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Women, Power and Trade Union Government in the UK
Author(s) -
Healy Geraldine,
Kirton Gill
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
british journal of industrial relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.665
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-8543
pISSN - 0007-1080
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8543.00168
Subject(s) - oligarchy , trade union , power (physics) , government (linguistics) , democracy , political science , economics , international trade , politics , law , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics
This paper addresses the under‐explored relationship between women’s structures and union democracy and argues that women’s structural progress is mediated by an enduring gendered oligarchy and an associated struggle to access power resources. It provides, first, an analysis over time of women’s structures in UK unions, and second, a case‐study analysis of the Manufacturing, Science and Finance (MSF) trade union. The analysis over time demonstrates women’s progress in achieving positional power, but conceals the complexity of the way different resources are used to constrain and enable women trade unionists.