Introduction

This chapter investigates the racial and gender composition of employment and how it results in women having specific interests, and the ways in which they develop strategies for dealing with these interests, often outside of trade unions. Increasing involvement in waged-labour has had a limited effect on women's subordinate position in society. The labour market is divided horizontally and vertically by sex, with women disproportionately represented in the less secure areas of employment. The chapter explains about women's role in trade unions to the body of feminist literature which investigates women's oppression and the ways in which gender divisions are reproduced. The concept of the trade union agenda provides a particularly useful means for understanding the failure of trade unionism to reflect black women's experience in the workplace. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.