ABSTRACT
The major trade union centre in Ghana, the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), has deployed strenuous efforts in the past three decades, to increase female participation and representation in union activities and structures. The efforts have yielded varying degrees of success in expanding female participation in trade union leadership (Britwum, 2010. The rate of increase in female union leadership, though significant, fails to match women's labour force participation and trade union membership. By expanding space for female participation and representation, in an effort to develop meaningful systems of representation, trade unions provide opportunities for women to undermine their structures and practices that support male dominance (Britwum, 2010. Several writers commenting on the potential of gender democracy strategies to alter union patriarchal norms have noted the key role female members stand to play in the process (Parker 2009; Ledwith 2009; Briskin, 2006; Sayce, Greene and Ackers, 2006; Colgan and Ledwith 2000). Such a role, they insist, is predicated on the manner in which union equality strategies generate alterations in women's identities and consciousness (Colgan and Ledwith 2000).
