highlight where change is needed and to measure when, and if, change is made. There is a discussion of the pilot of this database during 2012, and the plans for the future made by the research group.