ABSTRACT
In a period in which unions around the world are struggling to retain their membership base, working women increasingly are being recognized as one of the keys to the eventual stabilization and rejuvenation of the trade union movement. While it is generally acknowledged that minorities in unionized firms are better paid than their peers in non-union firms, little is known about the degree to which unionization protects women against gender-based wage and promotion discrimination. This chapter explores the degree to which the union versus nonunion status of a firm may affect the impact of gender on both salary level and promotion. It focuses on a large, multi-division, Israeli high technology company engaged in the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of advanced electronic and computer-based systems. Firm-level analysis allows the researcher to control for contextual variables such as industry-wide conditions and employer policies, and to focus on "organizational rather than labor market determinants of differential allocation of privileges and rewards".
