Union Responses to Workforce Feminization in the United States

This chapter examines how labor unions responded to workforce feminization that began in the 1970s. It first places the relationship of women to unions in historical perspective before analyzing empirical data on inter-union variations in the extent of women's representation in union membership and leadership in the late twentieth century, as well as variations in the extent and nature of attention to “women's issues” on the part of unions. It then explores the dynamics of union organizing in the 1980s, showing that workplaces with large female majorities were the most readily organized in that period—as measured by the probability of winning National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) union representation elections. It also considers the growing commitment of some unions in the 1970s and 1980s to gender equality issues and to incorporating women into positions of leadership. Finally, it discusses the innovative gender politics that has emerged in unions least constrained by the forces of deunionization or patriarchal traditions.