Las deliberaciones y la toma de decisiones en el campo político

5.1 Introduction

The material in the thesis directly dealing with gender is presented in this chapter and the subsequent one, with this chapter discussing gender and union office holding and chapter 6 examining union policy

issues concerning gender. This chapter begins with a theoretical discussion of approaches to the study of gender differences in union office-holding. It then considers gender and occupational

inequalities, picking up on themes addressed in Chapter 2.2.c and 2.3.b and 2.3.c. The main research findings concerning gender and union office-holding are presented in section 5.4 of this chapter. The material in this section is organised under the following headings:

a) gender and distribution of shop stewards; b) gender and attitudes to being a shop steward; c) gender and experiences of industrial action; d) gender and operation of union facility agreements; e) gender and shop steward turnover;

f) management harassment of female union officers and stewards; g) union activism and maintaining a personal life;

h) women at branch officer level;

i) NALGO's attempts to promote women's participation and representation in the union.

The conclusion to this chapter discusses the degree of gender differences in shop steward activism in the light of the research f indings.

5.2 Approaches to the Study of Gender Differences in Union Office- holding

This issue raises the question of what exactly do social scientists mean when they refer to gender differences. Firstly the term can refer to differences which occur along gender lines or differences which arise because of gender roles. For instance the work of Fryer et al. (1978) found gender differences among NUPE (National Union of Public Employees) members in terms of access to union office holding, i.e. a difference along gender lines, but they explain this

difference in terms of an occupational rather than a gender role factor, namely that women tended to work part-time and men to work full-time and it was easier to combine union office-holding with a full-time job. As their work shows, not all differences which occur along gender lines are necessarily the direct result of differences in gender roles.

Secondly when studying gender differences it is necessary to consider gender roles for both sexes (Feldberg and Glenn 1979). It is not the case simply that women have a gender role which impacts upon their work and union participation, while men have an occupational role

which is unaffected by their gender role. The male gender role in terms of union activism, however, has been relatively unresearched.

Thirdly research should consider both gender differences and gender similarities. Writers on sex and gender difference, such as Oakley (1972) have noted that much research on sex and gender differences has focused on the issue of difference to the exclusion of

similarity. This is particularly inappropriate in the area of union participation, since men and women may share many common work

experiences which provide a motivation for union activism. As indicated in Chapter 2 2.b the existing literature says much about women’s participation and representation, although the limitations of this material have already been commented upon, in that it is better at explaining barriers to participation than motives for

participation. Moreover it has often started out from an assumption of gender difference, namely an uncritical acceptance of the common belief that women are less active in unions than men, thus ovei— estimating men's levels of union activism. The existing literature

is inconclusive on the issue of whether gender differences exist in collective bargaining priorities. Heery and Kelly, writing on women union full-time officials (1988a, 1988b, 1989), are two of the few authors to discuss this issue.

It is important to look at both gender differences and gender similarities. This is a major issue in feminist theory both

trade unions is a useful area for examining these issues, because of the nature of trade unions as collective organisations. There are problems for unions in recognising diversity of membership interests, since unions are formed on the recognition of common interests of workers; nonetheless more politically sophisticated approaches to trade union unity recognise the existence of membership heterogeneity and accept that structures and policies have to be organised to take account of a diversity of membership interests, including those which occur on the basis of gender. The question, however, is how far do male and female workers have different material interests. Feminist perspectives which have influenced trade unions in recent years offer a variety of answers to this question. For the radical and

revolutionary feminist view trade union unity is logically impossible since men are seen as not merely the agents but the cause of women's oppression. Patriarchy theorists too, who identify patriarchy as "the main enemy" advance an analysis which makes trade union unity difficult. For socialist feminists (Cockburn 1983, Hartmann 1979b) who identify a twofold struggle against capitalism and patriarchy, feminist participation in the trade unions is seen as worthwhile. Their belief, however, in the existence of two modes of production,

(following the analysis of Delphy (1984)), capitalism and patriarchy, means that trade union unity is inevitably problematic. Recently some socialist feminists such as German (1989) have challenged the belief in the existence of two modes of production, arguing that the dominant mode of production is capitalist. This approach makes the question of trade union unity less problematic, because it does not

assert that male workers have any material interest in the continued oppression of women.

5.3 Gender and Occupational Inequalities

In this section I wish to refer back briefly to the material in Chapter 2.2.c and Chapter 4.2.a concerning occupational segregation by sex in employment and to discuss the implications of these

previously outlined occupational inequalities for union office- holding. This relates to the question of how far is union

participation the result of occupational rather than gender role.

Table 30: Shop Stewards Answering the Questionnaire by Occupational Status and Sex

Male F ema1e Total

High Status 18 2 20 (90.0%) (10.0%) (100%) Middle Status 20 9 29 (68.9%) (31.1%) (100%) Low Status 3 11 14 (21.4%) (78.6%) (100%) These figures slightly undei— represent the extent of gender

inequality, since women tended to be concentrated in the lower end of each band. Among the low status stewards, three of the women and none of the men were on scale 1, the lowest pay scale. Among the middle status stewards none of the women, but ten of the men were on scale 6, the top scale within this category. The pattern of gender

inequality in occupational grade reflects the gender inequalities in

local government employment (Rees 1990).

Table 31: Interviewees by Occupational Status

Male Female Total

High Status 7 (63.6%) (36.4%)4 (100%)11 Middle Status 4 (50.0%) (50.0%)4 (1008%) Low Status 0 (0.0%) (1003%) (100%) (N = 22)3 The higher occupational status of the interviewees than the

informants answering the questionnaire may reflect the predominance of more senior local government officers in branch officer posts. Interviewees were selected with more attention to obtaining a gender balance than a balance of grades.

In the questionnaire study informants were asked a number of questions about their attitude to their job. Overall the replies demonstrated a high level of commitment to work. Some answers did indicate a gender difference, in terms of different replies from men and women. Proportionately more women (18%) than men (12%) agreed with the statement "My job is dull and repetitive, but it was only a minority for both sexes. More women (100%) than men (78%) agreed with the statement "I am capable of doing more responsible work than my job allows", suggesting that both sexes felt under-utilised at work, but women especially so. In response to the statement "My job