ABSTRACT
The 1980s were a decade of considerable change for trade unions in Britain. The decline in union membership since the peak of 1979 has been attributed to shifts in the industrial structure, and the increase in the proportion of the workforce who are unemployed or who work part-time. This chapter explores two inter-related aspects of the ‘feminisation’ of unions: participation and activism. It draws upon two major studies carried out for trade unions in the 1980s, one blue-collar and one white-collar, which were commissioned to identify the ‘barriers’ to women’s participation and office-holding in unions. The chapter explores structures impeding women’s participation in unions - some of which are as a result of unions organising principally for the benefit of men, while others are due to the way the family and domestic division of labour are organised in a way which privileges men.
