Women and Decision making
in Trade Unions
David Joyce
Congress Equality Officer
Tipping the balance..?
• Total membership:
812,848
• Of whom 414,719
are female
• i.e. 51%
Equality Audit
• first equality audit with a major focus on
gender.
• Out of a total of 52 unions, 18 unions
responded to the survey.
• 82% of the total trade union membership on
the island
• 12 public sector unions,
• 3 private sector unions
• 5 unions that cover both the public and
private sectors.
Equality Audit 1
Percentage
Union Employment
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
male
female
GS
AGS
Officials
Level
Admin
Equality Audit 2
Union Activity
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Male
Female
Equality Audit 3
Union Policies
120
100
80
Yes
60
No
40
20
0
Equality Policy Positive Action
Disability
Policy
Flexible
Working
ETUC
• ETUC represents more than 60 million workers across Europe,
just over 40% of whom are women.
• Actions to promote gender equality and gender mainstreaming
• Since 1993 a series of detailed, in-depth studies on the position
and representativeness of women in trade union structures, in
order to:
– have an overview of the situation across its membership;
– appreciate the specificities that exist within the various trade union
structures and across different countries;
– understand the many obstacles that are in place and prevent
women accessing their rightful place in trade unions.
– Most importantly, these studies have helped ETUC to identify
strategies and solutions to improve the situation.
ETUC Survey Results
• 22 confederations that reported a rise in their female
membership, half of them experienced a general
reduction in their respective trade union membership
levels since 2008
• of the 14 confederations that reported a fall in their
trade union membership since 2008 only 3 of them
also reported a decrease in their female membership.
(attracting more women to their ranks is playing a
crucial role in maintaining trade union growth).
• Trade union leadership, still considerably low in most
of the trade union high level positions surveyed
(presidency, vice-presidency, secretary general,
deputy secretary general) and very little progress
ETUC Survey 2
• trend of an increasing number of female
workers joining the trade union ranks,
reiterates the importance for unions to put in
place specific measures to address women’s
underrepresentation at decision-making
levels.
• point to the need for a continued focus on
gender equality within the movement and the
importance of building upon the past
achievements.
From membership to leadership: advancing
women in trade unions
• project throughout 2010 has made a strong
case for a renewed and strategic approach to
achieving gender balance in decision-making
and leadership structures, as a basis for
union democracy and for realising gender
equality at societal, economic and political
levels.
• resource guide published to spread good
practice cases and to support affiliates’ efforts
to achieve gender balance (see:
http://www.etuc.org/r/1368 )
ETUC 10 point plan
•
1. Make the argument for gender
balance as a core union priority.
•
2. Actively promote gender equality
at all levels of the organisation
through gender mainstreaming.
•
3. Introduce statutory rule changes
on gender balance.
•
4. Prepare women for decisionmaking and leadership roles.
•
5. Engage men to build a
consensus for balanced gender
representation.
ETUC 10 point plan
•
6. Address the image and culture of
unions.
•
7. Build union organisation so that
women’s activism, involvement decisionmaking roles exists at all levels of the
union.
•
8. Ensure that trade union organisations
promote gender diversity through their
own internal human resources.
•
9. Provide gender disaggregated data.
•
10. Take a strategic approach and
develop concrete actions plans to
improve gender balance, including
Upcoming Events
• March 4/5th National
Women’s Seminar
• March 8th –
International
Women’s Day link
up with Palestinian
Women