Gendering and Diversifying Trade Union Leadership, edited by Sue Ledwith and Lise Lotte Hansen. Routledge, London, 2012, 338 pp., ISBN: 9780415884853, Price £90.00, hardback.
| Published date | 01 March 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12229 |
| Date | 01 March 2017 |
| Author | Sue Abbott |
Book Reviews 221
relations. Whether and to which extent pay inequality and intrinsic job quality get
aected by these imminent challenges remains to be seen.
DANAT VALIZADE
University of Leeds
Gendering and Diversifying Trade Union Leadership, edited by Sue Ledwith and
Lise Lotte Hansen. Routledge, London, 2012, 338 pp., ISBN: 9780415884853,
Price £90.00, hardback.
In Gendering and Diversifying Trade Union Leadership, Sue Ledwith and Lise Lotte
Hansen have edited 15 chapters which provide a wealth of information which will be
of general interest to both scholars and trade unionists. The book plays a broad and
vital role in illuminating the interplay between gender leadership and the trade union
movement. As such it can be envisagedthat those with a thirst for encouraging women
to become trade union leaders will find this text an invaluableresource.
The book aims to examine some of the key challenges for women trade union
leaders, and this is something with which I can personally identify. My current lay
role is as a member of the University and College Union (UCU) National Executive
Committee (NEC) and I am presently National Chair of the UCU National Women’s
Standing committee. Havingrecently chaired the National UCU Women’s Conference
held at Aston University in December 2016, there are issues in this book to which
women trade unionists can relate. For example, whilst we can recognize women trade
union leaders such as Frances O’Grady atthe head of the TUC, we can also recognize
the strong leadership of lay women activists at local level at the heart of the recent
Durham Teaching Assistants dispute.We can also look back several decades to those
tremendous women leaders who took forward the union recognition and equal pay
disputes at Grunwick and FordDagenham, respectively.
The principal theme is the focus upon leadership and in particular charisma, leading
change, and challenging culture. Specifically, the barriers faced by women leaders are
explored and all of the authors provide a vibrant interaction with these challenges. A
strong and credible range of sources is utilized and I particularlyenjoyed the dialogue
on key leadership moments (e.g. speaking atunion conferences, standing for election,
etc.) along with the examination of ‘semitic bricolage’ areas (e.g. which clothes to
wear, use of technology, etc.). The challenges of trying to take forward gender issues
(and other equality areas) within the trade union movement are discussed and we are
reminded that this remains an ongoing challenge to the trade union movement where
invariablyit seems that equality can still be low on the agenda even in 2017.
The text is quite clear from the outset that gender is about both women and men
and about the diversity among and between them and notes that aspects can be both
individual and collective.It identifies that there is minimal theory addressing leadership
in trade union politics and particularly so in addressing gendered union leadership.
This is where the book chapters really aid us in understanding much more about the
realities and experiences relating to this.The perspectives tend to come mainly from a
feminist viewpoint, but also from a labouristoutlook.
The realities of transactional and transformational leadership are discussed as
is the movement between ‘lay’ and paid leadership roles. The issue of change and
change agents within the trade union movement is a particular focus in Chapter 1
C
2017 John Wiley& Sons Ltd.
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