Work and Family: Still the Most Difficult Revolution? A Review of the Women and Unions Conference, 2003

Abstract

In The Most Difficult Revolution: Women and Trade Unions (1992), Alice Cook claims that the relationship between women and unions is the most difficult revolution facing women. The Cornell conference in November 2003 was dedicated to investigating the ways in which Cook’s claim is still relevant. Scholars and activists who participated in the conference identified contemporary problems facing women in their workplaces and in their unions. Women’s under-representation in union leadership, lack of union representation, discrimination at the workplace and marginalization of women’s issues within unions were cited as problems faced by women workers across the globe. Underlying each of these problems is the relationship between work and family. As Arlene Kaplan Daniels noted in her opening speech, when discussing women workers and unions, a key issue is always the relationship between work and family. She pointed out that the ethos of the domestic code whereby women are relegated to the home and are made responsible for the family is alive and well, and must be challenged. Barriers to women’s participation in union activity, to adequate numerical representations of women in leadership positions, to including women’s issues in bargaining agendas, and to providing safe workplaces for women, are all fundamentally related to women’s domestic responsibilities. Presentations identified the ways in which women’s domestic responsibilities affect their potential for union activism. Internationally, women remain responsible for the family despite their participation in the paid labour force. These responsibilities are cited as the key reason women do not participate in union activity. Simpson and Kaminski, for example, argued there is a direct connection between women in union leadership positions and family responsibilities. They reported that female representation in union leadership remains “woefully inadequate” despite some improvements. So few women are found in top leadership of American unions because women are limited by family responsibilities. Indeed, scholars rank the dichotomy between work and family as “the most important factor standing in the way of female involvement in union activities and leadership” (Gray 1993). Family responsibilities conflict with union responsibilities because the expected devotion to union activity is