ABSTRACT
The previous accounts of strategies undertaken by women trade unionists in Australia, Austria, Israel and Sweden provide a profile of how women have tried to make working class representation more inclusive of women and their interests. In this chapter, I revisit the historical and contemporary experiences of women trade unionists from an explicitly comparative perspective, examining the similarities and differences in women's solidarities. In doing so, I draw the distinction between strategies which invoke notions of "class" and "woman". It becomes evident that, while universal claims can be made on behalf of the working class and/or women, the definition of interests is necessarily selective and exclusive. Examination of the commonalities and contrasts in strategies deployed by women unionists within this framework allows for a reconsideration of women's collective actions as contingent, rather than fixed around a specific class or gender identity.
