The feminization of Irish trade unions: involvement, solidarity and the relevance of gender

Abstract

Trends in union membership between 1990 and 2000 indicate the increasing feminization of the Irish trade union movement in terms of membership. The historical experience in industrialised nations is for much of women’s work to be relatively short‐term and marginal to the main labour force. This, it has been suggested, has tended to discourage women workers from adopting a collectivist response to the issues of pay and conditions and so weakening their level of participation in union activities. However, the evidence from a survey of the membership in a general union revealed little difference in the attitudes of men and women in relation to levels of group solidarity, wage earner solidarity and union orientation. On the evidence of this paper there is no indication that the increasing feminization of the Irish trade union movement is having an adverse effect on union activism and solidarity.