ABSTRACT
This chapter explores gender and power relations in South African trade unions. It considers some of the challenges facing the labour movement in the current period of transition, specifically relating to the transformation of gender relations. The chapter discusses how the impetus towards women’s emancipation during the national liberation struggle has been undermined by the current economic conditions and shifts in national political priorities. It analyses women’s participation in trade unions exploring strategies, approaches, achievements and challenges. Women in trade unions played an extraordinary role in the struggle against racism, state repression, capitalist exploitation, and patriarchy in South Africa. Democracy in Europe and the USA was founded on the basis of male vote, with women allowed to vote for the first time in the early part of the 20th century. The South African democracy is characterised by growing inequalities and increasing impoverishment of working-class women as a result of job losses, casualisation, privatisation, and conservative economic policies.
