Unions' empowerment of working-class women: A case study

This research examines union membership's possible empowerment of unskilled women and these workers' access to positions of power within union locals. The women worked as custodians, clerks, and cafeteria workers at a public, urban university and were members of the Communication Workers of America or the United Auto Workers unions. We found that these workers recognized the union's ability to limit the administration's power over their workforce. However, the women typically chose social commitments over union participation; gender, race, and job status also acted as barriers to workers' achieving positions of power in their union locals. These findings suggest that unions attempting to appeal to increasing female memberships should adopt more decentralized and participatory organizational structures to attract and empower women workers.