| dc.description.abstract | Women have struggled for more than a century for equality within trade unions and
various forms of separate organising have played a central role in achieving incremental
gendered transformation of internal structures and hierarchies. Despite huge advances, the
goal of gender equality or democracy has not been fully realised in 2003; hence women's
separate organising remains an important strategic vehicle through which union women are
able to access the necessary power resources to continue their struggle.
This thesis provides an original, in-depth exploration of the impact and influence on union
women of one form of separate organising, namely women-only courses, in two large,
male-dominated trade unions. It contributes to the growing body of feminist industrial
relations literature concerned with women's under-representation in union structures. The
thesis establishes the link between a significant, but under-researched area of union activity
- union education - with the debates surrounding gender democracy, by showing the
enormous impact women-only courses have on participants, their gender and union
identities and their union careers. With its primary focus on a group of union women,
rather than on a union structure, the study also produces important methodological insights
for industrial relations research.
By taking a qualitative, multi-method, case study approach within a feminist paradigm, the
thesis investigates the women's routes to participation and involvement, their perceptions
and experiences of women-only courses and the unfolding of their union careers over time.
In so doing it engages with contemporary debates surrounding women's lesser
participation in the structures and processes of union democracy, the gendered barriers to
union involvement, the role and utility of women's separate organising. Importantly, it
also offers insights into the myriad ways in which women use their personal agency to
surmount such barriers and navigate a union career. | en_US |
