Strategies to encourage women workers to sign up and remain in trade unions

Abstract

For more than a decade, researchers have been interested in the study of trade unions across the world, including Malaysia. Although trade unions have been in this country, but there have been a number of withdrawals of women’s membership in the past few years, from 2018 to 2021. The objective of the study is to discuss why women refuse to join trade unions, the reasons behind it, and how to encourage women to join and stay in trade unions. To highlight, this study discussed several factors that explain why women still refuse to join trade unions in the first subtopic. In the discussion, it was stated about gender inequality, work culture, different ideologies, low awareness, anti-union sentiments and work imbalance. Meanwhile, the second subtopic explained and justified the reasons women leave the union, including factors such as leadership, personal and family factors, insufficient facilities and support, working factors, dues factors and union structure. In the third part, this research discussed multiple strategies that can be implemented to encourage women to join and stay in trade unions. Many roles need to be played together as a whole body, regardless of the organization itself, to enforce the participation of women in trade unions. Thus, this research suggests providing societal and economic support for women, paying attention to the structure of the organization, developing a supportive and positive work environment, developing a women’s empowerment campaign and promoting equality policies in trade unions. Overall, future research needs to be explored to stay in trend and relevant to current developments and situations in trade unions.