ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the broad discussions concerning reasons for women's union membership, and explanations for the level of women's activity within trade unions, and addresses the issues of women's roles in trade unions. Recruitment focuses attention on the actions of trade unions, not on the actions of workers. Under recruitment, the focus is on the role of trade unions in actively enrolling women members. Organization refers to the process by which workers develop a collective and specifically trade union response to improving working conditions. There are four main arguments developed in the literature on organization, linked to workplace, skill levels, part-time working and job attachment. The literature which can be linked to participation primarily focuses attention on the actions of women members themselves. The concepts of participation and representation are sometimes conflated, but need to be analytically separated, reflecting the distinction between participative democracy and representative democracy.
