ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the history that resulted in women’s union organisation being significantly lower than men’s, and recent developments in women’s trade union membership, union policy and activity towards women. The early years of trade unionism were hallmarked by fight for survival, for the right to organise and for legality, in response to the appalling working conditions imposed by employers’ attempts to maximise profit at all costs. The unionisation of women must be seen in context of this, and in that of the historical subordination of women to men, and the subordination of her paid work and independence to her role as child-bearer and rearer. Women’s trade union membership, static throughout the interwar period, was affected by the dramatic increase in the second world war of women working and in non-traditional areas of women’s work. More women were admitted into mixed unions than in previous war, which led to an improvement in the rates of pay for women.
