Progress Towards Gender Democracy in UK Unions 1987–2012

Date01 September 2015
Published date01 September 2015
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12052
Progress Towards Gender Democracy in
UK Unions 1987–2012
Gill Kirton
Abstract
This article provides a detailed chronological account of the extent of overall
change in women’s representation in UK unions’ structures of democracy and
in unions’ adoption of gender equality (GE) strategies over a 25-year period
(1987–2012). The findings reveal huge progress towards gender proportionality
and towards getting women’s concerns on the union agenda. The evidence
strongly suggests that at least in part this progress can be attributed to the wide
range of GE strategies increasingly adopted over the period. However, the
article exposes persistent gaps and warns against regarding the union gender
democracy project as finished business.
1. Introduction
Globally the union movement has woken up to the idea that women workers
are critical to its revival and even survival. Most UK unions now have a
variety of strategies that seek to increase representation of women in struc-
tures of democracy in an effort to close the gender democracy gap. There can
be no timelier a moment to address this issue than the present since in
summer 2012 the first woman in 144 years was elected as General Secretary
of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC).
This reminds us that the history of women’s struggle against marginaliza-
tion within the union movement is a long one that dates back to the very
beginnings of trade unionism (Boston 1980); it is also a global one that
transcends national divides (Briskin 2002; Cobble and Michal 2002; Colgan
and Ledwith 2002b; Pocock 1995) and is manifest even in the more gender-
egalitarian countries such as Sweden (Curtin and Higgins 1998). In the UK it
was in the mid to late 1970s that the pressure for internal equality action
really began to build. The union movement at this time looked very different
and feminists described it as ‘male, pale and stale’. This slogan served to
Gill Kirton is at Queen Mary University of London.
© John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics 2014. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
British Journal of Industrial Relations
53:3 September 2015 0007–1080 pp. 484–507 doi: 10.1111/bjir.12052
highlight the domination of white men in all structures of democracy. Femi-
nist demands gained traction in the UK after the publication in 1979 of the
TUC Charter Equality for women within trade unions (Beale 1982).
The effects of more than 30 years of equality-seeking action can be seen in
women’s increased representation in UK unions’ structures of democracy. In
addition to the newly elected general secretary of the TUC, there are now an
unprecedented 15 female general secretaries of the 54 TUC unions, with
women at the helm of four of the largest 10 unions. This gives British women
trade unionists much to celebrate, but the evidence suggests that there is still
work to be done in order to sustain and nourish gender democracy (see
SERTUC 2012).
Drawing on an unparalleled series of surveys carried out every two to
four years since 1987 by the Women’s Rights Committee of the Southern
and Eastern Region Trades Union Congress (SERTUC), this article pro-
vides a detailed chronological account of the extent of overall change in
women’s representation in UK unions’ structures of democracy and in
unions’ adoption of gender equality (GE) strategies over a 25-year period
(1987–2012). Although research (e.g. Healy and Kirton 2000; McBride and
Waddington 2009; Parker 2006) has drawn on various SERTUC surveys,
there has been no previous published attempt to utilize this rich data source
to map and evaluate these changes over the entire period. Therefore, the
descriptive picture and evaluative discussion offered here are important
because there remain gaps in our knowledge about the overall picture
despite a plethora of qualitative studies of women/gender and individual
unions.
It is useful briefly to set this discussion against the broader context that
unions faced over the 25-year period. In the earlier years, the union move-
ment was in tumult with year-on-year decline in membership, with many
mergers/transfers of undertakings occurring, combined with an economic
recession and hostile Conservative government. The mid-1990s onwards saw
membership stabilization, but little growth, together with in 1997 a change of
government to Labour which afforded unions increased opportunities for
political influence as well as for collective bargaining (Colling and Dickens
2001). Further mergers and continuing anxiety about the future prospects for
the union movement continued into the 2000s compounded by economic
crisis and another change of government to an obviously union unfriendly
one once again (the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition elected in
2010). Thus, the whole 25-year period was one of instability and uncertainty
for the union movement and this crisis context inevitably impacted on the
availability of resources (financial as well as staff/official/activist) and also
put unions on the defensive with their very survival at stake. It is also
important to note that the whole period was characterized by gradual femi-
nization of membership. Some might argue that the pursuit of gender democ-
racy is inevitably secondary to survival; however, feminist authors contend
that gender democracy is a necessary element of union renewal (e.g. Colgan
and Ledwith 2002a; Kirton and Healy 2013; Parker 2006).
© John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics 2014.
Progress Towards Gender Democracy 485

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