ABSTRACT
A resurgence of feminism and a rapid expansion of female labor force participation have dramatically altered the situation of women workers in the US in recent years. In this chapter, Ruth Milkman explores the overall impact of these developments on women's relationship to organized labor, as well as the rise of two important feminist organizational efforts within the labor movement, the Coalition of Labor Union Women and the working women's group '9 to 5.' Milkman is especially interested in explaining why the extent of change in the labor movement has been so limited. For while women are far more fully represented in union membership than ever before, they remain seriously underrepresented at the level of union leadership, and unions' attention to women workers' particular concerns has also been relatively limited. Nevertheless, important groundwork was laid in the 1970s, which might provide the basis for a more extensive feminist mobilization within the unions in the future.
